Identifying Business Opportunities for SHGs

This paper discusses a participatory method to help Self-Help Groups (SHG) identify and promote alternate business opportunities. The paper draws information from the Participatory Skill Resource and Market (PSRM) mapping exercise in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh in India.

The paper highlights the need for:

• Creating alternate employment opportunities in the villages;
• Identifying and promoting SHGs in order to achieve the above;
• The SHG possessing the skills to gather information, analyzing and making decisions to choose profitable economic opportunities (farm and non-farm);
• Identifying the skill-set of the villagers, their levels of practice and the support needed for their growth to develop a sound enterprise promotion plan.

Further, the paper lists the advantages of a PSRM mapping exercise:

• Enhances understanding in the local context, for enterprise creation;
• Is self-sustainable because it relies on local resources, skills and local markets, without any external supports;
• Is easy to use since it can be used at village, PIA, district and state levels.

Finally, the paper describes the ways in which PSRM mapping helps assess ground realities and helps draw out a detailed plan relevant for each village in ways that help the villagers to plan and implement the enterprises themselves.