For a Better World: Livelihood Security Measurement of the SHG Members

Abstract

To achieve a satisfactory level of human development, it is imperative for all individuals to enjoy a sense of security. This sense of security must prevail for each individual, not only within oneself, but also within the family, the workplace and the community. Lack of security raises uncertainty and vulnerability, and makes people opportunistic as well as irresponsible. It is universally acknowledged that ‘basic security’, with economic, social and representational connotations, should be a matter of human rights and must be seen as a necessary condition for advancing real freedom. In this chapter, our position starts from the assertion that every person has a right to basic security everywhere. Insofar, as most of the self-help group members in microfinance programme belong to the least advantaged section of the society, surviving on the knife-edge of stability, the possibility of improved security for them should assume significant importance. However, the sense of security is much wider and for a quantitative study/assessment we must have to narrow down the broader theme of security, according to relevant issues which we would like to analyse. Here, we have considered three main dimensions of security (related with livelihood/basic security) namely, (a) Income Security, (b) Social Security and (c) Voice-Representation Security, to construct a Livelihood Security Index (LSI) for the sample households. The index will help us to measure the overall security of the self-help group members to assess the effectiveness of the microfinance programme in enhancing the security status of the group members.