Enhancing the rural Self Help Group - Bank Linkage Program

Abstract

Self Help Groups (SHGs) are widely recognized as the hubs for information dissemination within villages and entry points for financial institutions as well as consumer goods organizations. However, in practice, operations within an SHG setting are often plagued by existence of highly illiterate population as well as difficulty of reach and connectivity. In this paper, we propose a system that uses voice as a medium to percolate knowledge through the thick layers of illiteracy and to overcome barriers of reach, thereby serving as an effective mechanism to bring about a paradigm shift in the way SHGs are formed, operate and interact with the Micro-finance Institution (MFI). This system enables low cost financial services to be comprehended and adopted by the SHGs while empowering them to raise concerns and undertake active participation. Our system is designed and realized using IBM's Spoken Web technology that employs an easy-to-use voice interface to create dynamic content in local vernacular language, based on the concept of 'Voice Sites', interconnected by 'Voice Links'. © 2011 IEEE.