Women's empowerment and child health: exploring the impact of Rojiroti Microfinance in poor communities in Bihar, Northern India

妇女赋权和儿童健康：探索 Rojiroti 小额信贷对印度北部比哈尔邦贫困社区的影响

• 批准号: MC_PC_MR/R024596/1
• 负责人: Alan Smyth
• 金额: $ 5.25万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MC_PC_MR%2FR024596%2F1
• 关键词: Women; empowerment; child; health; exploring

Every year, 2.2 million children die of malnutrition. Many more feel the effects of malnutrition on their health and intellect. Programmes to combat malnutrition include: distributing food directly; giving children micronutrients; giving nutritional advice; and protecting malnourished children through immunisation. Research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has shown that these strategies can lead to better nourished children. However, these approaches may fail to reach those most in need (those living in extreme poverty). In very poor countries, where men are dominant, women are often prevented from making important family decisions and this may be linked to poor nutrition in their children.We are a group of community workers, economists, social scientists and doctors. Our partners are the Centre for Promoting Sustainable Livelihood (CPSL) - which is a non-governmental organisation in India; a UK charity (Rojiroti UK); the School of Sociology & Social Policy; and the School of Medicine (both at the University of Nottingham). Our team have experience of helping very poor people in rural areas of India to fight poverty. Our community workers encourage people in poor hamlets or "tolas" in Northern India to form self help groups (SHGs). Most SHGs are formed by women. They are asked to save a little money regularly, initially Rs2.5 (3 pence) per week. If they save regularly, their savings entitle them to a loan. These loans start small - Rs50 (50 pence). Women in the group can receive external loans (from CPSL) of Rs500 (£5) after 3 months and Rs3,000 (£30) after 6 months (if credit is good). Loans may be used for emergencies (eg medical expenses); to allow women access existing government support schemes (eg money to travel to subsidised food shops); or to invest in livestock or agricultural equipment. Using these loans helps women avoid local money lenders (who charge much higher interest) and avoid emergency sales of their property (at knock down prices). We call this programme Rojiroti (which translates as "daily bread"). We have recently completed a trial which tested whether Rojiroti improves children's health. This was a "cluster randomised trial" where 28 tolas (small village communities) were chosen at random to receive Rojiroti immediately and 28 to get the programme only after 18 months (control group). At the end of the first 18 months (before the control group started) we weighed and measured all the children under 5 in both sets of tolas. We found that the nutritional measures were better in the Rojiroti group. The effect was big enough to be important in practice and was unlikely to have arisen by chance. Overall 1326 mothers and 2064 children took part.We now want to understand how Rojiroti improved children's nutrition. We also want to know if the scheme helps empower women (improve their status in society and their freedom to make decisions). We have already collected economic data such as whether loans were emergency or general loans, the amount borrowed, the purpose of the loan, whether the loan was repaid. We will carefully check and collate these data. We will also conduct 20 in-depth interviews with women who took part in the Rojiroti trial and around 10 interviews with CPSL volunteers. These interviews will be conducted by an ethnographer (someone who studies different cultures) who will visit Bihar for one month. We will analyse these interviews carefully. The voices of the participants and volunteers, combined with the economic data will allow us to work out what are the essential features of Rojiroti which allow the scheme to benefit children. We will also see whether Rojiroti helps empower women. We hope this will allow others to use Rojiroti in other parts of the work where there is poverty and malnutrition and where women do not get to make important decisions about their lives.

每年有220万儿童死于营养不良。更多的人感到营养不良对他们的健康和智力的影响。抗击营养不良的规划包括：直接分配粮食；给予儿童微量营养素；提供营养建议；通过免疫接种保护营养不良的儿童。世界卫生组织（WHO）的研究表明，这些策略可以使儿童获得更好的营养。然而，这些办法可能无法惠及最需要帮助的人（生活在极端贫困中的人）。在男人占主导地位的非常贫穷的国家，妇女常常被阻止作出重要的家庭决定，这可能与她们的孩子营养不良有关。我们是一群社区工作者、经济学家、社会科学家和医生。我们的合作伙伴是促进可持续生计中心（CPSL），这是印度的一个非政府组织；英国慈善机构（Rojiroti UK）；社会学与社会政策学院；和医学院（都在诺丁汉大学）。我们的团队有帮助印度农村地区非常贫困的人与贫困作斗争的经验。我们的社区工作者鼓励印度北部贫困村庄或“tolas”的人们组成自助小组。大多数shg是由女性组成的。他们被要求定期存点钱，最初是每周2.5卢比（3便士）。如果他们定期储蓄，他们的储蓄就有资格获得贷款。这些贷款从50卢比（50便士）开始。该小组的妇女可以在3个月后获得500卢比（5英镑）的外部贷款（从CPSL）， 6个月后获得3000卢比（30英镑）（如果信用良好）。贷款可用于紧急情况（如医疗费用）；允许妇女获得现有的政府支持计划（例如，前往补贴食品店的旅费）；或投资牲畜或农业设备。使用这些贷款可以帮助妇女避开当地的放债人（他们收取的利息要高得多），也可以避免紧急出售房产（以低价出售）。我们称这个项目为Rojiroti（翻译过来就是“每日面包”）。我们最近完成了一项试验，测试Rojiroti是否能改善儿童健康。这是一项“集群随机试验”，随机选择28个tolas（小村庄社区）立即接受Rojiroti治疗，28个tolas在18个月后才接受治疗（对照组）。在前18个月结束时（在对照组开始之前），我们给两组5岁以下的孩子称重并测量体重。我们发现Rojiroti组的营养指标更好。这种影响大到足以在实践中发挥重要作用，不太可能是偶然产生的。总共有1326名母亲和2064名儿童参与了调查。我们现在想了解Rojiroti是如何改善儿童营养的。我们还想知道该计划是否有助于赋予妇女权力（提高她们的社会地位和决策自由）。我们已经收集了经济数据，如贷款是紧急贷款还是一般贷款，贷款金额，贷款用途，贷款是否偿还。我们将仔细核对和整理这些资料。我们还将对参加Rojiroti试验的妇女进行20次深入访谈，并对CPSL志愿者进行约10次访谈。这些访谈将由一位人种学家（研究不同文化的人）进行，他将访问比哈尔邦一个月。我们将仔细分析这些采访。参与者和志愿者的声音与经济数据相结合，将使我们能够找出Rojiroti的基本特征，使该计划能够使儿童受益。我们还将看到Rojiroti是否有助于赋予妇女权力。我们希望这将允许其他人在其他工作中使用Rojiroti，这些工作中存在贫困和营养不良，以及妇女无法对自己的生活做出重要决定的地方。

项目成果

Response to Journal Club: Cluster Randomized Trial Evaluating Impact of a Community-based Microfinance Scheme on Childhood Nutritional Status: Evidence-based Medicine Viewpoint

对期刊俱乐部的回应：评估基于社区的小额信贷计划对儿童营养状况影响的整群随机试验：循证医学观点

• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Indian Pediatrics
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Shalini Ojha;A. Smyth;J. Mathew
• 通讯作者: J. Mathew

Daily Bread: Women's Self-Help Microfinance and the Social Meanings of Money

每日面包：女性自助小额信贷和金钱的社会意义

• DOI: 10.1177/13607804211058745
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Sociological Research Online
• 影响因子: 1.6
• 作者: Bott E