Members of the five Self Help Groups (SHGs) of a remote village in Karnataka have written a success story by eliminating societal challenges through developmental change.

Honnali Taluk village of Davanagere district in Karnataka has been facing a constant challenge of open defecation in their area. A 1400 sq feet vacant government land near the Kote road is been used for open defecation. Women were uncomfortable, children were scared due to pigs loitering, and foul smell polluting the nearby Anganwadi centre and Primary Health Centre. Apart from open defecation, the vacant plot became the dumping zone for garbage and waste with used plastic bottles, plastic wrapped waste materials. The communities were afraid that this place could become a high risk to spread diseases like malaria, and dengue as the monsoons were at the doorstep.

The issue was picked up by the members of SHGs formed by Shivmoga Multipurpose Social Service Society (SMSSS) under the U3 program. SMSSS has promoted a federation consisting of 10 Self Help Groups in the year 2013, primarily of SHGs, by SHGs and for SHGs in Honnali Taluk of Davanagere district. U3 envisaged empowering the community by organizing them and capacitating on their rights and entitlements. The SHG members were trained to engage in meaningful discussions and decision-making for their development.

The SHG Federation took the first step to discuss and with the help of U3 staff drafted an action plan to be given to the concerned commissioner. The Federation representatives and members of 12 SHGs submitted a petition to the Municipal Commissioner on 19th February 2022. The Municipal Councilors and Commissioner assured support to resolve the issue but even after three months, no actions were taken. The Federation members and volunteers once again approached the Municipal Commissioner to remind him about the petition. This time the wonder happened, and the administration acted within a month to construct a warehouse in the vacant area.

Within a month the construction of the warehouse has started, and the vacant land was utilized. The confidence of the Federation members was boosted through the intervention of U3 programme as they got the platform to attend capacity-building training such as Leadership, Management of Federation roles & responsibilities and Documentation and exposure visits to nearby Taluk to enhance exchange learning. This achievement has given confidence among women, their status and respect in society. Shimoga Multipurpose Social Service Society, Shivamogga has initiated this training through the intervention of U3 programme.  The step taken by the Federation members has resulted to build a good rapport between the Municipal department and the Federation members, so the Federation has indirectly contributed towards regular income for the Municipal by raising the issues to their notice. Such joint initiatives through Empowered Community and dialogue with Govt. officials have well proven to lead to good governance and improved the livelihood in U3 programme which is implemented in 3 states- Karnataka, West Bengal & Telangana.

U3 programme emphasized creating a platform resulting in community ownership and control by the local community on prioritization of issues faced by them through the core approach of Key Strategic Pillars of Caritas India that focuses on Empowerment Animation, Dialogue, Volunteering and Sharing Communities.

The success of this community empowerment did not stop here, the 156 women members of the Federation are now negotiating with the Municipal Commissioner to make use of the warehouse for storing the Federation materials.