To encourage women to become more financially independent, Mahiti has promoted the two women’s cooperatives - “Bhal Women’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited in Ahmedabad district” and “Bhal Women’s Jagruti Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited in Bhavnagar district” - a federation of exclusively women’s self help groups for easy access of communities to avail credit and avoid cumbersome banking procedures, Mahiti worked out an alternative banking system, a structure that gives ownership and share in the profit to the women. Both the cooperatives function in the two administrative clusters of Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar respectively. Attempts are made to amalgamate all women’s savings and credit groups. Both the cooperatives are registered under Cooperative Act in 2001 and 2003 respectively and both are in the phase of extending its outreach and financial viability so that they can emerge out as Regional Level Self Sufficient Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) – as a small Women’s Bank. The leaders of the cooperatives are being trained on various aspects of cooperative management including accounts, laws, regulation, administration, roles and responsibilities and leadership development etc. Presently, there are more than 8500 women members in both the cooperatives having its annual turn over of more than 1 crore.