How a committee works
Every committee has the same basic parts:
- Members: a fixed group, often family, friends, neighbours or colleagues.
- Amount: what each member pays every cycle, for example Rs 10,000 a month.
- Cycle: usually one month. A committee lasts as many cycles as it has members.
- Pot: the amount times the number of members, paid out to one member each cycle.
- Admin: the organiser who collects payments, keeps the record and runs the draw. Often called the committee head.
- Payout order: decided by a draw each month, a fixed order agreed at the start, or agreement between members.
A worked example
Ten members each pay Rs 10,000 a month. Every month the pot is Rs 100,000, and the committee runs for ten months.
| Month | Each member pays | Pot | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 100,000 | Member drawn in month 1 |
| 2 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 100,000 | Member drawn in month 2 |
| … | … | … | … |
| 10 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 100,000 | The last member |
Try your own numbers with the committee calculator.
Other names for a committee
The same idea exists all over the world under different names:
- Committee, BC, beesi, kameti: Pakistan and North India.
- Chit or chitty: South India. Registered chit funds in India are run by a company and regulated, and often use bidding instead of a draw.
- Bisi or bishi: parts of Western India.
- ROSCA: the general term used by banks and researchers.
- Susu, tanda, hui, arisan: West Africa and the Caribbean, Latin America, East Asia and Indonesia.
Why people join committees
- A lump sum without a loan. Members who receive early get the whole pot months before they could have saved it, with no interest.
- Saving with commitment. A fixed monthly payment that others count on is easier to keep up than saving alone.
- No bank needed. Anyone can join, which matters where bank credit is hard to get.
- Planned spending. People use the pot for weddings, school fees, Eid, rent advances, a motorbike or stock for a small business.
The risks, and how to reduce them
A committee runs on trust. Most problems come from one of these:
- A member stops paying after receiving the pot. This is the most common problem. Many committees ask early winners for a guarantor, or exclude members who are behind from the draw.
- Unclear records. Payments tracked in a notebook or a WhatsApp chat are easy to dispute months later.
- Disputes about the draw. If members cannot see how the winner was chosen, they may suspect favouritism.
- The admin disappears with the money. Join committees run by people you know, and prefer members paying each other directly.
Clear written rules prevent most disputes. See committee rules you can copy, and how committee draws work.
Running a committee with an app
Committee Book is a free committee app for Android. The admin creates the committee, members join, and each month members upload proof of payment. The admin accepts or rejects each proof, and the draw is seeded so any member can check the result. Every action is logged.
The app only keeps the record. Members still pay each other directly, and Committee Book never holds or transfers money.