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Journalism of Courage
Kulandei Francis,founder of the Integrated Village Development Project,and winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award 2012
Poverty is not just economic deprivation or non-fulfilment of basic needs,such as healthcare or education. It is a denial of socio-cultural rights too,in the form of exploitation of poor labourers or not allowing women to be part of decision-making at home. So,there is economic poverty and there is socio-cultural poverty,and they are interlinked. Economic and educational empowerment can uplift a person financially,which,in turn,enhances their social-cultural status. I am witness to this phenomenon in Krishnagiri,Dharampuri and Vellore,the three Tamil Nadu districts where my organisation,the Integrated Village Development Project (IVDP),is facilitating the tremendous success of around 8,231 self-help groups,comprising some 1.5 lakh women. In 2011-12 alone,they availed bank loans totalling Rs 421 crore,and since 1989,they have availed a total of Rs 2,406 crore from all types of loans. With the credit,these women have built new houses,constructed 28,000 individual toilets for their houses and purchased 83,000 water filters to have safe drinking water. Their work is self-sustained,my organisation only trains them in managing their groups and accounts.
I chose what I am doing today more than four decades ago,when I was a student of B.Com at Annamalai University in Chidambaram. We lived in Karipatti village,in Salem district,Tamil Nadu. My mother,a farm help,who would often sell rice and milk to pay for my education when I was a school kid (I was the only one educated among six siblings,since my family was very poor),had to borrow Rs 500 from a moneylender in order to fund my graduation.
My mother was illiterate,and the moneylender cheated her,making her sign a document,according to which the loan amount multiplied ridiculously,and we had to sell the only piece of land we owned to repay it. That had a profound impact on me,and I had decided then,that I would not let people in my village suffer the way my mother did.
Though I had a grand plan of ridding villagers of poverty,I didnt know how to. So,I took baby steps,and learnt from my experience. When I was in B.Com,I joined the National Service Scheme (NSS),and after graduation,I joined the Fathers of Holy Cross in 1970 in Bangalore as a Catholic priest. My priesthood took me to many places from a relief camp for the Bangladesh War refugees in Kolkata to Sesurajapuram,a remote village in Tamil Nadu,located in the midst of forests,which had no proper roads. I stayed there for a year and taught at a night school. But I felt that my position as a priest,perhaps,generated a bias against me. Maybe people thought I was trying to convert them,which I wasnt,and so they were hesitant to take my help.
In 1976,I left priesthood and returned to Sesurajapuram. I started 20 night schools in and around Natrampalayam panchayat which had no schools in the area,with the help of friends in Bangalore. It went on for 10 years,before the government began setting up schools. Meanwhile,between 1979 and 2002,with the help of Oxfam and later,the Belgian government,we built check-dams for rainwater harvesting in Natramapalayam. Today,there are over 331 such mini-dams,benefiting some 40,000 people across 60 villages.
In 1981,I helped start a self-help group of men,who had benefited from the check-dams. IVDP extended them credit,but because they didnt pay up,I scrapped the idea. I contrasted those men with my mother,who sold her land to repay a loan. I feel women are more responsible than men,and more concerned about the well-being and education of children and the finances of the family. Most women in the villages give away their wages to the men,keeping nothing for themselves. So,the self-help group concept,wherein a group of individuals pool in money to build a fund,borrow from it for income-generating activities,return some amount of money earned to the fund,and then borrow from banks to fulfil the family needs,would work better with women. And todays results prove it. What started as one self-help group of about a dozen women,each contributing 50 paise to Re 1,in 1989,has grown into a behemoth worth crores. That,in turn,has uplifted their social standing.
I dont want to compare my initiative with the poverty alleviation schemes of the government,such as MNREGA or PDS. They are great but take time to reach the poor. I dont think its right to wait for the government to uplift the poor. It is the social responsibility of every middle and upper-class family to contribute to poverty alleviation. Even if one family sponsors the primary education of a poor child,it would be a contribution to poverty alleviation. Poverty is a crime; it needs to be eliminated by one and all,who can.
(As told to Irena Akbar)
