15 Jun 2024
Two kilometres south of our partner’s campus in the small town of Andipatti is the colony of Kothaloothu. This colony was one of the first to pioneer our successful women’s self-help group model. The same group of fifteen members have stayed together for over thirty years and have had great success. They are each registered with all government agencies including Aadhar (identity) card, birth and death certificates, voter ID, caste certificate and ration cards. Many of the new groups that our GlobalGiving page is funding are seriously lacking in registration for all of these elements and thus lose out on the opportunity to claim the benefits they are entitled to as citizens of the modern Indian state.
Two recent examples demonstrate how an experienced group like this can persevere as a united front in the face of a fledgling Indian welfare state. The group recently received a grant of Rs. 150,000 from TADCO (the government welfare scheme for Dalits) for dairy cows. The group successfully paid back that loan through good animal husbandry practices. This has opened up a further Rs. 390,000. The problem is that TADCO say they have released those funds to State Bank India to be provided for the group. However, State Bank India claim that they have not yet received those funds from TADCO. The group have thus had a lengthy exchange of letters and visits between the various bureaucracies to resolve the issue and locate the missing funds they are entitled to. The group are used to such inefficiencies and frustrations and know to simply persevere and they will get what they deserve and make further steps to develop their colony.
Another example, in 2022 a rare monsoon season caused serious damage to many of the houses in the colony and 29 families were left temporarily homeless. The group united and approached the officials until they were eventually allowed to meet the Collector (chief local government official) himself, and they were finally given temporary shelter. The District Collector also sent surveyors for house repairs. The group says that politicians will come and make a big show of themselves in the community before an election - over a year later and most of the houses are still waiting for what they have been promised, but they are not giving up.