Free 750 Indian families from debt and deprivation

Murukku is the snack food of south India. The simple crunchy savoury is found everywhere, piled high on tea shop counters and touted by street sellers shouting “murukku, murukku” to weary bus travellers and passers-by. Murukku means “twist” in English.

For Lakshmi (name changed), from a poor marginalised community, murukku is her family’s passport out of poverty.

She and her family run a simple business from their home, cooking murukku for sale to vendors. It makes far more money than they can earn from poorly paid seasonal farm work.

When she first started her business, after some initial success, she ran into trouble: lacking enough finance, she ran out of cash and had no money to buy the rice flour and cooking oil needed to make murukku. The family sank back into poverty.

When our partner’s field team heard her story, they were able to suggest an answer to Lakshmi’s troubles. She could join the women’s self-help group in her village. The group saves collectively and lends to its members, and it can leverage affordable loans from banks and women’s organisations.

Lakshmi agreed to join, and attended some training sessions run by our partner. After her three month probationary period with the self-help group, she asked for a group loan. The group members agreed and gave her suggestions for efficient ways to run her business. Armed with her new capital, she has revived her trade. She now budgets for flour, oil and other ingredients and the business has grown so she employs two assistants.

Lakshmi says: “The desire for profit is driving our progress in the business, and we have settled the loan with the self-help group, resulting in an improved financial status. I express my gratitude to the Arogya Agam team (our partner) and the self-help group members for their prompt assistance and support.”

Our partner’s team has been busy. The team has been working in 15 deprived villages to boost self-help group enrolment. So far 140 out of 375 families that could benefit from self-help group membership have expressed interest. The team has a target to form 12 new self-help groups a year, and has created two new groups in the last three months.

Alongside the women’s groups, the team works with children’s groups. The aim is to keep children in school, return dropouts, and encourage students to pass exams and go to college.  In recent months, three new children’s groups were formed, with 234 members, and 13 students have started higher education.