By Adolf Washington
Aug 10: A group of young girls gaze eagerly into Kanyakumari's ocean line where their fortunes lie even as they busy themselves binding seashells together.
These young ladies are part of one of the self-help groups of women who have been helped through the Stella Maris Institute of Development Studies situated less than a kilometer away from Kanyakumari's coast. They manufacture sea-shell crafts.
Dr C Suresh who is the director of Stella Maris Social Centre, says "People have found a new lease of life and redemption from poverty ever since this project of self-help and training began". The sisters of the congregation of the Daughters of Mary who founded the Institute in 1995 least imagined that their vision to empower women would stretch to a 100 kilometer radius in Kanyakumari district. Today, these self-Help Groups (SHG) function across 99 village panchayats, 56 town panchayats and 4 municipal localities involving over 300 groups. For nuns Stella and Monica whose brainchild it is, it is a dream that is expanding into new horizons. "We are one among the very few NGOs that has been supported by the Government today" says Suresh.
Whether it is sea shell craft, banana craft, artificial gem cutting, bamboo craft or dried coconut (copra), the women have found a sure source of income. "Unemployment and Poverty is a thing of the past" says suresh. "Through the self-help groups, women are trained both my personnel in the organization and by officials from the government departments, on skills in handicraft and also fisheries" Each region where the SHG functions, have their own specific units churning out products that are sold across cities in Tamil Nadu and even as far as Gujarat and New Delhi.
"We have plans for exporting our products to other countries as well". But the its not going to be easy, Suresh feels. "When the product has to go abroad, greater quality, better packing and hygiene stipulations are to be followed. We will have to plan well before we venture into this". The National Institute of Fashion Technology will assess the needs of export and guide the organization in its produce. Even as export plans are in the offing, the centre is on a new programme to provide insurance to people with a minimum premium payment of just half a rupee a year to receive an insurance amount of twenty five thousand rupees.
"Already, our schemes for the SHG have been very successful as we have grouped people together and induced them to save at least rupees twenty a week from their earnings" says Suresh. Groups are anything from 12 to 20 in number and are monitored closely through animators who regulate the accounts and savings. "The purpose of inducing people to save is because the rates of interest can touch as high as ten percent in sea coast areas. It is virtually impossible for these poor women to borrow from such sources. So, under this scheme, they lend among themselves under the guidelines we lay down for low interest". The co-operatives created by the organization are an immense source of financial support to the families of these women. The men too have benefited from these schemes as they have entered into the co-operative save and lend scheme.
When asked if the children in these families will continue to be fishermen, Suresh assuringly says "Thanks to such SHG schemes, children are getting educated and their prospects are much better than it was a few decades ago".