India Nirman Sangh has undertaken and plans to further undertake a number of developmental and community projects in backward areas of our country. The philosophy behind these projects is threefold. First to directly help some of the most deprived persons in our society in specific,immediate ways. Secondly to use the opportunity of having direct contact with some of our poorest countrymen and women to raise their awareness about society, the political structure and the need for change. Thirdly to ourselves learn from these developmental projects and clarify our own understanding of society.

We have chosen three states – Tamilnadu, Bihar and Jharkhand for developmental and community projects in the first phase. Of these three we have begun work in Tamilnadu. We need more financial support for these projects. We also need volunteers to help in the field.Please read the 'Support/Associate With Us' section in this site to know how to contact us.

Women's Self Help Groups Project

Women's groups as micro credit organisations were pioneered in Bangladesh and following the success there, have spread widely in India. Today there are estimated to be more than four lakh women's self help groups in India. We estimate that around 50% of them are functioning well. Many State Governments and the Central Government have initiated a number of schemes to support seld help groups in a variety of ways. Political parties see Self Help Groups as potential vote banks and are keen to be seen helping them.

In Tamilnadu, a self help group has between 12 and twenty members. The members elect from among themselves a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer. Each member contributes a fixed amount to the group every week. This amount is around Rs. 20. This means that a group with fifteen members can save around Rs.1200 every month. This money is deposited in a bank account operated by the group office bearers. The group uses this money to give loans to their own members who may need the loan for a variety of reasons including a sickness in the family, a festival, education fees, a wedding etc. The member receiving the loan repays in an agreed number of instalments and also pays a nominal interest. This system effectively gives the members access to funds when needed and frees them from money lenders. Peer pressure among the members ensures a near hundred percent loan recovery rate.

Today Public Sector Banks support self help groups by advancing them loans at very low interest rates.

For many women the groups are often the first opportunity for them to interact in a purposeful endeavour outside their homes. The women, particularly the group office bearers feel and act very much more empowered. Also, the financial independence which the self help groups provide in some measure also give the women an enhanced status both within and outside their homes.

India Nirman Sangh's involvement in this area began with the creation of the Sathya Suya Uthavi Kuzhu ( Sathya Self Help group) in Vazhakadu Odai, a small village in the Vilpatti panchayat of Dindugal district. It was created with twenty members. India Nirman Sangh volunteers mentored the group, ensured that its activities and procedures meet Government requirements and helped its members develop progressive and good-citizen attitudes.

The group meets weekly. At each meeting some time is devoted to the loan accounts. Subsequently the women discuss local issues and problems and plan actions to find solutions. Once a month the group meets for a longer duration and India Nirman Sangh volunteers though discussions and talks help the women look at their problems in the context of society as a whole. This group has been an example to the whole panchayat. Savings are high, a number of women have received loans and freed themselves from moneylenders lending at exorbitant rates of interest. The women have taken up local issues and are forcing local political leaders to address pressing problems.

Subsequently India Nirman Sangh has set up another eighteen self help groups in the following villages of Dindugal district.

Kombaikadu
Kadaimandram
Saverikadu
Sotthuparai
Palamalai
Bharathi Anna Nagar
Ganeshapuram
Kaduguthadi
Samukadu
Chellapuram
Pudukadu

India Nirman Sangh has appointed two motivated local women as facilitators to help these group grow and function effectively. We plan to start another twenty self help groups in the next two months.

Youth Centres Project

Young People in villages and small towns have very few ways in which to spend their time usefully. This is particularly true of young people who are unemployed. Currently, it is only religious organisations, particularly those with narrow, exclusive agenda who are attempting to provide avenues for young people to meet, form groups and participate in group activities. This is of course with a view to bringing the participants around to the viewpoint of the religious organisation.

A need clearly exists for a secular 'Youth Centre' where young people could spend time in activities which are enjoyable and at the same time develop their bodies, minds and character and increase the chances of them growing to become gainfully employed, progressive, secular, concerned citizens and good husbands or wives.

India Nirman Sangh first created as a pilot a single Illainzhergal Koodam (Young People's Centre) at Kodaikanal. The Centre was located in one of the poorer areas in Kodaikanal – Anna Nagar. The choice of location was to a large extent based on the cooperation we received from the local youth and the ward councillor of that area. Each ward has a population of around 2000 persons of whom around 20% are in our target group. Our target group are boys in the age group 14 to 35.

Although we were ready to rent accomodation for our youth centre, we were fortunate in that we were able to use a government owned building ( a rennovated, abandoned slaughterhouse) in the ward which had been earmarked for community activities.

The Centre is open from 6am to 8am in the mornings and from 6pm to 9pm every evening. The centre is equipped with a gym and a reading room. The gym is equipped with basic equipment including weights, a bench press, dumbbells, a full size mirror, a bullworker, a chest expander and skipping ropes. We have also errected parallel bars just outside the hall. The reading room is equipped with tables and chairs and is stocked with newspapers as well as selected magazines which are informative, educative and which develop social awareness. Most of the newspapers, magazines and books are in Tamil.

The trained attendant and instructors at the centre are drawn from the India Nirman Sangh or from among the local youth and serve as mentors and friends to the young people using the centre, guiding them and inculcating in them the attitudes and beliefs required to help them become good citizens.

The young people who use the Youth Centre have constituted themselves into a 'Self Help Group'. They have elected their own office bearers and have their own bank account. Each member contributes Rs. 35 each month to the Self Help Group. Part of this money is used to maintain the Youth Centre while the rest is banked as the savings of the group. Currently around twenty five young people are members of this Self Help Group.

The Youth Centre is a vehicle through which the local India Nirman Sangh volunteers are helping to change attitudes, consciousness and build better citizens.

Following the success of this youth centre another youth centre is now being started at Naidupuram. This centre is expected to start functioning from the end of October 2004.

Local products marketing project

Currently a number of individuals and groups, particularly women's self help groups, have ventured to set up small cottage industries to manufacture a range of products including soaps, cooking powders, detergents, agarbatti, handicrafts and herbal medicines. These products are mostly made with natural raw materials and use of chemicals is minimal. The manufacturing process is also environmentally friendly and provides local employment.

However, one major problem faced by these groups is the sustained marketing of these products. In spite of products being of higher quality and competitively priced, many of these cottage industries face closure because they are unable to find or develop a marketing channel to reach a larger market.

As a pilot, India Nirman Sangh is setting up a retail outlet in Periyakulam town in Theni district in Tamilnadu to provide a channel to market products made by local cottage industries. The outlet will employ innovative marketing methods including door to door marketing and stalls in local village markets. The outlet will begin functioning from the 20^th of November 2004.

Village Toilet construction project

Sanitation is one of the major problems in rural India. One of the major contributors to this problem is open defecation. This problem needs to be addressed urgently. What is needed is both increased awareness as well as financial help. The Government is encouraging and financially supporting the construction of both common village toilets as well as individual toilets in each home. However the amount it provides as subsidy (Rs.600) is not enough for the construction of even a simple toilet.

Even where villagers have the financial means to build toilets the need is not felt. In many villages in Tamilnadu more than 40% of the houses have at least a black and white TV but no toilet. Here clearly the villagers priorities are different and there is need for an awareness campaign.

India Nirman Sangh has launched an awareness campaign in the villages in Vilpatti panchayat highlighting the need to end open defecation. We are also collaborating with the Gandhigram Rural Institute to construct low cost household toilets in these villages. The cost of construction is met partly by the villagers themselves, partly from the Government subsidy and partly by India Nirman Sangh. Toilets have already been constructed in Vazhakattu Odai and these have served to motivate more villagers in the vicinity to ask for similar toilets.