Mullankinavilai is a Panchayat in Killiyoor Block of Kanyakumari district. President of the Panchayat takes interest and has been very active in forming Self Help Groups of various sectors.
Panchayat has a population of 4713 people as per 1991 census and the latest unofficial estimates put the number at 6010 in 2001. There are approximately 25 Self Help Groups 17 of them attached to an NGO called PASA. With a relatively high density of population there is unemployment and poverty and a large number of men-folk migrate as construction labour.
There are many home based activities here, something unique to Kanyakumari.
These are making of lace products, embroidery, ready-made clothes, palm leaf
containers, bee-keeping and honey processing. There are many granite-quarries in
the area and there is a Self Help Group of quarry workers.
Lace Mahalir Mempattu Thittam makes,as the name says, Lace. They are able to get on an average Rs. 600/ to Rs. 1000/ a month from this activity. This group of twenty members from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families were doing the same work as individuals earlier, when they were earning up to Rs. 400 maximum, often less. They have recently received Rs. 25,000 as revolving fund and a loan from the Swarnjayanthi Gram Swarozgar Yojana scheme and are now aiming at higher goals. Tells Maria Monica, Cluster Co-ordinator of the NGO PASA 'With more money we are able to procure more raw materials and produce more. The members are competing with each other to produce more now'.
Not far from here in the same Panchayat is another SHG which makes breath takingly beautiful hand embroidery. Called Ettani Mahalir Mempattu Thittam, also attached to PASA which has received the Revolving Fund of Rs. 25,000. However the money has been used up for paying off individual loans, clearing indebtedness. Saroja leader of the group and a gifted artist tells that they can sell any amount of products if they have enough money to make more. At the moment the members are earning on an average Rs, 1000 to Rs. 1500 a month spending only their spare time.
At Muchanthivilai further ahead there is another group making ready-mades and laces . This SHG named after the place and attached to the same NGO PASA has received a revolving fund of Rs. 25,000. The money was distributed among the members and according to them most of them used the money to pay off old debts. The interest rates are high and as per them an amount of Rs. 10,000 taken on loan needs to be paid an advance interest of Rs. 1000/ for hundred days, the loaned getting only Rs. 9000. They are now getting an income of Rs. 500/ to 600/ now mostly from surplus time.
There is another SHG of quarry workers in Mullankinavilai formed at the initiative of the Panchayat President, mostly of men. But this group is yet to receive revolving funds and is only three months old. Y Swamidas, leader of the SHG is looking for other groups to receive revolving funds and other help so that they can also go in for more aggressive work. They plan to have a small compressor installed here.
Ettani Then Valarpu Mempattu Sanghom another SHG rears honey bees and sells the honey. There is a meticulously planned system of keeping boxes at far away places, like interior Kerala, then near by places according to season and selling the proceeds. This group has not been attached to any NGO and they are yet to get revolving funds though they are more than eight months old. They are to approach the government soon.
Says M. Prabha, the Panchayat President. 'I want to be first
in the district in forming SHGs.' But there are complaints also. Some of the men
were found complaining that the programmes are all centered on women. They have
been neglected they said. The changes in this village panchayat are giving hopes
but the problem of poverty does not seem to be fully addressed, at least not
yet. More inroads and the changes may become more discernible.