Case Studies - ASSCOD - Association for Sustainable Community Development

Mrs. Kumari is a housewife and with her husband’s agricultural wages, the family ran in difficulty. She has 2 children and both of them are studying. As the income of her husband is seasonal, the family lived in extreme poverty. when ASSCOD / DPG promoted an SHG in the end of 2006, Mrs. Kumari enthusiastically joined in the SHG and actively involved in SHG activities and that was the turning point in her life (according to her own statement).


	Details of the Beneficiary : S. Kumari W/o Selvaraj, Malargal SHG, Brithur village, Vandavasi Taluk, Thiruvannamalai District.

She availed some loans in the SHGs internal loan fund for family expenses and felt the necessity of starting her own income generating activity to support her husband economically. In the meantime, ASSCOD / DPG conducted an Entrepreneurship Development Programme and in the programme Mrs.Kumari actively participated and got an idea of starting her own income generating activity.

After successful completion of EDP programme, she availed a bank loan Rs.5, 000 and with that money she started flower vending business. She bought the raw flowers in the nearby town and made garlands. She is selling the flowers/ garlands through her husband using bicycle. Because of this business, the family is getting an additional income of Rs.6,000 monthly. This activity mainly helped them to come out of poverty.

In the meantime, she applied for DPG micro credit of Rs.5,000 with Sangamam Apex Body. When she got the loan in May’07, she purchased a Milch animal to the worth of Rs.10,000. She started to get Rs.3,000 as monthly income through this activity and repaid Rs.750 towards DPG micro credit. In total, because of DPG micro credit milch animal activity and flower business, the family is getting an additional income of Rs.8, 000-9,000 besides her husband’s agriculture wages.

She says that this is a good income in the rural area to manage their life. She is enabling her children to continue their studies well. She said that she purchased 50 cents of agriculture land and decided to cultivate flowers. If that happens then the family will further grow both in economic and social aspects. She says that because of joining in the SHG she had number of opportunities to grow in her life and for that she is grateful to DPG.

Her assets after joining the SHG in 2 years:
2 milch animals to the worth of Rs.25,000
50 cents of agriculture land to the worth of Rs.1,00,000

Mrs. Rani is living in Vandavasi and she is an urban poor living in a rented house by paying a monthly rent of Rs.1, 500. Her husband is running a two wheeler mechanic shop and earning a monthly income of Rs.3, 000.Her husband’s earning was not sufficient to run the family. In the meantime ASSCOD / DPG promoted SHGs in Vandavasi town among the urban poor. Mrs. Rani came to know about ASSCOD/DPG women empowerment project and approached our field office to start an SHG in her street. So, we promoted an SHG in the year 2005 called Gangaiamman SHG and in the SHG, Mrs, Rani became an animator.


	Details of the Beneficiary : S. Kumari W/o Selvaraj, Malargal SHG, Brithur village, Vandavasi Taluk, Thiruvannamalai District.

Though she had initial difficulties in paying her monthly saving and repaying the loan availed from group internal fund, she did not loose her hope and continued to participate in SHG activities sincerely. She attended ASSCOD/DPG conducted Rural women Entrepreneurship Development Programme and gained thorough knowledge about micro-enterprises, business plan preparation etc.,

As her SHG is an urban based one, the SHG was not able to get any major schemes as availed by rural SHGs. After her successful completion of Entrepreneurship Development Programme, she decided to start sari selling business and for which she borrowed Rs.5,000 initially from DPG micro credit programme implemented through Sangamam Apex Body. She also worked as a part time domestic help work in rich people houses. She was able to run her business successfully and because of the business she earned Rs.3,000-4,000 monthly.

As this business went well, she started to expand it by the way of selling blouses, inner garments. She also repaid the loan properly by having a small fund as working capital for her business. As her business was relating to clothes, she decided to learn tailoring and learnt tailoring. After clearing her first loan with Sangamam Apex body (DPG micro credit), she availed another loan of Rs.5,000 to purchase a sewing machine and started a tailoring shop.

She is now able to earn an additional income of Rs.8,000 besides her husband’s income of 3,000.This completely changed her life and to come out of poverty through bringing out her entrepreneurial skills. Her daughter is studying +2 and son is studying an D.M.E (Diploma in Mechanic Engineering). She said if she did not join the SHG then she could not have enabled her children to study to this extent. She says that she has a moral satisfaction as she helped other women to use DPG micro credit programme to grow in their life well. She has a future plan.

She plans to avail bank loan and DPG micro credit so as to open a cloth shops in Vandavasi. She strongly believes that she can run this shop profitably besides providing employment opportunity to the rest of 19 members. She expressed her sincere thanks to ASSCOD / DPG for giving an opportunity to come up in her life and to educate her children well.