Program Related Investment

In keeping with its mission of empowering marginalized woman socially and economically, an important component of Niranya's support is program related investment. It invests in grassroots woman's groups with the will and skill of making money grow. This initiative, given to community based women's groups in the form of revolving funds has met with amazing success in various pockets of India.

Tucked away in a corner of the Andhra Pradesh – Karnataka border in the village of Shamshallapur, Nyalkal Mandal, Medak district there are 30 dalit women formed into two community women’s groups and call themselves as the Ambdekar Mahila Sangam and the Goutam Buddha Mahila Sangam. They are illiterate and so are the men. The village probably has just two men who are educated to a certain level. It is a homogenous community obviously pushed into a remote corner because of their caste. The tenacity and determination combine with an innocence and honesty that makes them survivors and will hopefully turn them into winners at some point of time. Nirnaya supports them through its program related investment where the women are given a revolving fund to take as loans for income earning activities. Narsamma took on lease a half acre of land for cultivation of lentils and maize with her loan. The other women took to livestock management and as Lakshmamma and Narsamma say, ‘ we used to eat only one meal a day…. Now we are able to get two meals and see a few coins in our hands at the end of the day. The landlords on whose farms we go as wage labor feel that we have become too confident and threaten to hire the labor from some other village. But we will continue our independent activities… it gives us dignity.’

Samudraveni, Chilakaluripeta, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

Samudraveni works among the commercial sex workers in Chilakaluripeta, Guntur district, organizing and mobilizing the women to form self-help groups so that they can save for a rainy day and also become eligible for bank loans if they want to try out some income earning alternatives. She has an uphill task of convincing the women of their sincere intentions, lobby with the local government and financial institutions and make them recognize this section of women as humans with equal rights as others in society. She has helped the formation of 15 groups. One of the groups has also availed of the revolving fund from Nirnaya’s program related investment for agro based initiatives, like fruit and vegetable vending, livestock management and running retail outlets for garments and groceries. With Nirnaya’s support, Samudraveni has been able to form an organization called WAVE.

Samudraveni has registered this society as a first step towards creating a forum for commercial sex workers, dancing girls & HIV positive women, so that harassment and exploitation by the local government machinery is stopped.