Since 2005, we have been working in the hills around Kodaikanal and Palani in Tamilnadu, India. Through these twelve years, we have worked towards women’s development in the villages on the hills,and in Kodaikanal and Palani towns.
Winning the trust of the people, we form small thrift and savings groups (called Self Help Groups) and then arrange for micro credit through local banks for these groups. The groups utilize the money to give loans to their members who may need the loan for a variety of reasons including repaying loans taken from moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates, a sickness in the family, a festival, education fees, buying fertilizer, a wedding etc. Peer pressure among the members ensures a very high recovery rate.
Initially, we were helped in forming these groups by the Gandhigram Trust located in Gandhigram, Tamilnadu.
Currently, India Nirman Sangh has formed and is currently supporting more than 400 hundred Self Help Groups (SHGs) among the women in some of the villages around Kodaikanal and Palani. Each group consists of between twelve and twenty women. Hence, a total of around 6000 women are members of our groups. So far, INS has facilitated loans worth more than 20 crore rupees for our groups from various Indian banks. Currently we are business correspondents of NABFINS, a financial organization set up by the Central Government specifically to finance micro-loans. On our recommendation, they provide micro-loans to our SHGs.
Over time, the groups have also begun to take up local issues such as sanitation, drinking water supply, the problems in the local ration shop etc. and using collective strength they are often able to bring about positive and dramatic changes. They also ensure proper implementation of government welfare schemes and collectively resist local injustice. In 2007, they also voluntarily came forward in three Panchayats to take up and implement a government scheme to build toilets for each home and completely eliminate open defecation. So far, more than 600 home toilets have been built by our groups under these government schemes.
Some of the groups have also started tiny businesses – running grocery shops, ration shops, tea shops, distilling and bottling eucalyptus oil, processing and packaging Kodaikanal coffee, manufacturing inexpensive sanitary napkins and running a carpentry workshop. India Nirman Sangh incubates these businesses and helps them run profitably and professionally.
In 2014, we set up a model organic farm near Kodaikanal. Farmers in India tend to be averse to formal training methods but are receptive to learning from success stories they see in their vicinity. We would like our organic model farm to be a place where new techniques and methods of farming are used and can be imitated by other farmers. The farm is located about 26 kilometres from Kodaikanal in a beautiful forested area and we have begun to successfully raise crops.
Gandhi Centre for Values
In 2016 we have set up a small Centre for Human Values. This Centre which we call ‘Gandhi Centre for Values’ teaches basic human or Gandhian values to lay persons, particularly the disadvantaged in rural areas. These values include an adherence to truth, tolerance, respecting all religions, willingness to go beyond selfish goals, cleanliness, simplicity and the need to limit our needs. Today, values are not taught to underprivileged children in poorer schools and expressed only sparingly in homes or even places of worship. As a result, a whole generation is growing up without a firm ethical foundation. The Gandhi Centre hopes to contribute to addressing this issue.
Over time, the Gandhi Centre hopes to be a place where people meet to think critically about the world we live in today and discuss Gandhian and other alternatives.
India Nirman Sangh is a registered ‘not-for-profit’ company (Section 25 Company). It is registered under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act and it is also registered under the FCRA.
The next class ‘Introduction to Gandhian Thought and our lives’ is scheduled for the 19 th and 20 th of January 2019. The class is open to persons with an interest in the basic questions of life and the answers Gandhi tried to find. A more detailed contents list is given below.
The Class will be held at India Nirman Sangh’s Gandhi Farm, Perumpalam Road,Vadakavunchi, Kodaikanal Block, Dindigul Dt., Tamilnadu 624101. The Farm is in a beautiful setting, surrounded by hills and nature. The farm is around 26 kms away from Kodaikanal town.
The class will be facilitated by David Barun Kumar Thomas, a social activist and Gandhian scholar. David is an Engineer from IIT Kanpur who has also studied history at JNU in Delhi.
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.The poor need access to loans on reasonable terms. This can be for household expenses including house repair, school fees, medical expenses. It can also be to start small businesses. India Nirman Sangh organises women into small groups of around 15 women called 'Self Help Groups'. The groups meet weekly or monthly, save and give loans to their members. India Nirman Sangh facilitates loans to these groups from banks and financial institutions. Currently INS is a business correspondent for NABFINS and facilitate loans from them to our groups. Currently around 15 crores worth of loans are with our Self Help Groups and we have ensured 100% repayment of these loans by the groups. This is not an easy achievement but we have managed it, thanks to a very good team of field workers and good systems.
.In 2016 we have set up a small Centre for Human Values. This Centre which we call 'Gandhi Centre for Values' teaches basic human or Gandhian values to lay persons, particularly the disadvantaged in rural areas. These values include an adherence to truth, tolerance, respecting all religions, willingness to go beyond selfish goals, cleanliness, simplicity and the need to limit our needs. Today, values are not taught to underprivileged children in poorer schools and expressed only sparingly in homes or even places of worship. As a result, a whole generation is growing up without a firm ethical foundation. The Gandhi Centre hopes to contribute to addressing this issue.
Over time, the Gandhi Centre hopes to be a place where people meet to think critically about the world we live in today and discuss Gandhian and other alternatives.
This project was initiated in February 2018. The project is supported by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). In this project we hope to improve agricultural practices in the Kodaikanal Hills in the growing of the four major crops of this area - potatoes, carrots, beans and garlic. We are doing this through training, dissemination of literature and the creation of demonstation plots in 20 villages in the Kodaikanal Hills.
This workshop was set up in 2014. Its objective is to show that women can successfully run a traditionally male trade such as carpentry. The workshop is equipped with a Universal Planing and Cutting machine, a Wood Lathe and several hand tools. The women working in the carpentry workshop have successfully produced household furniture including beds, tables and benches. They also produce a traditional wooden child walker as well as candlestands and other wooden souvenirs.
In 2014, we set up a model organic farm near Kodaikanal. Farmers in India tend to be averse to formal training methods but are receptive to learning from success stories they see in their vicinity. We would like our organic model farm to be a place where new techniques and methods of farming are used and can be imitated by other farmers. The farm is located about 26 kilometres from Kodaikanal in a beautiful forested area and we have begun to successfully raise crops including beans, turnips, radish, peas and bananas. We have also planted a number of coffee, orange and lime saplings which should begin to yield in a couple of years. We are constantly experimenting with new, organic fertilisers and pest controllers.
India Nirman Sangh has fostered, trained and supported a traditional dance troupe in the village of Palamalai near Kodaikanal. The troupe is called the Minnal Kalai Kuzhu and consists of ten men and three women. They dance a variety of traditional dances including the 'Parai Aattam', 'Pinnal Aattam' and 'Kollaattam'. They are regular performers at the annual Flower Show and Summer Festival staged at Bryant Park in Kodaikanal.
India Nirman Sangh is led by David Barun Kumar Thomas. David is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Kanpur. After IITK, he studied History at JNU in Delhi where he was elected President of the University Students Union. He worked in the corporate world for around twenty years, lastly with IBM in Bangalore and Brussels. He left IBM in 2003, came to Kodaikanal and since then has been involved in community development. He received the IIT Kanpur Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2010. From 2011 to 2014 he was a Trustee of the Gandhigram Khadi and Village Industries Public Charitable Trust. He is working in Kodaikanal!
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