The ruling CPI(M) is angry with the Congress for launching a parallel micro-enterprise christened Janasree Sustainable Development Mission.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Microfinance is the new political battleground in Kerala, where the government-run Kudumbasree Poverty Eradication Mission has been empowering women below poverty line for seven years. The ruling CPI(M) is angry with the Congress for launching a parallel micro-enterprise christened Janasree Sustainable Development Mission.
While Union finance minister P Chidambaram, who inaugurated Janasree in Kochi last week, was all praise for the new network of self-help groups owing direct allegiance to the Congress, his state counterpart TM Thomas Isaac lambasted the scheme as a ploy to channel central funds bypassing the state government.
“If people start joining more than one micro-credit agency and take as many loans, they simply won’t be able to pay it back. The financial discipline of the micro-credit system will crumble. The correct repayment of loans have been our strength in making Kudumbasree a success over the years,” Isaac, one of the architects of the scheme, said.
Chidambaram, however, was vociferous in his support to the new programme. He said that such programmes would help bring in inclusive development. He even exhorted commercial banks to forward credit-linkage to the nascent Janasree self-help groups. Janasree, which already has around 30,000 SHGs, plans to make it 50,000 by March.
Janasree Mission chairman MM Hassan, who is also the spokesman of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, denied the allegation that the programme was to counter Kudumbasree. “Janasree is supported by the Congress. But it is in no way attached to the party. Anyone can be a member of Janasree. It is open even to women above poverty line,” he said.
The fight for the SHGs is rational given the huge influence the little women wield in grass-roots level.
In the civic polls of 2005, around 1330 women attached to the Kudumbasree mission were elected to the various local bodies. Some of them, with little or no political background, contested independently and went on to head the respective councils.
Kudumbashree, Kerala government’s Poverty Eradication Mission, was started in August 2000. It organises and mobilises women through a three-level network, which decides the agenda of local development. In five years, the mission has grown into a development model through its stress on micro enterprises and micro finance.
s_don@dnaindia.net
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