The Celina Cow Fund
Alf Bjørseth of Scatec AS, Norway, set up a revolving fund in the name of his grandchild, to be managed by the Bagepalli Coolie Sangha in order to provide interest-free loans for Coolie women to buy milch animals and earn an income.
Mahila Meetings selected 65 single women who had no adult male members in their families and sent them to richer Ryots who already had cows to learn how to milk, feed and generally take care of animals. Then they were provided with crossbred cows bought from surrounding villages.
65 loans totalling ₹ 19,64,402 were given out with a capital of ₹ 30,64,500 in 2008. The rest was given out as starter grants for them to meet initial costs like building a shelter, buying chains and buckets, etc. 1,296 instalments totalling ₹ 10,80,005 have been repaid.
83% of the average of ₹ 30,221 borrowed by each woman was used to buy crossbred cows, 18% on insurance cover, 5% on fodder and feed concentrates, and 4% on transport, buckets, chains, etc.
Being the poorest of the poor, these women had to be handheld to manage such costly cows. ADATS Field staff did this through regular field inspections and were available to every single Loanee, day and night, by mobile phone. Women called in panic whenever something went wrong and our staff responded by taking a veterinarian, holding a special Mahila Meeting to iron out an issue, or simply talk till they calmed down.
Quite a few women succeeded as can be seen from the below testimonies. Many failed for a variety of reasons. Some didn't have enough adults in their families to take care of both, their children as well as the cow; others weren't able scrounge enough for an emergency; some cows simply got sick and died. The worst hit was those whose cows got sick and dried up. Fortunately, since we had insured for both, death as well as permanent total disability, not a single borrower got permanently indebted.
Testimonies
- 041 017 Laxminarasamma
Laxminarasamma is a 43 year old woman who used to do house work in her mud walled thatched Hut measuring 20 ft x 15 ft. She borrowed ₹ 28,958 to buy a cross bred cow from the Celina Fund, and that changed her entire life. As on today, she has already repaid ₹ 7,530 and is confident of clearing her entire loan in the coming years. - 219 026 Chinnamma
Chinnamma is a daily labourer who belongs to the lowest caste in Indian Society and was regarded as an "untouchable". All this changed 13 years back when a Coolie Sangha Unit was formed in her village and she was selected by the women to be their Village Health Worker. Today Chinnamma, 45 years, is perhaps one of the most important persons in Giddapannahalli village, giving leadership to all small and poor peasant families — men as well as women. Some years back she adopted Harish, today a confident 18 year old lad, and the two of them live together in a government built house measuring 24 ft by 12 ft. - 267 025 Chinnamma
Chinnamma from Dapparthy village is classified by the Indian Caste system as a Scheduled Tribe. She lives with her 3 school going children, Narasamma, Anand and Suresh, in a government built house measuring 25 ft by 10 ft. Though she has 0.5 acres of rain fed dry land, she is a Daily Labourer. When she bought a cross bred cow in June 2009 with a Celina Fund loan, it was only a continuum of the empowerment process that started for her, 12 years back, when the village Coolie Sangha Unit was formed.
Learning
Mahila Meetings learnt that single women headed households could not, individually and on their own, overcome handicaps and prosper simply through the provision of capital and technical support. They needed to belong to a collective effort where all women participate — the weak, the strong, single as well as those with male support.
At the collective level, Coolie women discovered that they were quite capable of managing crossbred cows as a business proposition. The Celina Fund emboldened them to first participate in, and then completely take over the two Biogas CDM Projects which are today exclusively owned and managed by End User women.