The power of money, mobility and a circle of saris

It is flattering to meet a stranger who knows your name. It is even more flattering when he has generated social change of the kind for which Raja Menon can be credited. A low key figure offers his hand warmly as I walk up the concrete staircase of Jeevika’s office in District South 24 Parganas: “South Africa – right? There is something we need to discuss …”. And yet we have never met. We are all strangers here. Yet this doubtlessly busy man has taken the time to read through our biographies and welcome us personally.
Raja Menon is the founder of Jeevika – a rural empowerment group focused on creating sustainable livelihoods for women. He lives up to his reputation: self-effacing to a fault. As quick to welcome as he is to introduce what he refers to as today’s Jeevika. “Why would you want to hear from someone of yesterday’s Jeevika?”.

I am not the only stranger whose name and background Raja has taken the trouble to read about in the bio attachment he received. He spends the two hours which follow offering a seamless and detailed account of the historical evolution of social sector activity in India, slotting references to his own life into the narrative when necessary. It is all delivered as if personally addressing old friends participating in a shared struggle. But Raja is as generous with his honesty and he is with his welcome: “microfinance is a mean machine with no heart. It doesn’t give loans to anyone, and it only has one ouput: credit… which is tight”. And then in a small courtyard in a village hemmed in by palm trees and moss-coloured lakes, we witness this for ourselves.

But before getting to meet those actually embodying Jeevika’s greatest successes – participatory micro-finance and livelihood creation for rural women through training and small enterprise development, we are introduced (with glowing acknowledgements from Raja) to those driving today’s Jeevika. Sumita Sur Roy heads up the Jeevika’s Micro-Credit Programme and she is soft-spoken and fast witted, and fearless when it comes to auto-rickshaws weaving amongst blue bus-shaped metal giants. She and Ahmed, the author of Jeevika’s latest annual report, load us full-bellied into the rickshaws and off the tarred roads onto narrow bricked pathways.

Our first stop is Digital Graphics – a design and digital photography enterprise.


This is run by five young women with a sizable dose of courage and business savvy. Standing with them in their tightly ordered shop, their closeness is self-evident. This may be explained by a shared experience of long working hours, friendship and a stubborn will to ‘make it work’ in the face of domestic pressures and little support. Their families prophesied that having open in May 2007, they would be closed by June. And I hope those hats weren’t too unpalatable.

Then onto the rural idyll. We arrive at a scene which could have been taken straight out of God of Small Things: lush, humid and outstandingly beautiful. Randomly spaced households punctuated the palm groves and string of small lakes. I spot a woman in a bright red sari washing dishes in one of them – we smile at each other and she stands up proudly as I take a photo of silver and red against leafy green. We meet again just ten minutes later in a narrow clay courtyard. She carries a small child and turns to smile again at me, acknowledging our previous acquaintance warmly.

The gathering is colourful and serious. This is a lending circle and these women meet together regularly with their loan officer to collect repayments…and so much more. Here they discuss relationships, children, leaking roofs and economic downturns, the trade in embroidered saris and life. And… the price of provisions.
But these same women also qualify for Jeevika’s training courses and these are a firm favourite. Why? Mobility – rural women living within the traditional conjugally organised households very seldomly leave their villages. Now, through Jeevika, they hold purse strings, and go on regular excursions to attend training which covers gender rights, relationship politics, and domestic violence alongside financial literacy, IT and PhotoShop Pro. And they face the repercussions of these dramatic changes collectively, through the community of women associated with the learning circle.

But arguably the greatest achievement of Jeevika in the context of this village is shared in passing while squeezing amongst the bus-giants. One of these women we met is the Secretary of the newly formed Federation of Jeevika groups who will shortly register as a legally registered Micro-Finance Institution capable of lending and financial capacity building themselves. A micro-finance resource led by rural women for rural women. ‘Impressive’ just seems a bit short of the mark. Women’s empowerment amongst these palm groves is material, and it’s seemingly unstoppable.

So in short, what has Jeevika given them? Jeevika has given rural women in this district access to credit and capacity building and through these to a world of new choices. But most crucially, they have opened this door while also providing the company required to practically support those going through it – the crucial sisterhood of borrowers and trainees. And what has Jeevika given me? A reminder of my moral obligation to do more than merely be aware of the luxurious range of choices available to me through my existing access to credit, my educational and professional background, and the settlement where I live. I have been reminded to use those choices with a sense of responsibility given how unevenly they seem to have been distributed in this world of ours.