World Bank project gets two-year extension in Tamil Nadu

The Bank-funded poverty reduction project, Pudhu Vazhvu Thittam, aimed at poor women, unemployed youth, elderly persons and persons with disabilities.

August 01, 2014 10:25 am | Updated 08:41 pm IST - CHENNAI:

Women learn how to use an accounting software at a training centre at Padappai, Kancheepuram district. Photo: M. Karunakaran

Women learn how to use an accounting software at a training centre at Padappai, Kancheepuram district. Photo: M. Karunakaran

The recent visit by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has given a fillip to anti-poverty programmes in Tamil Nadu.

The Bank-funded poverty reduction project,  Pudhu Vazhvu Thittam , aimed at poor women, unemployed youth, elderly persons and persons with disabilities, has been extended till September 2016.

The project, launched in 2005, has been implemented in blocks, identified as most backward, spread across 26 districts. Though no additional funding has been provided, roughly Rs. 400 crore, part of the original allocation, and possible gains from the dollar exchange rates will be spent during the extended period.

The project covers 39.7 lakh people, including four lakh youths and 1.6 lakh persons with disabilities. Loans worth Rs. 140 crore have been disbursed to 436 panchayat-level federations to bring about financial inclusion of the beneficiaries.

“The best part of this project is we do not use the government data on the Below Poverty Line (BPL) [families] to identify beneficiaries as they are often inaccurate,” says M. Sakrapani, Livelihood (Skills Training) Specialist under the project. Instead, the Village Poverty Reduction Committee (VPRC) set up by the project staff, identifies beneficiaries affected by poverty, using such indicators as income, caste, disability and illness. As part of the project, 347 special VPRCs have been set up for the tribal community alone.

D. Saravanan, native of Nagapattinam, says the livelihood support from the project helped him find a stable job. He has been an employee of Samsung India Electronics at Kancheepuram since 2011. “I was clueless about what to do after I finished Plus-Two. I could not pursue further studies. With the help of the project staff, I found this job where I was trained in skills.”

The project also helps widows and poor women set up small businesses through loans. A panchayat-level federation of self-help groups manages loan disbursal and repayment. At Padappai in Kancheepuram district,  The Hindu  interacted with the women who had learnt to use the accounting software Tally and kept records of project fund disbursal through loans. The VPRC members also organise village-level mental health awareness programmes from time to time.

Asked whether the beneficiaries currently backed by the initiative would be left unsupported once the funds ran out, Project Director Mythili Rajendran said that in the next two years, efforts would be made to consolidate the gains in poverty reduction and help the beneficiaries become self-sufficient.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.