t about 10.30 on Tuesday morning, Nanjammal returned home after three hours work at an agricultural land nearby. She had earned Rs. 100 and a bundle of beans.
For Nanjammal and almost all the other residents of Koodapatti settlement (Velliangadu panchayat in Mettupalayam taluk), working in farms for daily wages was the main source of income till some years ago.
However, in the last three or four years, much has changed in the remote settlement, which is about an hour’s drive from Kanuvai and where as many as 22 Irula families live. Now, only a few go out to work and that too only on some days, thanks to the Integrated Tribal Development Project of NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development).
“I do not want any support. I want to stand on my own legs,” says Ramathal, another resident. She spends her day grazing cattle. Her husband sells basic daily needs out of their house.
Located in the Periyanaikenpalayam Forest Range, on the Tamil Nadu - Kerala border, the settlement is among the seven settlements selected by NABARD for the project in the district. The aim is to promote livelihood activities for the tribal people so that they are economically self-sustained. Now, every family at Koodapatti has a bank account, 20 have received cows, three were given hens, and some residents have undergone tailoring training. “They gave me five cows and now I have seven,” says Mariamma. Each family has also received an improvised cooking stove that consumes less firewood.
“NABARD gives Rs. 18,000 to Rs. 25,000 a family for three years and in the fourth and fifth years the focus is on maintenance,” says A.S. Sankaranarayanan, Managing Trustee of Native Medicare Charitable Trust, a Non-Governmental Organisation that is implementing the project.
“Those who have cows now sell the milk to a society in a nearby town in Kerala and earn Rs. 3,000 a week,” he adds. The beneficiaries are able to sell hens at shandies for Rs. 250 to Rs. 400 a kg. According to R. Inigo Arul Selvan, Coimbatore District Development Manager of NABARD, the bank supports every identified family through the project with its tribal development fund. In hamlets where the residents do not own lands, the bank takes up activities related to animal husbandry or skill training. Village Planning Committees have been formed and exposure visits were organised for the beneficiaries, he says.
