VILLAGE NEWS
Villagers in Koduru, Telangana are making a five-year plan for development of their community. Br. Shekar and Br. Raghu from the Mata Amritanandamayi Math have been working with them to determine what needs to happen step-by-step. Many sevites from Hyderabad have also joined the project.
Each villager has decided to take responsibility for one aspect of community care. For example, one person will supervise cleaning of all gutters when required, another will monitor repairs of water pipelines, another will counsel in growing of kitchen gardens, another will lead collecting plastic in the streets and fields and devise a system for storage and recycling…. The list goes on.
Another development sees the sevites implementing proper lighting facilities to a community centre so students can study properly in the evening. Mats will be provided for students rather than sitting on the muddy ground.
In Koduru, our first women’s joint liability group (JLG) has also been formed. This is similar to a self help group (SHG). The members have common activities, need not to have land title, are of the same village, and hold regular meetings. A JLG provides credit to small and marginal farmers, landless labourers, and artisans among the group. They work together on projects and mitigate credit risk by way of group dynamics, peer pressure, credit discipline and cluster approach.
The women in Koduru have earned Rs 9000 as a result of labour charges for the production of women’s reusable cloth pads. The rest of the earnings, Rs 13,000, will be used to continue pad production for upcoming orders.