THE INITIATIVE

• Disbursement of small livelihood loans

THE BENEFICIARIES

• Scores of disempowered women of Samarpur village, Mehsana district, Gujarat

THE CHALLENGE

• Kanchamba and her husband, a marginal farmer, had barely enough to feed their family of four. In 1998, their house started crumbling. Any repair would have meant mortgaging their land, their only asset
• Kanchamba represented many such disempowered women in her area

THE SOLUTION

• NABARD provided financial support to VIKSAT
• Kanchamba and others utilised the opportunity to access credit through VIKSAT
• Their prompt repayments encouraged the bank to provide additional livelihood credit

THE IMPACT

• Kanchamba’s current status reflects the impact. Assets owned by her: 3 acres land, 1 bore well, 2 cows, 3 buffaloes, 1 pucca house and savings of ? 4600 in SHG. She earns nearly ? 1 lakh annually through sale of milk and cattle feed besides agricultural labour
• Kanchamba’s story has repeated itself in scores of houses in the project area