Asset transfer & daily income
50 milch animals on loan to 50 women enabled regular income through dairy farming and built a productive asset base, following 30 animals placed with trained women farmers in the first phase.
Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) micro-credit & livelihood project
The National Credit Fund for Women, Ministry of Women & Child Development — micro-credit and livelihood support delivered by Coodu Trust exclusively for poor women in Kadavur Block, Karur District.
₹7.5L
RMK first-phase outlay, 2008–09
50
Milch animals on loan to 50 women, 2009–10
3
Petty shop loans
10
Educational loans
The project
Credit built exclusively for poor women
Project mission
Providing micro-credit and livelihood support exclusively to poor women through the National Credit Fund for Women (Rashtriya Mahila Kosh), enabling them to build sustainable income through milch animal rearing, petty trade enterprises, and educational advancement — transforming the economic status of the most disadvantaged women in rural Kadavur Block.
The Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) is the National Credit Fund for Women — a Central Government institution under the Ministry of Women & Child Development whose loans are available solely and entirely to poor women. Coodu Trust applied to RMK for a loan in 2007–08. By 2008–09 the trust reported itself as being supported by RMK, with a first-phase financial outlay of ₹7.5 lakh working among 40 women's self-help groups: 30 trained women farmers were each provided with one milch animal, and ten more received credit for petty shop and sheep rearing activities.
In 2009–2010 the credit activities placed 50 milch animals on loan with 50 women beneficiaries, financed 3 petty shops and extended 10 educational loans, all for beneficiaries of Kadavur Block, Karur district. Separately, under a calf-rearing scheme the same year, 40 women were trained and 38 of them availed a loan under RMK. The fund is last named in the 2011–12 report, both among the trust's supporting organizations and among the schemes to which its self-help groups were linked.
The RMK support did not work alone. It ran alongside Mahalir Thittam, under which Coodu Trust was the approved NGO for Karur district from 26.01.2006 across the Kadavur, Thogamalai, Aravakurichi and Paramathi blocks, together with NABARD credit linkage and the SGSY and TAHDCO economic assistance schemes.
- Milch animal rearing
- Petty trade enterprises
- Educational advancement
- Micro-credit for women
Why this work matters
The challenge on the ground — and our answer
The challenge
No assets, no route to daily income
Without a productive asset or start-up credit, the poorest rural women have no way to earn a regular daily income of their own.
Our response
Asset transfer that pays every day
50 milch animals on loan to 50 women brought daily income through milk sales, while 3 petty shop loans let women become self-employed traders in their own communities. The reports are explicit that the animals were provided on loan, not given.
The challenge
Children's schooling cut short by poverty
When family income is precarious, children's education is often the first expense to be dropped — carrying the cycle of poverty into the next generation.
Our response
Educational loans that keep children in school
10 educational loans helped women beneficiaries keep their children in school and access higher education opportunities — investing credit directly in the next generation.
At a glance
The essentials
- Funder
- Rashtriya Mahila KoshNational Credit Fund for Women, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India
- Period
- 2007–2012Loan applied for in 2007–08; first phase recorded in 2008–09; core credit activities in 2009–10; RMK last named in the 2011–12 report
- Location
- Kadavur BlockKarur District, Tamil Nadu
- Beneficiaries
- Poor women, exclusively40 women's self-help groups; 30 milch animals and 10 petty shop and sheep rearing credits in the first phase; 50 milch animal loans, 3 petty shop loans & 10 educational loans in 2009–10
- Linked programmes
- Mahalir Thittam, NABARD & SGSY/TAHDCOSHG formation & financial inclusion, agricultural credit linkage & economic assistance schemes
- Status
- CompletedThe 2008–09 report describes Coodu Trust as “being supported by Rastriya Mahila Kosh”; no report states a formal designation for the trust under the fund
Outcomes
What the project changed
Enterprise & education
3 petty shop loans let women become self-employed traders, while 10 educational loans helped break the cycle of poverty by investing in children's education.
Training before finance
Under the calf-rearing scheme, 40 women beneficiaries were trained before any money moved, and 38 went on to take a loan — the trust's own report insists that farmers be trained well in calf rearing before finance is made available.
Get involved
Support women's livelihoods
Join us in extending micro-credit, productive assets and enterprise skills to the most disadvantaged women of rural Tamil Nadu — income that families build on for generations.