The SHGs have a two-pronged approach:
One: they form a microfinance group (I’m not sure if there’s a better word for this) where each member of the group contributes a certain amount every month. This forms the principal which they lend out to members of the group at a lower interest rate than banks. At the end of the financial year the interest collected on the loans is divided equally between the members of the group, but the principal remains untouched. This way, women don’t have to resort to money lenders …

17th june, 2009
We had been waiting and waiting and waiting for the train to reach Calcutta- 2 nights and 2 days in the train - the sweat and the stickiness and the heat, it seemed like a never-ending journey. We met a very varied bunch of folks in the train, most of who had gone to CMC,Vellore for medical checkups all the way from north-east . Our weekly express from Bangalore to Guwahati went via Chennai and Vellore To kill time and divert attention from the hotness of the …

We got back to Vizag the previous day and had a talk with Susheela ma’am about what could     be done at the school. We were picked up at 8:30 in the morning and we were ready with the equipment by then. This time at school, a lot more kids were present than before and their classes have just started. Curious Varsha wanted to enter the class that very moment but we thought its better take some permission as it would be disturbing the class. We were happily invited to …

The plan that day was to visit the Dausad gadhera, an area where Grassroots had made considerable progress.

After breakfast we got into a cab and picked up Girija at Kalika. Then we drove to the Dausad Manch office where we met one of the representative’s of the Manch. He told us a lot about the work that was done in the Dausad region and that though the Manch office was originally set up in association with Grassroots, it was now run entirely by the Manch.

We also visited a farmer, Lakshman …

The Pauls- Kalyan and Anita, founders of the Pan Himalayan Grasroots Development Foundation, were busy with prior commitments when we landed at Ranikhet, so we had to wait a few days before we could meet them. It was an anxious wait for us, as we’d heard a lot about them and were really dying to meet them. Day 4 was the day we finally did, and what a session it turned out to be!
Our conversations with the Pauls were free wheeling, and covered a host of topics. One thing …

After a couple of days during which we were only informally chatting with people, and mostly walking all around Ranikhet, this was the day we were supposed to go meet people working for Grassroots.
A description of the Grassroots office would be incomplete without a mention of the steps that lead you there. Located near the famous Khalika temple, you step off the road and follow a flight of stairs to the office and pickle factory. On your way down you might not really notice that you’re climbing down over a …

When we were sitting on a table waiting for the Dwakra women to come and join us, this  beautiful girl silently stood behind us posing for a pic. When I asked her to sit with us on the  bench, she was reluctant. She would just stand there and shy away. For almost 30 minutes I  became a clown for her, trying to make her laugh. Told her something about myself  expecting that she would say something about herself too. But she  didn’t say a word. When I just stopped …

Sunday are always lazy, uneventful days, but not this Sunday. With a whole day off, we planned to take in as much of the sights around town like good tourists do.
Our host family recommended we head into town through a jungle detour which turned out to be as much fun as it sounded. Luckily for us city people, there was a clear-cut path, which was easy enough to make our way through. But the lack of trees meant no shade, so the sun boiled down on us. We finally …

The Rajdhani journey from Mumbai to Delhi was was again an uneventful trip, because this time too, everyone was fast asleep. Rashmi was awake for a total of four hours. None of us could beat that, but it was not for want of effort. I think it was the AC and the food. We were served something or the other every now and then. The train was two hours late, and we reached Nizamuddin at only eight thirty in the evening. We had to catch a taxi to get to …

We visited the Pan Himalayan Grassroots office soon after we reached here on Saturday. Its about four kilometres downhill from where we live.  The office is a nestled against the slope of the hill. There were a hundred and eighteen steps down from the road to the office, the significance of which we realised only on the way up.

The office is a  collection of five buildings, each at different levels against the hill. The administrative office is a three storey building housing, spacious and well-lit with nice large rooms. There’s …