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[h=1]Once she had no food to eat. Today, she owns a car and home. Discover how she did it![/h]August 14, 2014 11:41 IST
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Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
Kudumbashree, the largest network of women in India, is a revolution worth copying wherever there are women in need of help.
Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com travelled to Thrissur, Kerala, to encounter the amazing success story of women who once lived in dire straits, but who now own homes, cars and make enough money to change their lives forever. All thanks to Kudumbashree.
Bindu's story is as inspiring as it is astounding.
Bindu lives in Mullassery, a village near Thrissur.
There was a time in her life when she could not afford even a single meal a day. Today she can stock up rice for a year!
She didn't own an inch of land. Today, she owns 22 acres of land!
She didn't have a home of her own. Today, she has a two storey home!
She used to walk to the farm when she started, but today, she has bought herself a car and a scooter, and she uses the scooter to travel to her farm.
Because of poverty, she couldn't study beyond Class 7, but today, her son is an engineering student studying computer science.
Bindu belonged to a large family of five brothers and three sisters. While her father toiled hard as a landless labourer, her mother sold tea. But the money they brought home was so little that the family didn't even have one proper meal on most days.
"Though I was the 6th child, I knew how tough it was for my mother to give us at least one meal a day," she recalls.
As her parents could not afford to send all eight of their children to school, she had to stop her schooling despite being a good student who had dreams of studying further. It was young Bindu's duty to do the housework when her parents and elder brothers went outside to work.
Life went on thus until she was married off to Sathyan, who lived nearby, at the age of 18.
"From one poor house to another, that was my journey. With my husband making just Rs 800 a month polishing diamonds, two children, and his family on top of that to take care of, do I even need to tell you how difficult the days were? With both my children suffering from epilepsy, most of my days were spent visiting the hospital."
In 1998, Kudumbashree started a group in her area, but Bindu could hardly find the ten rupees a week she needed in order to join the group.
"All of us were in such dire straits financially that it was not just me, but the other women too found it difficult to save ten rupees. If we didn't pay the money for two weeks in a row, we faced eviction from the group. Somehow, I managed to continue with the group."
Please click NEXT to read further...
Image: The Kudumbashree initiative has turned around the lives of lakhs of women in Kerala like Bindu, pictured above, who once could not afford even one meal a day.
Photographs: Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
Related News: Kudumbashree , Sathyan , Thrissur , Bindu , Mullassery
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[h=4][/h]>To get such articles in your inbox
Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
Kudumbashree, the largest network of women in India, is a revolution worth copying wherever there are women in need of help.
Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com travelled to Thrissur, Kerala, to encounter the amazing success story of women who once lived in dire straits, but who now own homes, cars and make enough money to change their lives forever. All thanks to Kudumbashree.
Bindu's story is as inspiring as it is astounding.
Bindu lives in Mullassery, a village near Thrissur.
There was a time in her life when she could not afford even a single meal a day. Today she can stock up rice for a year!
She didn't own an inch of land. Today, she owns 22 acres of land!
She didn't have a home of her own. Today, she has a two storey home!
She used to walk to the farm when she started, but today, she has bought herself a car and a scooter, and she uses the scooter to travel to her farm.
Because of poverty, she couldn't study beyond Class 7, but today, her son is an engineering student studying computer science.
Bindu belonged to a large family of five brothers and three sisters. While her father toiled hard as a landless labourer, her mother sold tea. But the money they brought home was so little that the family didn't even have one proper meal on most days.
"Though I was the 6th child, I knew how tough it was for my mother to give us at least one meal a day," she recalls.
As her parents could not afford to send all eight of their children to school, she had to stop her schooling despite being a good student who had dreams of studying further. It was young Bindu's duty to do the housework when her parents and elder brothers went outside to work.
Life went on thus until she was married off to Sathyan, who lived nearby, at the age of 18.
"From one poor house to another, that was my journey. With my husband making just Rs 800 a month polishing diamonds, two children, and his family on top of that to take care of, do I even need to tell you how difficult the days were? With both my children suffering from epilepsy, most of my days were spent visiting the hospital."
In 1998, Kudumbashree started a group in her area, but Bindu could hardly find the ten rupees a week she needed in order to join the group.
"All of us were in such dire straits financially that it was not just me, but the other women too found it difficult to save ten rupees. If we didn't pay the money for two weeks in a row, we faced eviction from the group. Somehow, I managed to continue with the group."
Please click NEXT to read further...
Image: The Kudumbashree initiative has turned around the lives of lakhs of women in Kerala like Bindu, pictured above, who once could not afford even one meal a day.
Photographs: Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
Related News: Kudumbashree , Sathyan , Thrissur , Bindu , Mullassery
