R. Jayanthi belongs to Devadanam Village in Minjur Block. She is around 45 and is educated to up to 5th Std. She started the group ‘Kalaimagal’ in January, 93. When she started the group she was living in a rented hut and was running a petty shop in front of the house in a make shift shed. Her husband was procuring materials for the shop. Her son was in IInd Std. and her daughter in LKG.
She availed group loan several times, starting with initial loan of Rs. 2,000/-. Presently she has taken a loan of Rs. 30,000/- and the outstanding is Rs. 21,000/-. Due to easy availability of credit she expanded her business. She has also taken individual loan of Rs. 50,000/- from the bank. In addition to petty shop, she is running a tiffin shop.
She is now working as agent for Postal Department for mobilizing recurring deposit from public. She started 400 RD accounts with the post office and is earning Rs.1200/Month.
Jayanthi has bought 5 cent land and constructed a concrete all wheather house in the same village along with shop. She attended several training and visited Bangalore and Vellore for exposure and for skill training.
Her son has now finished Polytechnic and is working. Daughter has just completed B.Sc Computer Science. She says but for joining the group she would not have given higher education to her daughter.
She also sent her brother Venkatesh for training in leather products in a Gandhian Institution with help of CRUSADE.
She was Panchayat level federation Secretary earlier.