Thenkarai Food Security Program: Landless Laborers Loan Fund

Economic Development and Cultural Changes in the Villages of South India

In addition to helping 82 farmers the program also helps 35 landless
laborers who live in the villages. 
Agriculture labor deployment is seasonal.  So there are times when these landless people
are jobless.  35 of such people get a
loan to keep a small business going to raise some extra money.  Some of them run small tea shops or provision
stores.  Some sell mile in nearby communities,
Thenkarai and Sholavandan which are semi urban. 
These families are very regular in paying back a weekly installment and
taking a fresh loan soon afterwards. 
From the capital they use for the business they earn around 30% every
month.  i.e. they can make on average
1500.  This is reckoned as a basic
minimum that one person should earn in order to survive utilizing the public
distribution system.  So with a small
business venture, plus ad hoc labor earnings plus the subsidies on essential
food items they can survive.