Count on your experiences

By admin on Friday, March 12, 2010 - 15:01

Forty-seven-year-old Kasturi Chandrasekaran is not your conventional “working woman”. Hailing from the suburbs of Madurai in southern Tamil Nadu, she stepped out of her house for the first time in 1995 at the age of 33, in order to ensure savings for the family of eight. For someone who has just finished class eight for an education, she has moved on from self help groups (SHGs) to the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC. Padmalatha Ravi finds out the secret behind her success.

Kasturiakka as she’s fondly called decided to join hands with 19 other women from her locality and join an SHG to ensure she had enough money to take care of her five children’s future. “In those days, in a village there were very few employment opportunities for women and the only thing women could do was to save from what they got from the husbands. We were encouraged by this NGO, The Covenant Centre for Development (CCD) and that was the beginning,” she reminisces.

Kasturiakka then went on to head the SHG and encouraged more women to join similar groups. Her leadership qualities and persuasive nature soon showed results. She was responsible for over 25 groups that were formed at that time. She not only brought the women together but also encouraged them to take responsibilities of operating the groups among themselves.

Today there are over 16 federations with the name “Mahakalasm” with 20 groups under each federation and Kasturiakka heads the Madurai Mahakalasm federation. The federations over the years have saved and given loans worth Rs 3 million and leveraged over 10 times the amount from local banks. The turning point came when the NGO she was working with put her in charge of its medicinal plants programme. She says, “We noticed that most loans were to address the health problems at home so we started kitchen gardens to grow herbs. Women became healers and promoted a green health program. This programme was recognised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2002. I went to Johannesburg to collect the award and I had to present our work in front of hundreds of dignitaries. It was a great moment in my life.”

Later in 2005, she went to World Bank headquarters in Washington DC, to talk about SHGs and livelihoods. Kasturiakka recalls a time when she would not step out of the house without her husband. But now she practically globetrots, pretty much by herself. “I remember once I had to go to Mumbai for a conference on sustainable development by myself. I can only speak Tamil and can barely understand English or Hindi but I managed alright.”

Ask her about work-life balance and she says, “When I first started going for SHG meetings, my youngest daughter was just six months old. Those days we had to travel a lot to other states to understand how SHGs work. I just took her along wherever I went. If we want changes in our lives we should be ready to work hard and compromise for it. I did just that.”

It is no secret that it is not easy for women to manage a career and home without support from family. Kasturiakka’s case is no different. She’s very proud to say, “My husband always stood by my side. Even if people commented on how late I came home or how much I traveled, he would shut them up. He comes to pick me at late nights when I return from traveling even now. Even my children didn’t complain when I wasn’t around. They behaved very responsibly.”
Kasturiakka refuses to take the credit for all her success. “I just wanted a better future for my family and I worked hard for it. The opportunities came my way and I never imagined I would come this far,” she says.

Today she’s invited to give talks on a lot of seminars on varied topics like sustainable development, conservation and economic independence for women. Her advice for young women looking for a better life is: “Don’t shy away from hard work. Do not worry if you are not well educated, count on your experiences and go by that. And never keep knowledge to yourself, pass it on. Help others achieve similar success.”