Vijay Laxmi

Case-client-    Vijaylaxmi, a widow woman, 37 years old, Schedule Caste

Name of self help group- Shanti SHG, 

Resident- village Kamauli, Chiraigaon block, Varanasi

Family dependant on her-  two children

Breaking out the veil system and scuff olds, Vijaylaxmi joined a Self help group called Shanti in 2005 and after two months she was elected treasurer in her group. The monthly saving of each member was Rs. 25/- which has been increased up to Rs. 50/- month.

Vijaylaxmi’s husband has been running ill and unhealthy with a serious fatal disease of fail rings both kidneys. She was very upset because only her husband was the driver of the family and now all the expenses of family operation, two children’s education and husband’s treatment was on her shoulders. She got the moral and economical support through her Self help group’s members. Taking loan from Self help group, she used to indulge herself in income generation by doing the farming of seasonal flowers and vegetables on rented land. In this way she tried to fulfil all the requirements of her family as a family conductor. Her husband was under treatment of B.H.U. which was 30 Km. far away from her home. The expenses of daily transportation was out of her budget so she used to hire a trolley rickshaw of worth Rs. 15/- and driven it herself to carry out her husband to the hospital. She struggled and applied a lot of efforts to save the life of her husband but luck was not with her and she could not save his life. She was in very pathos condition and during this she got a familiar support through her Self help group.

Meanwhile, U.P. State Government released out vacancies for Aanganbari executives in her village. Getting inspiration and assistance by her SHG members, she applied for it. Various candidates too applied for it and were ready to pay donation of Rs. 40000/- for their recruitment. She was also asked for donation but she denied to do so. The members of her Self help group and other prestigious personality of the village did a strong advocacy with Government officials for her recruitment and she was recruited for that post with honesty. Now she has not only the executive of her children but also other children of the village at Aanganbari centre. Gradually she has been a role model for her village. She is also playing a role of volunteer social activist in her village. Mobilizing the organization Human Welfare Association, she made open an education centre for the women to make them literate. Their education centre is known as Chetana Shiksha Kendra where 25 women of the village read and the various techniques are being used for teaching them. They learn numeric, basic mathematics (Add, subtraction, multiply, divide), language and general social knowledge. They also learn the various operations of mobiles in their teaching as a teaching learning material. Vijaylaxmi is one of the learners of this education centre and empowered example before the society.