ABSTRACT
Karaikal is one of the four French establishments constituting the union territory of Pondicherry. In 1986, as a part of its economic programmes, SNEHA established self-help groups (SHGs) called Sangams in villages. From each village, a member is selected to represent the respective Sangam and all such members would form a Village Coordination Sangam (VCS) which would concentrate on the issues of the entire village. One such case of microfinance can be observed through the works undertaken by various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the reconstruction of various tsunami-hit coastal areas of India. As an encouragement to the efforts of Development Alternatives (DA) to create model settlements, the Government of Pondicherry (GoP) formulated a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the rehabilitation of Kottucherrymedu, Kilinjalmedu and Karaikalmedu. The rise of loan schemes from SHGs has made womens income a permanent component of household income and weakened the womens dependency on men as providers.
