The Mararikulam Experiment: A Social Justice Initiative in Kerala

1. The Mararikulam Experiment: An Alternative to Corporate Dominated Globalization

2. The Mararikulam Experiment A Powerpoint Presentation by Richard W. Franke Professor of Anthropology Montclair State University

3. The Mararikulam Experiment For detailed background information and for updates check regularly at the Mararikulam website: http://www.mararidevelopment.org

4. What Is the Mararikulam Experiment? It is one of the most important recent attempts to create a practical alternative to corporate dominated globalization and to develop the tools to create a world based more on social justice than on "free trade" and profit.

5. What Is the Mararikulam Experiment? The Mararikulam Experiment is based on idealism but it is designed to meet the practical realities of our present-day world.

6. What Is the Mararikulam Experiment? It builds on decades of social justice struggles in India's Kerala State and carries them forward in Mahatma Gandhi's spirit of self-reliance and in the beliefs of all the activists and revolution-aries who have dreamed of and acted to make a better world.

7. What Is the Mararikulam Experiment? The Mararikulam experiment consists of an integrated set of projects designed to make substantial reductions in poverty in the eight villages and two towns of the Aryad and Kanjikuzhy development blocks in the central coastal region of Kerala State, India, over the years of 2002 to 2005. The projects take the well-established approach of job creation through microcredit – a Kerala variant of the Grameen Bank experiment in Bangladesh that has justifiably attracted international attention and acclaim.

8. Outline of This Presentation In this powerpoint presentation we shall: 1. Describe the Mararikulam area 2. Review the Kerala Model of development 3. Give a detailed picture of the plans and activities at Mararikulam 4. Explain why Mararikulam is so important in our world today

9. 1. The Mararikulam Area

10. Mararikulam is a state assembly constituency in central Kerala. Kerala is a state on the southwest coast of India. Where Is Mararikulam?

11. 2. The Kerala Model

12. The Kerala Model Kerala is already well known in development circles for the “Kerala Model,” a set of achievements in health, education, and material quality of life nearly equal to those of the rich industrial nations. The next slide shows some of Kerala’s achievements...

13. The Kerala Model

14. Mararikulam is part of Alappuzha District, one of the traditional bastions of Kerala’s activist leftwing culture. Where Is Mararikulam?

15. The 8 villages of Mararikulam lie along both sides of India’s National Highway 47 on a narrow penninsula of low-lying sandy soils. Where Is Mararikulam?

16. The Name Mararikulam The word “kulam” means “pond” in Malayalam, the language of Kerala. Most Hindu temples have large ponds where people bathe, and wash clothes, cows, and elephants. The “mar” comes from “mavan,” meaning “satan,” while the “ari” derives from “harikuga” meaning “to kill.”

17. The Name Mararikulam According to the story, Siva came upon a devil (a “mavan”) and killed (“hari”) him. Then he washed the blood off him-self in a pond (“kulam”) in the present day villageof Mararikulam South.

18. Today an import-ant Hindu temple stands next to the Mararipond. The Name Mararikulam

19. Mararikulam covers 17,059 hectares or 170.59 sq km on which 272,000 people lived in 2001. 80% of the cultivated land is devoted to coconut trees and 10% for rice. Mararikulam’s Ecology

20. Coconut trees grow well in the sandy soil and the thousands of small ponds provide water for the trees throughout the year. Mararikulam’s Ecology

21. 10% of the population engages in fishing for a living while 45% manu-facture products from the coconut tree including coir, or coconut husk fiber. Mararikulam’s Ecology

22. Door mats, ship ropes, and other coir products have been popular in the West for more than 200 years. British businessmen made fortunes off Kerala coir mats and ropes. Coir Mats

23. Today college football team mats are pro-duced in Mar-arikulam for the US mar-ket. Of the $28–$34 retail price, about $1 goes to the workers pro-ducing the coir and weav-ing the mat. Coir Mats

24. From coconut husk to coir mat is a long and tedious process documented with photos on the Mararikulam web site. After the fiber has been twisted into yarn, wound, dyed, and beamed (set for the loom), weaving becomes the final process. To view a photo essay on coir manufacture, go to: http://chss.montclair.edu/anthro/coir.htm Making Coir Mats

25. The fish catch depends on the “chakara,” a word with two meanings: 1. A mud reef about 5 miles out to sea where the fish gather at a certain time of year…and Mararikulam’s Ecology

26. 2. The “chakara” is also a time of year for great fish, shrimp, and mussel catches and the only time poor fishing households have enough surplus for celebrations. Mararikulam’s Ecology

27. The great chakara shrimp catch along the Mararikulam coast provides the backdrop for one of the greatest Malayalam novels, Chemmeen (Shrimp), by Thakazhi S. Pillai. The Chakara and Chemmeen

28. The young Muslim shrimp trader Pareekutti, falls in love with the voluptuous Karuthamma, a Hindu fishing caste girl with whom he has played on the beach since childhood. The Chakara and Chemmeen

29. The ardent lovers are denied their dreams by a web of caste and gender oppression enforced by the beliefs of the fishing community in the need for female chastity and caste purity. The Chakara and Chemmeen

30. Going out in small boats on the dangerous waters off Mararikulam, they believe that only when traditions are obeyed to the last detail can they hope for a good chakara. The Chakara and Chemmeen

31. The novel’s spectacular final scene recalls both Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest as the chakara sea becomes the final arbiter of sexual passion. The Chakara and Chemmeen

32. Karappuram – land and people by P. V. Aniyan, Prof. C. V. Natarajan, and K. R. Bhageeradhan, and Integrated Coastal Zone Management Action Plan of Mararikulam by Srikumar Chattopadhyay Detailed de-scriptions of the local ecology can be found in two papers on the Mararikulam web site: http://www.mararidevelopment.org Mararikulam’s Ecology

33. 3. The Mararikulam Experiment Details of the Project

34. What Is The Mararikulam Experiment? The two key words in the Mararikulam Experiment are: • Integrated • Microcredit

35. What Is Integrated Development? The Mararikulam Experiment is called “integrated” development because the projects cover all areas of life, not just job creation, irrigation, health, or some other aspect.

36. What Is Integrated Development? In Mararikulam, this means...

37. What Is Integrated Development? • Job creation through microcredit • Use of local resources (also called “backward linkages”) • Selling to local markets (also called “forward linkages” • Improving health • Improving nutrition • Environmental Improvements...

38. What Is Integrated Development? • Technological innovation • Democratic activism and participation • Equality and fairness (not just profits and growth) . . . and • Women’s empowerment

39. Let’s look at each of these components of the Mararikulam Experiment What Is Integrated Development?

40. Mircrocredit originated with the now famous “grameen bank” (grameen means “village” in Bengali), invented in 1976 by a Bangladesh economics professor named Muhammed Yunus. Microcredit refers to the practice of lending small amounts – usually less than $50 – to low-income households that would not otherwise qualify for credit because they have no collateral. Microcredit

41. With private lender interest rates at 200%, the Grameen Bank loans at 25% attracted poor households with the hope of avoiding permanent debt – and of using borrowed funds to make their lives better. The Grameen Bank lends small amounts mostly to women who form borrower groups of 5 individuals. No member of the group can get a 2nd loan until all 5 have repaid their first loan. The Grameen Bank

42. The Grameen Bank strategy led to 90%+ payback rates and made microcredit into one of the buzzwords of international development. By 1999, 56 countries had microcredit programs aimed at 24 million poor households. But international emphasis on payback rates may have covered over serious defects in the Grameen Bank’s great potential as a vehicle for em-powerment of poor women and their ability to lift their households out of poverty. The Grameen Bank

43. Anthropologist Aminur Rahman found that women in one Bangla-desh village were subject to the control of a male bank bureaucracy. Loans were often used to repay previous loans. The high payback rates were concealing... The Grameen Bank

44. …verbal and physical abuse by husbands, brothers, and bank officials; 70% of loans were used for purposes other than what appeared on the bank sheets; and households were not emerging out of poverty. Contrary to the group repayment setup, the borrowers faced the larger society and economy effectively as individuals powerless to do much with their microloans except to spend on what their male household members dictated. The Grameen Bank

45. The Mararikulam Experiment takes into consideration the failures of the Bangladesh Grameen Bank – and has a strategy to correct them. By 2001 Mararikulam had 1,350 women’s neighborhood groups – NHGs – each with 10 to 40 members. Each NHG meets every Sunday afternoon to discuss matters of local neighborhood importance, and to collect “thrift.” Microcredit at Mararikulam

46. The meetings have high participation rates and involvement. They reflect the activism and civic interest common in Kerala. Microcredit at Mararikulam

47. These NHGs were formed as part of the Kerala People’s Campaign for Decentralized and Democratic Development that ran from 1996 to 2001. Microcredit at Mararikulam

48. In a survey of 101 NHG households, 77% reported incomes of less than Rs 1,200 per month, or, about $0.82 per day. This makes them officially part of the World Bank’s “poorest of the poor.” Data for 798 of these groups show that in 2001 the women saved 5.4 million rupees, or about $6.94 per person per year in “thrift” accounts. The survey also found that 75% used loans from the microcredit funds for medical emergencies Microcredit at Mararikulam

49. To reduce health costs and free up funds for investment in jobs, the project includes a health component aimed at the most common health problems that are impacting the loan-generating capacity of the microcredit groups. A follow-up survey in June of 2002 found for 1,132 NHGs thrift deposits of nearly Rs 15 million and per person deposits of Rs 630 or $13.40. Linked to local cooperative banks, the NHGs had lent out Rs 26.7 million of which 69% had been fully repaid. Microcredit at Mararikulam

50. In other words, the microcredit at Mararikulam was starting to cycle rupees through the local economy — just what is needed to stimulate local economic growth. But this still leaves the problem of job creation unsolved... Microcredit at Mararikulam