I met Vijaya, fondly known as Viji by those who are close to her, at her house in a village some fifty kilometers away from Tiruchirppalli. My intention was to visit Dhavamani, the leader of one of the many JLGs in this area, but since she was unavailable, Vijaya, one of the members of the same JLG, was kind enough to welcome me to her house. We sat outside her house for a quick chat. Her husband is a daily wage laborer, while she is a housewife. They also trade in rice. They earn upto Rs.10,000 in a month. She has two boys both attend the local Government schools. It's been nineteen months since she took the loan from Guardian, Milaap's partner, for the purpose of constructing a toilet in her house. She paid her last monthly installment of Rs.650 last month. She still hasn't  managed to finish the construction of the toilet she initiated with the loan amount. She said the funds were insufficient. Some of it was used to take care of household necessities. She needs Rs.20,000 more to finish the construction. She showed me the bathroom-attached-toilet that was half built, wish was unnecessarily huge. There is some more work left, she said, after which she'll have to get it painted. The engineer in charge of the construction has obviously taken her and her husband for a ride. There was clearly lack of planning and adequate use of the resources. She did manage to fulfill hr liability towards the loan though. But the benefit of it is yet to be reaped by her and her family. Clearly, building a toilet is not as easy as availing a loan for it.
Vijaya
