Less than a cent to save a life

By Omer Farooq
BBC News, Hyderabad

It took the women just 10 days to raise the funds

Tens of thousands of Indian village women have clubbed together to pay for heart surgery for a poor farm worker.

The women in southern Andhra Pradesh state each gave half a rupee (about one US cent) to help cover the cost of Basavani Hymavathi's $2,000 operation.

Doctors told Ms Hymavathi, who is 36 and has three children, she had a serious cardiac condition last October.

Nearly 13,000 women's groups in her district raised $1,373 within 10 days. The rest came from other donations.

Challenge

Basavani Hymavathi went to fellow members of her women's self-help group in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh as a last resort.

I never thought that my poor sisters will come forward to help me Basavani Hymavathi

The group, made up of poor village women, discussed her plight and decided to take it up as a challenge and raise the required funds on their own, with the local administration playing a facilitator's role.

"We told them why don't you all come together and contribute just 50 paise each to raise the required money," district administrator Luv Agarwal told the BBC News website.

"We were able to convince them that they can do it and every one came forward."

West Godavari district has 128,000 members in 12,800 self-help groups and within 10 days they had raised 61,900 rupees ($1,373) for Ms Hymavathi.

"When I presented the cheque to Hymavathi, the faces of the women were shining with a sense of achievement and self confidence," Mr Agarwal said.

When I informed the groups that they had done it, they were stunned. They didn't believe they could achieve the target District Rural Development Agency spokesman

Ms Hymavathi has now deposited part of the money with the Sri Venkateshwara Institute of Medical Sciences at Tirupati, which will carry out her operation.

"I never thought that my poor sisters will come forward to help me in this manner," she said.

Her surgery has been scheduled for the end of December.

As well as the women's donations, her husband's friends raised 3,000 rupees ($67). A non-governmental organisation, Social Service Centre, pledged 20,000 rupees ($444).

'Can-do'

Andhra Pradesh has eight million women working in 800,000 self-help groups.

During a recent visit, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was so impressed that he announced they would receive assistance worth $260m over the next three years.

Luv Agarwal now hopes to capitalise on the campaign to raise funds for Ms Hymavathi.

"The success has generated a can-do feeling among the women self-help groups," he says.

One of his plans is to promote entrepreneurial skills among rural women, who produce food and a range of handicrafts for sale.

The other is to encourage women to have their own system of insurance to deal with emergencies.