An extract from a Paper entitled
Scaling up Social Innovation
By Vijay Mahajan, at Seminar held in India

Bigger than Kudumbashree (Kerala Poverty Alleviation Programme) in numbers and again based on a three tier structure of self-help groups, village organizations and mandal mahila samakhyas (women’s cooperatives), is the Velugu or Indira Kranti Patham (IKP)programme run by the Society to Eliminate Rural Poverty (SERP)in Andhra Pradesh. Velugu was conceived on the basis of work done earlier in the UNDP’s South Asia Poverty Alleviation Programme (SAPAP) by K. Raju, a highly committed IAS officer.

This effort was influenced by Shoaib Sultan Khan, head of the Aga khan Rural Support Programme, Pakistan. SAPAP led to the design of the much bigger. Rs. 2200 crore World Bank supported Velugu/IKP programme. Initially led by K. Raju, it is arguably India’s largest and most successful poverty lleviation and empowerment programme, reaching over 12 million households through women’s self-help groups. Just to provide an idea of its scale, over Rs. 6500 crore of credit was extended by banks to these SHG members in 2007.

Source: www.indiaseminar.com/2009/593/593_vijay_mahajan.html