Kulandei Francis

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}} {{cleanup rewrite|date=October 2012}} {{short description|Indian activist and social worker}} {{Infobox person | name=Kulandei Francis | image = | birth_date=1946 | birth_place= [[Salem district]], [[Tamil Nadu]] | education = | alma_mater =[[Annamalai University]] | organization =Integrated Village Development Project | party = | movement= | children = | website= http://www.ivdpkrishnagiri.org/ | module = }} '''Kulandei Francis''' (born 1946) is an activist, social worker, and the founder of the [[Non-governmental organization|NGO]] Integrated Village Development Project in [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]. He was one of six recipients of the [[Magsaysay Award]] in 2012 for "his profound faith in community energies, and his sustained programs in pursuing the holistic economic empowerment of thousands of women and their families in rural India".<ref name="rmaf">{{cite web|title=CITATION for KULANDEI FRANCIS|url=http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/Citation/CitationKulandeiFran.htm|accessdate=11 October 2012}}</ref>

== Life == Francis was born to Kulandei and Mathalai Mary in the [[Karipatti]] village of [[Salem district]] of Tamil Nadu. His parents were agricultural labourers and the family was extremely poor. He was the only one of his siblings to obtain a university degree. His experiences of [[childhood poverty]], especially an incident in which the local money lender cheated his mother out of the family's sole plot of land, were catalytic in his decision to take up social work as a vocation.<ref>{{cite news|title=We lost land to moneylenders, know poverty closely: Francis|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/we-lost-land-to-moneylenders-know-poverty-closely-francis/980888/0|newspaper=The Indian Express|date=29 July 2012}}</ref>

He completed his B.Com from the [[Annamalai University]] in [[Chidambaram]] and in 1970 joined the Fathers of the Holy Cross and studied [[theology]] at the De Nobili College in [[Pune]]. During the course of that decade, he was involved with [[Caritas (charity)|Caritas]] India and volunteered as an aid worker during the [[Bangladesh War|Bangladesh War of 1971]] and the Pune drought of 1972. In 1976 he went to Natrampalayam, a remote rural village in [[Krishnagiri district]] where his exposure to the local villagers' miseries proved to be a life-changing experience. That year he renounced his priesthood and in 1979 he founded the Integrated Village Development Project. He has done courses in social development and rural management from Canada and the Philippines. He is married to Kosalai Mary and the couple have one daughter.<ref>{{cite web|title=Integrated Village Development Project - Krishnagiri|url=http://ivdpkrishnagiri.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167&Itemid=555}}</ref><ref name="indianexpress">{{cite news|title=Poverty is a crime; it needs to be eliminated|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/poverty-is-a-crime--it-needs-to-be-eliminated/986145/0|newspaper=The Indian Express|date=12 August 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Kulandei Francis: Who is he?|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/south/story/kulandei-francis-who-is-he-111269-2012-07-25|publisher=India Today|access-date=26 July 2012}}</ref>

== Integrated Village Development Project == Francis started the Integrated Village Development Project (IVDP) in Krishnagiri in 1979. It began with a series of small initiatives such as the establishment of night schools and a first aid center. The IVDP then began a micro-watershed programme that, over twenty two years, created a network of 331 [[check dam]]s in sixty villages benefiting 40,000 people there.<ref name="indianexpress" /> In 1989, the organization began establishing women's [[self-help groups]] (SHGs). By 2011, these numbered 8231 SHGs with 153,990 members with savings worth $40 million and a corpus fund of nearly $9 million.<ref>{{cite news|title=India's Kulandei Francis wins Ramon Magsaysay Award|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/south/story/indian-kulandei-francis-wins-ramon-magasaysay-award-111114-2012-07-25|newspaper=India Today|date=26 July 2012}}</ref> In its award citation, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation noted that the program had "become a financially disciplined, self-reliant, member-owned, and member-managed organization" and that the group's solidarity and its facilitation of credit had allowed for the successful implementation of projects in these villages in areas as diverse as "health and sanitation, housing, livelihood, and children's education, including scholarships, performance-based incentives for students and schools, a primary school for tribal children, and a computer training academy that has, to date, trained some 5,000 children".<ref name="rmaf" /> The IVDP is today active in the three districts of Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and [[Vellore district|Vellore]] in Tamil Nadu.<ref>{{cite news|title=Kulandei Francis' visionary zeal fetches him the Magsaysay|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3683671.ece|newspaper=The Hindu|date=26 July 2012}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Kulandei}} [[Category:1946 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Ramon Magsaysay Award winners]] [[Category:People from Salem district]]