KOLKATA: In 2001, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh started Bandhan-Konnagar with the objective of empowering the underprivileged and creating new employment opportunities. He concerned himself with figuring out ways to provide support to people to increase their per capita income. The answer was microcredit. While the venture was a success, Ghosh realised in five years that the poorest of the poor were unable to even reach microcredit. Thus was launched the Targeting Hardcore Poor (THP) programme in 2006, with the aim of benefitting those at the absolute bottom of the economic ladder.
Ghosh wanted to cater to those whom even microcredit was passing by. He organised two meetings in Malda and Murshidabad, arranging for the target section of people to attend. He found that nearly 3% to 5% families had members who were beggars, women whose husbands had passed away and children who were trafficked. "These people go to their relatives' homes in the hopes of eking an income. Sometimes, the widows were returning to their father's home. After the father's death, the brother would throw them out. These people had lost all confidence to start a business, or take a loan and build themselves up," Ghosh says.
