Thrift & Credit Societies
Visually Challenged Thrift & Credit Society Meeting in Thirunelveli
Thrift and Credit (TC) Societies enable communities to design and manage mutual financial services helping them to become more self-reliant. For communities vulnerable to HIV, they provide an opportunity for marginalized groups to lead and influence their larger community.
TCs are cooperatives in which members regularly deposit a fixed amount of savings with compounded interest (decided by the community members), which then becomes available to the members as loans with easy repayment schedules. A management team from the community is elected to record each member's savings, credit, and the amounts accumulated. Such loans are taken for children's education, marriages of their siblings/children, household repairs, and other necessities.
As of December 2007:
| Total savings | Rs 50.30 Lacs (approx. US$125,000) |
| Total amount outstanding loans | Rs 56.78 Lacs (approx. US$142,000) |
| Total membership | 2014 |