A high infant mortality rate (IMR) in the community appears to be directly related to poor health services, poor sanitation and poor nutritional status, all factors that directly impact the basic health of all the members of the community. As a transmission mechanism, it is possible that a poor basic health level in the community contributes to a higher incidence of low-birth weight, which in turn is believed to be one of the most important causal factors behind infant mortality. In addition, there is emerging evidence that even in the babies that survive, low birth weight is directly related in a causal manner to poorer health status (and therefore productivity) of the individual all the way through to full adulthood.

• The First World Congress on the Fetal Origins of Adult Disease - This Congress organised by the Medical Research Council, U.K., SNEHA-India and the Centre for the Study of Social Change, India represents the gathering of some of the finest scientists and researchers working on the issue of low birth weight - one of the major causes of infant mortality. The focus of this Congress is on the adult consequences of fetal under- nutrition, which highlights the importance of maternal and fetal nutrition. Recent findings have confirmed that maternal and fetal nutrition plays a very significant role in neo-natal mortality which constitutes 50-60% of the Infant Mortality Rate (Pachauri, 1996).

  
  
  

• SEARCH, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra -The Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health has been working on various aspects of community health, especially women and child health, for the last few years. It has designed and implemented several interventions in around 53 villages in Gadchiroli district. These include regular survey and collection of data from the villages, training of community health workers, training of midwives to enable them to practice safe delivery techniques, improving awareness of people especially women regarding issues of health, eradication of superstition, etc. Over the period of 1998-99, Search has managed to lower the IMR in 39 villages from 120 to 40.

  
  
  

• Topiwala National Medical College and B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital -A municipal hospital it has several community outreach programmes and in collaboration with ICIC is developing a project for addressing the problem of low birth weight in the areas of Cheeta Camp and Shivajinagar in Mumbai

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Education is essential for modern societies to function productively, increasingly so in this era of rapid global integration. The SIG believes that economic and social benefits, in terms of higher growth, lower infant and child mortality, lower fertility and a vibrant democracy are greatest once primary education covers the entire population.

The SIG is interested in working with projects that address the following issues :

Some projects undertaken

• Pratham - A primary education programme designed to tackle the problem of urban illiteracy. Pratham has addressed the issues of scale successfully as is testified by its coverage of nearly 100,000 children per day in the city of Mumbai. It includes 5000 volunteers on a daily basis and the majority of these comprise slum women. The replicability of the model is illustrated by its spread to several other cities. At present, ICICI is their largest financial supporter. For more, visit www.pratham.org/.

  
  
  

• Eklavya Foundation: Eklavya, Madhya Pradesh, has been actively involved in designing innovative curriculums, teaching methodologies and educational material for science, social science and primary education. These have been integrated into the government school system in Madhya Pradesh and many private schools there. Eklavya's main aim has been to popularize science among students, and to make it more interesting and less intimidating to learn. For more, visit www.icicifoundation.org

  
  
  

• Mass media - In pursuit of its goal of universalizing primary education, ICICI is keen to explore the opportunities offered by different media. The television is a highly effective and widely available resource. ICICI would therefore like to support any initiative that can successfully utilize this resource for the purpose of educating and encouraging children to learn. One of the projects in the pipeline supported by ICICI is CII-Khullam Khulla, a fun-filled educational television serial geared towards motivating children to learn.

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While it is difficult to unambiguously identify the specific economic activity that would be appropriate for every region of the country and for each individual within that region, it appears that providing access to a basic level of financial services significantly improves the ability of people to participate in the economy.

The objective of the Social Initiatives Group (SIG), under the Micro-finance focus area, is to facilitate the provision of financial services to the poor in a sustainable manner and, thereby, contribute definitively towards improving their livelihood prospects. It would like to promote a commercially viable approach of building livelihoods through better micro-finance institutions and delivery mechanisms.

The main issue that needs to be addressed in this context is expanding the reach of financial services to the very poor and enhancing the quality of that reach. This would require mainstreaming the work of micro-finance institutions. This can be done by either:

• Reducing transaction costs
• Understanding and minimising credit risk
• Sustainability of micro-finance institutions as commercially viable institutions
• Use of technology in micro-finance service delivery
• Identifying and promoting specific innovations and practices of the voluntary sector that can be adopted by banks, co-operatives.

Bharatiya Samruddhi Finance Limited: ICICI invested Rs. 10.0 million in the equity of Bharatiya Samruddhi Finance Limited, a non-banking finance company based in Hyderabad. Bharatiya Samruddhi Finance Limited provides credit to the rural poor in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Samruddhi has adopted a for-profit, commercially viable approach to make credit available to the poor at reasonable interest rates. It uses a number of delivery mechanisms viz. direct lending to individuals, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Joint Liability Groups. It attempts to couple access to technical know-how with credit to the poor. ICICI has invested in Samruddhi's equity to promote the concept of a sustainable micro-finance model.

Supporting a small group workshop on "Management Information Systems (MIS) for Micro-finance Institutions" at the Asia Pacific Region Micro-credit Summit to be held in New Delhi February 1 to February 5, 2000. The theme for the Summit is "Building Self-sufficient Institutions while Maintaining a Commitment to Reaching the Poorest". The Summit is likely to be attended by 600 delegates from 56 countries and is a follow-up to the world-wide Micro-credit Summit launched in February 1997. The Summit in Delhi is being organised by the All India Women's Conference. ICICI has nominated a resource person from BASIX to make a presentation as part of the workshop.

A joint study with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on "The Impact of Micro-credit and Social Mobilisation on Women's Empowerment" is scheduled to begin in February. The study attempts to look at the impact of Micro-credit programmes of six organisations in the country. It is proposed that the documentation of the work of these organisations be used to examine the belief that micro-credit is the best strategy for women's empowerment. The documentation will provide empirical information on best strategies which, it is hoped, will be used by the Ministry of Rural Development to re-design their poverty alleviation programmes such as the Swarnajayanti Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY).

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