N. Muthu Velayuthum
The Covenant Centre for Development (CCD)
Muthu as he is popularly called by friends and colleagues, is a professionally trained social worker heading the activities of CCD for almost two decades. He is currently representing as the organization as the Secretary of the Board. He was the founder President of the organisation and served as the Executive Director / Secretary of the organisation since 1989. Muthu started his career in addressing issues of delinquent children in urban areas, many of who had migrated from rural areas. The huge number of such children prompted him to study them in depth. He identified and worked began working with nomadic shepherd children and simultaneously started women’s Self Help Groups (SHG) modeled on the local traditional savings system “siruvadu” much before the formal SHG movement had taken root in India. His model was replicated by hundreds of NGOs in Southern India. While working with the rural women, he realized that a high percentage of their savings was spent on health services. This resulted in looking for and promoting traditional home based primary health care, he built a large network of traditional health service practitioners and in the process revived much of the knowledge among the rural communities resulting in setting up of over 21,000 domestic kitchen gardens across the state of Tamilnadu.
It was while trying to maximize the returns from such herbal gardens as well as establish a sustainable income for herb cultivators and gatherers that led to the idea of Muthu is popularizing the value of local biodiversity in village economies, motivating rural communities to leverage this resource to create new wealth. In the process many of the traditional knowledge systems and skills are revived and enhanced. The fulcrum of these community initiatives have been four registered Community Based Financial Institutions with 8,600 women members. His team has also created five community-owned and managed enterprises dealing with medicinal plants and traditional crop resources with its 4,200 members in business for the past five years and a cumulative targeted turnover of Rs 300 million in the next four years. Similar companies comprising traditional communities of shell-gatherers and coir-makers have been formed in the Tsunami affected districts of Tamilnadu. He has successfully proven that a rural energy company created and promoted by the community can partner with a MNC and co-create a business.
Today his firm belief in community based enterprises utilizing local resources and traditional skills as vehicles of development has resulted in CCD focusing in this direction and successful creation of community based enterprises as well as inspiring networks of similar organizations across the country. His team has facilitated the formation of over 250 community based enterprises across the country. His efforts are being replicated by several organizations in nine other states of India. Through these ventures he has managed to build a team of committed social workers today share his passion for community based enterprises.
The fourth among five siblings, Muthu is a first generation literate from a farming community of Tamil Nadu. As a student in a Jesuit missionary College, he was involved in social activities right from his youth as a member of the Young Farmers Association.
Muthu has been awarded the Ashoka Fellowship and also a Fellowship of LEAD International, both communities in which he plays an active role. Muthu lives with his wife Maheshwari and daughter Niveditha in Madurai, where CCD is headquartered.