History of FAMCO
Family Development Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society Ltd., (FAMCO) is a Multi State cooperative society formed on July 23, 2009. When Rev. Fr. A. S. Antonisamy was the Executive Director of the Pondicherry Multipurpose Social Service Society (PMSSS) – the official development organization of the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore- conducted a socio-economic survey conducted in the rural and urban areas of the districts of Puducherry and Karaikal of the Union Territory of Puducherry, Cuddalore and Villupuram Districts of Tamil Nadu to understand the conditions of people. It was evident from the survey that people were in severe debt and they had availed loans from various sources with huge interest rate. Thousands of farmers and rural workers commit suicide every year due to financial problems. This was a very unfortunate trend that will require great efforts, attention and priority to alter the conditions that affect the human dignity.
Having understood the reality of the indebtedness of the villages, Most Rev. Dr. V. S. Selvanather, the former Archbishop of Pondicherry-Cuddalore, requested Fr. A. S. Antonisamy to go to Ranchi for an exposure visit to the Chota-Nagpur Catholic Cooperative Credit Society Ltd. He visited the society and came back to Pondicherry to start a similar society. He consulted the officials of the State Cooperative Department of Puducherry, but the law did not permit to do so as the area of operation was already covered by the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Banks.
Based on the rural surveys conducted earlier, a campaign of awareness and education was initiated. As a result, people were organized into groups called ‘Fraternal Life communities’ for initiating and thrift and credit activities. The campaign was intended to address the problem of indebtedness in the rural areas and to mobilise private savings from the villagers by educating them through Three Coady Seminars conducted by the Coady International Institute, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, in collaboration with the PMSSS.
- 1980- First Seminar- Development through Education and Cooperatives
- 1981- Second Seminar- Membership Education and Credit Unions
- 1983- Third Seminar- Program Planning for Socio-Economic Development
(In course of time, the need for networking was felt and a federation was formed in an informal manner in 1984 under the name “Fraternal Life Organization”)
- 1989 – Fourth Coady Seminar on Evaluation of Fraternal Life Organization
The original seven promoters of FAMCO have a background of long experience and specialized knowledge in promoting cooperative organizations. They are deeply aware of the fact that the International Cooperative Alliance is the biggest international cooperative organization having the largest membership from different social, economical and religious background. They have been trying to apply the principles of cooperation at the level of the highly indebted poor families through the SHGs. The promoters were convinced that the Self-Help Groups can function effectively and with basic structures through education and training all the members. Since 1975, the promoters have directly organized around 600 SHGs in the Union Territory of Puducherry and in the State of Tamil Nadu. In 1994 all SHGs were federated and the federation was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and it was renamed as the “Fraternal Life Sabha (FLS)”. Today the federation comprises of 700 groups in the manner of Self Help Groups (SHGs) with a total membership of 14,000 and with the total savings of Rupees 4.5 Crores. Over the years this amount was distributed as loans among the members to the tune of Rs. 30 Crores on a revolving basis.
During the upstart, FAMCO depended on donors, contributions and other financial injections to speed up the process. It is intended that in order to facilitate the progress, awareness and support campaign will be introduced among SHGs, network affiliations, potential donors and investors, federation leaders and NGOs. FAMCO facilitates the inclusion of the socially and economically marginalized groups-communities into the reach of financial services and educational possibilities.
They promoters have also collaborated with many NGOs in other states for organizing thousands of SHGs. In their search for a suitable legal structure towards sustainable development of the SHGs, the promoters found the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act of 2002, applicable as a suitable framework for all the SHGs by mobilizing their own resources and utilizing them to accelerate the social, economic, cultural, and ecological development process.
Families being the natural and basic structures of the society, the promoters of FAMCO have visualized the development of individual family members through their spirit of cooperation first at the level of the family, and to be extended at the level of the groups as well, and that of the nation at large.
The overall development of FAMCO is crucially dependant on the amount of SHG share capital invested. The more share capital that is provided, the more rapid progress can be made to meet the present objectives and goals. The aim is to have at least 10,000 SHGs within three years with a minimum share capital stock of INR. 2,000/- per group. The total amount of share capital will then rise to Rupees Two Crores, ultimately turning FAMCO into a cooperative bank. Once this is achieved, FAMCO will be able to get public deposits.