When poor women come together to form clusters of microfinance groups they also present an opportunity for the promotion of a host of other development activities. In the Kalanjiam Community Banking Programme (in parts of rural Tamil Nadu) members at the village level are aggregated into clusters of approximately 5 villages, and federated at the level of the development block. These federations have approximately 250 self-help groups with about 15-20 women per group. Interventions on nutrition, as well as the health of women and children have also been launched since January 2005. A sub study examining the impact of project interventions, focused on reducing anaemia in pregnant women and adolescent girls has been initiated.

These interventions are drafted with a view to improve a range of indicators of women's and children's health, and are developed around the innovative concept of self-health governance. The focus is on behaviour change communication, case management, access to diagnosis and referral services, and building of linkages with mainstream systems of delivery of health and nutrition, as the key strategies.

The exercise is driven through a health worker placed at the level of a cluster (4-5 villages), who is supported by a health committee comprising of representatives of the self-help groups in the village, as well as federation-level health coordinators. The project includes a specific focus on MIS that will capture trends over the project period, nested sub studies, which examine impact of interventions on expenditures and undernutrition for instance, and a detailed endline study that will be carried out in evaluation of project processes and outcomes.

The project comprises a partnership between the Kalanjiam Foundation, a subsidiary of Development of Human Action Foundation (DHAN Foundation) and the Foundation for Research in Health Systems (FRHS).

The project spans 10 federations (approximately a population of 50,000 kalanjiam members and a total population of about 200,000) of which eight are rural federations in Tamil Nadu, one is an urban federation in Madurai city (Tamil Nadu) and one is located in the tribal belt of Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh.