The funds for the three-year collateral and interest-free micro-credit project will be provided by Citigroup while implementation will be the job of Grameen Trust through its country-wide partner network. It is not just one-off job opportunity envisaged for the poor; they will be equipped for sustainable income generation activities. Besides imparting basic literacy and financial education to them, they will be counselled to set up small businesses like fruit or vegetable vending outfits and food processing and livestock raising units. The scheme will work as an extended welfare package with an insurance cover for the family of the beneficiary in the event of the latter's death.

How important it is to provide viable alternatives to begging can hardly be overemphasised. There is no dearth of verbiage about creating new opportunities for the poor but few have come forward to help the so-called hopeless segment of the poor. There are some who would approach the problem with the remark that 'begging has become a trade' or 'believe me they have a stake in staying as beggar '. But Citigroup and Grameen Trust are providing them with something concrete to work on. Note that under the Grameen's Struggling Members' Project, some 500 beggars have already given up begging. Projects such as these need only to be replicated.

It is basically an issue of dignity at two levels: indignity for those who do the begging and those who watch them do it as an insult to humanity. That is why, the stake is so high in bringing the ultra-poor into the mainstream of micro-credit activities. We think it is an underestimation of the task to say that there are only three lakh ultra-poor in the country; there must be many more.