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Jute Products Promotion
- As a Livelihood for Women
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Micro Enterprise promotion has been identified as a major approach
for developing sustainable livelihoods among rural women
in APRLP. Since the subject is very dynamic due to its
strong link to market, an experiment has been carried
out by the combined interventions of District Capacity
Building Center and NGO DISHA in Nalgonda district. |
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After several studies on different skills “Jute
Promotion” has been identified because of its demand.
Thirty women came forward for taking up the activity,
out of which 20 women were selected for imparting training
by Resource persons. The first batch women were acted
as Master trainers for second batch women. The trained
women were able to produce variety of environmental friendly
jute based products. They were able to market the products
in local shandies, meals on regular basis and to textile
shops at Hyderabad. |
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National center for Jute Diversification (NCJD) Hyderabad
and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Hyderabad
for technical and marketing support has been approached. |
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MART
(Marketing and Research Team) is extending its support
in evolving marketing strategy and CARE is supporting
by linking professional designers. |
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All these women who were involved in production were residing at Jute center in Suryapet. They all were happy with the support that family is giving and efforts put by APRLP in stabilizing them in taking up new livelihood interventions. Now the women were able to earn nearly 1000-1400/- per month and they were proud of by supporting their family economically.
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Community Addressing
Drinking Water Problem
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Yardville a village of
Narketpally Mandal in Nalgonda district is facing drinking
water problem both in terms of quality and source. One
day community with the support of Project implementing
agency organized a gram sabha for discussion on livelihoods
plan of their village. Community especially women took
initiative to invite district collector to the meeting
and explained about the problem they are facing in getting
drinking water. The encouragement given by the district
collector made the community to come forward to take
up Rain water Harvesting structures by contributing
them selves and also taking technical and financial
support from Sai Oral Health Foundation and District
Administration. It is interesting to note that 37 structures
were constructed so far and planning for more in future. |
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Efforts
for Gender Integration |
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Brahmanpally is the village of Gundala Mandal of Nalgonda district. Watershed programme has been implemented in this village in which APRLP interventions were also initiated. Village organization has been formed with Self Help Group women. VO has been oriented towards the Sustainability and Post Management Practices. All the VO members with the support of Watershed Committee took initiative to repair check dam and percolation tank by Shramdhan. It says that efforts were being made in APRLP for initiating steps for involving Men and Women in all the project activities towards initiating the community development work.
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Easy
access to Revolving fund by poor farmers |
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In
village Ippalgudam, of Kethapally mandal small and
marginal farmers for the first time are able to
access loan facility for silt application. One of
the old farmer Mr. Lingaiah of that village
expressed, “I applied silt to my farm 20 years back
when I had cart to transport silt. Due to continuous
drought we sold our cattle. We all know that the
silt from the tank is very fertile but we cannot
avail the transport cost. Now with the provision of
small loans without any limitations we are able to
obtain loans’ ”. Now about 92 small and marginal
farmers belonging to SC families have taken
Productivity Enhancement (PE) funds and applied silt
in 100 acres. For every one acre applied 10 carts of
loads. The loans taken are utilized for
transportation cost ranging from Rs.800/- to
Rs.1000/-. The expected result from the silt
application is increased soil moisture retention and
a minimum of 10% increase in yield. |
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Breaking livelihood gender stereotypes
Information
provided by Ms. V. Roja Laxmi, DCBC-Nalgonda
“Ma Vruthi Mangali
pani chesthunanu”, Yadamma asserted with confidence
and courage. It
is unusual for a
daughter to take up father’s occupation as a mangali
(barber). Despite criticism from the community,
Yadamma succeeded. She belongs to a very backward
village Thakkellapadu, of S.
Gowraram mandal in Nalgonda District. After her
father’s death, Yadamma as the
eldest daughter she had to shoulder the
responsibility of taking care of her mother, unmarried
sisters and her own daughter. Her husband could not
stand Yadamma being mocked by the
community and left to her fate. However, there were
an equal number of supporters and this
helped her to get through the first difficult six
months. Today, Yadamma, is
the only barber in the village, she now has over 16
years’ experience. No one hesitates about
getting their haircut with her. So many changes have
taken place in her family. With her
earnings, she was able to get her sister married and
her daughter now attends
Junior College. |
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Traditional Livelihood Activities:
voices of charcoal workers, Nalgonda
Krishna Reddy
(supervisor): our contractor exports charcoal to
Raygud, Orissa, which will be used in
pharmaceutical and beedi factories. The charcoal is
graded according to its ferrosilicon
quality and its price determined based on carbon
content. Generally the price ranges between
Rs. 40,000 – 50,000 per tonne.
About 10 SC
households are involved in extraction of Tumma (wild
species) wood, which is available along
the roadsides. The wood is also taken from private
land where it costs Rs.50 per 120 kg.
For the transportation of wood to the kiln it costs
Rs.200/- per cartload. One
burning, yields 300-400 bags of charcoal, each bag
is 60 to 70 kg. The kiln owner will make
a net profit of Rs. 6,000-7,000 per burning. At the
beginning of the process, he gives us
an advance and in turn we advance the
sub-contractors and the woodcutters. I
engage subcontractors and woodcutters for completing
the task. If there are any
problems with the forest department the kiln owner
directly deals with it. Sreenu (charcoal
worker): I migrated from Nellore District to work as
a worker at a charcoal kiln. In
the last 3 years I have only returned home once, as
travel is too expensive. I have
two children and a brother. There are a number of
people from my village working at
this kiln, all of us Harijans (Scheduled Caste). We
collect the wood from the forest and
build it into a pile with hay in between. We close
the kiln with mud and set it alight
and allow it to burn for 20 days. If we have left a
hole in the mud wall, air enters and the
fire burns more strongly. If this happens, all our
work goes to waste. We are paid Rs.13 to
15 for one bag of charcoal. We get no more than
daily wages. We stay away from
civilized society living in the forest and have no
work during the rainy season. We use two
varieties of wood inside and the wild wood, which is
acceptable to Government on the
outside. If forestry officials notice the wood we
use in the interior kiln they fine the
contractor heavily (Rs 6000 per truck load).
However, the wild wood accepted by the
Government does not yield good quality charcoal. Narasimha
(woodcutter): I come from the adjacent village. This
is my wife Ramulamma. We reach
the forest early in the day. I cut the trees and my
wife trims off the branches and
cuts them into smaller pieces. We work for 2 to 3
days to make 2 cartloads (which we
sell for Rs.350) but transport costs need to be
borne by us (Rs. 60). At this rate, I earn
Rs.60/- per day and my wife Rs. 40/-. As I work
harder, I get more but out of it I
don’t give more than Rs.20/- for household
expenditure as I spend the rest on drinking.
When we are not cutting trees, we are engaged in
farmers’ fields where they pay us
(Rs.50 per cartload) to excavate the roots of wild
trees. My wife saves Rs.60/- in the
SHG. When I ask her to get Rs.10,000/- as loan she
cannot as the leader does not
agree. You can ask her about the SHGs. Ramulamma
(woodcutter): there are 10 SHGs in our village and 4
out of these are formed by SCs. Of
these 2 are malas (SC) and 2 are madigas (SC). 2
groups out of 10 are of mixed
membership. 50 families are left out of the groups.
We did not get anything from the
watershed programme whilst another group got support
for nursery raising and two
other groups got Rs. 10,000 grants. Who will speak
on our behalf? There is no one.
Probably the proposed village level networking under
APRLP will help us to position
ourselves and enable us to demand our entitlements.
Information provided by: Mr. Charan
Goutam (DCBC- Nalgonda ).
Translated by: Dr Hemalatha . |
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