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| With DDO Remya Mohan, Director DRDA Surat A.M. Khatri and Kamrej Taluka Staff |
Our NGO "Shakti
Foundation" is working for socio-economic upliftment of rural women. Since
its establishment, we were looking for such activity through which rural women
can earn a livelihood being at home. We are well aware of the fact that there
are many activities for women such as Stitching, Papad and Achar making and
many more. But our concern was to provide them sustainable livelihood after the
training. We did research of such livelihood activities and found
"Agarbatti Making" such activity which can provide them sustainable
livelihood.
We came across to
"Arsi Industry - Ahmedabad" who have done an MOU with Gov. of Gujarat
to provide livelihood to women in agarbatti making. We did an agreement for
South Gujarat region. As per this agreement, "Arsi Industry -
Ahmedabad" will provide raw material and buy finished product (agarbatti)
and women will be paid as per the work done. In turn,
the beneficiaries will have to buy an agarbatti making pedal machine
as the hand rolled agarbattis are no more in trend. We helped them in getting
bank loan with government subsidy. We got their cases sponsored under
SGSY and VAJPAYEE BANKABLE YOJANA of DIC. All APL and
BPL beneficiaries were covered under the suitable schemes for them.
BPLs got 50% subsidy, APLs got 25% subsidy and ST/SCs got 40% subsidy
on the pedal machines.
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| Mission Mangalam Yojana: to empower rurual women
Beginning of the
project:
We chose "Kamrej" taluka first and trained 60 women in 1st
phase. First of all an awareness campaign was done to educate women about this
activity and its benefits. This was one of the best activities for
the women who were less or not educated, having no skills, were not allowed to
do a job or having one or another problem may be at family or social level.
Agarbatti making could earn them 150 to 200 rs per day for which they were suppose to dedicate 8 to 10 hours a
day after their all household work. Out of 60, 24 women are successfully
working with us inKamrej Taluka (Kholvad, Amboli and Kathor villages).
They have been earning rs 3000 to 3500 per month since the April 2012.
Progress of the
project:
After Kamrej, we
entered in Chalthan (Palsana
Taluka). Here also we
trained around 40 women. Out of 40, today 22 women are working with us only in Chalthan. We have got a tremendous
success here as all these women have started earning rs 4000 to 6000 per month within no time. They have also been working
since month of May and are successfully supporting their families.
With Chalthan, we are
now active in Karchelia & Algat
(Mahuva taluka) with 16 women, Devgiri (Mandvi taluka) with 7 women and Selvas (Dadra Nagar Haveli) with 10 women.
So, total 80 women are working with us and earning well. It gives
me immense pleasure to share the success of this project with District staff,
Taluka staff, Bank officials etc. Without their support it would have never
been possible.
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Future Plans:
We have taken this project
on campaign mode in Palsana Taluka. Here we have identified364 beneficiaries
in 4 villages with the help of
taluka administration. Skill training to these beneficiaries will be
provided with the help of R-SETI in the month September. After the training
the beneficiaries will be provided with livelihood in the month of October 2012. We intend to replicate Palasana model in
entire Surat district in coming days.
