BEST PRACTICES : ICT FOR LIVELIHOOD

SABRAS: Empowering Salt Workers

SABRAS, a social enterprise, aims to improve lives of salt producing community by enhancing their access to market and utilizing solar technology.

To increase overall efficiency and profitability of small workers in salt production business, Saline Area Vitalization Enterprise Ltd. (SAVE) has established a social enterprise called SABRAS Processing and Marketing Pvt. Ltd. in the Little Rann of Kutch region of Gujarat.

SABRAS provides procurement, processing and marketing services to small-scale salt workers. It directly buys salt from them at a significantly higher than market price, and then sells the salt in bulk to processors and network of distributors. Additionally, SABRAS provides environment friendly and long term cost effective solar water pumps to reduce the dependence of salt workers on inefficient diesel pumps during the salt production process.

Salt workers are shareholders in the company; implying that they also share the risks and profits of the company. In the SABRAS model, the salt workers use their skills and hard work to provide the salt while SABRAS uses its experience to provide access to market, credit and technology. By committing to fair trade practices and offering innovative technological solutions, SABRAS is increasing profits and improving the livelihood conditions of the local salt producing community in Gujarat.

Udyogini: Building microenterprises

Udyogini provides training to poor women and NGOs in remote and backward areas of India build microenterprises and become entrepreneurs.

In order to deal with the challenges confronting poor women’s livelihoods today, Udyogini- meaning woman entrepreneur- came into existence in 1992 with a focus on microenterprise management training. Udyogini started by enabling smaller NGOs, through a program of support comprising training for enterprise awareness, management and counselling, to move into developing microenterprise programs and having staff with orientation to microenterprise. 

Udyogini works in regions that are backward and ‘enterprise starved’ and mainly in sectors where there is a concentration of women workers. The focus areas of Udyogini’s work are gender and poverty, market-oriented capacity building for producers, catering to both subsector and multi-sector business service requirements, bringing about innovation, learning and change in business services content and delivery mechanism, and knowledge-sharing through documentation. It provides business development services to NGOs, government, donors etc. These services include three core products- microenterprise training and handholding, value chain development (with special emphasis on gender inclusion), and market linkages. 

By 2010, Udyogini had trained over 1500 enterprise promoting staff from NGOs and government in 7 Indian states with a combined GMT eligible base of almost 50,000 women.

Varanasi Weavers: Continuing the thread of tradition

The Varanasi Weavers project aims to revive the age old silk industry and hand-weaving techniques of Varanasi, make silk weaving a profitable business and provide livelihood to the handloom weavers of Varanasi.

Handloom silk sarees commonly referred to as ‘Banarasi silk’ sarees have been very popular among Indian women. Over time however, cheap quality machine made imitations of the traditional silk saree flooded the markets, reducing the demand for handloom sarees. This has forced the shutting down of most looms making traditional weavers migrate to cities for pursuing other livelihood options.

The crisis of the Varanasi weavers caught the attention of Upasana, a design firm in Aurovile. Upasna partnered with Bestseller fund a not for profit organization from Denmark to launch the Varanasi weavers project in 2006 which utilizes the special talent of the weavers as well has re markets the silk, keeping in mind current trends and tastes.

Upasana runs a private limited company ‘Varanasi Weavers’ in Varanasi as an interface between buyers and weavers. In the future, this company will be converted into a social company to be run by the weavers themselves. The project has led to the empowerment of the weaving community in Varanasi, enhanced their skills, updated their products and generated awareness about their plight in the design world.

Tsunamika: Post-disaster livelihood training

Upasana, a design firm in Auroville initiated the Tsunamika project - a doll making training programme for Tamil Nadu’s Tsunami affected fisherwomen. The donations collected for the dolls are supplied to the fisherwomen in the form of salaries.

The 2004 Tsunami affected over two million people in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. It killed over 12,000 people and destroyed over 200,000 houses. The financial loss was an estimated 2.56 billion USD. The fishing communities were highly affected with more than 60,000 boats destroyed.

The disaster severely damaged many fisherwomen’s livelihoods in Tamil Nadu. Moreover, it destroyed women’s confidence in life as everything that they depended on was washed away in the disaster. With the objective to help these women, Tsunamika was launched.

Under the project, fisherwomen are trained to make miniature dolls out of industrial waste fabric. Unique to the business model is its gift economy approach whereby the dolls are distributed for free and donations are welcomed.

Fisher Friend Mobile Advisory

The Fisher Friend project of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry leverages mobile technology to provide vital livelihood information to fisher folk.

MSSRF partnered with Qualcomm, Tata Teleservices and Astute Technology Systems for developing the Fisher Friend Mobile Application. The tool was designed after a thorough needs assessment of the fisher communities and incorporation of feedback from central stakeholders.

Upon sending a single-button-click request from an icon-based software module on mobile, fishermen gain access to vital updates on wave height, wind speed and direction, potential fishing zones, news, government schemes and market prices. All content is displayed in the local language - Tamil.

This unique application is helping fisher folk make better choices and avoid hazardous situations. It is enabling them to conduct their livelihood operations in a safe and profitable manner.

Financial Initiative for Sustainable Human Economic Resource Regeneration

People's Action for Development (PAD) works in the Gulf of Mannar region, off the coast of Tamil Nadu, with vulnerable communities - fisher folk and palymrah tappers - to create self-led sustainable livelihoods and rid indebtedness.

Prior to PAD's engagement with the local communities, fisher folk were perpetually in ‘debt’ to moneylenders/merchants. Merchants did not offer loans in the traditional sense – they did not expect cash for loan repayments nor did they charge interest. Instead, they lent out boats and nets and demanded catch be sold directly to them. In this manner, merchants were also able to offer below market prices for the catch.

In response to this dire situation, PAD has taken up Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) strategies in three cluster areas and 17 villages: Vembar (5 villages), Keelakkara (9 villages), and Rameshwaram (3 villages), spanning two districts and four blocks. PAD has helped to organise the fisher communities into functional groups that save towards loan repayment, for purchase of community-owned assets including nets, boats and vehicles, and for future emergencies. By uniting, fishermen have gained a voice to demand freedom to fair-market prices. A drastic increase in price for catch, combined with new savings, has enabled the fisher folk to ensure their own sustainable livelihoods.

Since 2002, PAD has helped to build 35 fisher groups in the Gulf of Mannar. Moreover, 2085 fisher families have been relieved from debt to date.

Transfer of Earth-Based Technologies

The Auroville Earth Institute (Tamil Nadu) conducts research and development, and training of sustainable and cost effective earth-based architecture.

The Earth Institute is part of a world network as a partner of CRATerre (The International Centre for Earth Construction), ABC Terra- Brazil, and a number of Indian NGOs. It is also the Asian representative of the UNESCO Chair, ‘Earthen Architecture, Constructive Cultures and Sustainable Development’. The centre aims to effectively disseminate technical knowledge of earthen architecture to higher education institutions in the three focus areas: environment and heritage, human settlements, and economy and production.

Today, the institute offers training courses in sustainable architecture – use of earth for block making and appropriate design through arches and domes. The aim of the training is to impart knowledge upon those who have a basic understanding of architecture for the global promotion of environmentally friendly, cost effective and low maintenance technologies.

To date, the Earth Institute has trained over 6,700 people from 67 countries (about 550 per year). It has also been given two international and 11 Indian awards for its excellence in building and architecture.

Women's Cooperative in Diversification of Agriculture Activities

NCUI has encouraged and empowered women to start managing a cooperative on their own, and also started to address the issues that the poor farmers in the villager were facing.

The intensive training support of the NCUI project staff, not only mobilised the community members in to the cooperative movement, but also intensively trained the members who could barely read write to maintain accounts and documents of the society without any glitch.

The activities of the society also have helped many individual women members to gain their status economically and socially. The women now have become the pride of the village. Since the women members are able to generate income in the family, they are treated with due respect, engaging them in all decision making process of the family, which was not the case before.

Doodh Ganga Yojana - Dairy Loan Scheme

Doodh Ganga Yojana is a Government of India dairy venture scheme that provides partial interest free loans and capital subsidy provisions to promote organised dairy farming and create employment opportunities in Himachal Pradesh.

The scheme was started by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Government of India as a dairy venture capital scheme to be implemented through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The scheme helps to transform micro enterprises engaged in dairy farming into organised dairy business enterprises. Doodh Ganga Yojana plans to economically uplift 50,000 rural households through the formation of 10,000 Self Help Groups within a span of three years. The scheme makes comprehensive provisions to sell dairy products on a larger scale.

The primary objective of the scheme was to create alternative livelihoods for local populations. The secondary objective was to call for a 'white revolution' through the successful implementation of the scheme.

The scheme has been successful in raising the economic status of the rural population involved.To date, Doodh Ganga Yojana has supported 2531 cases. Out of the proposed 300 crore target, loans to the tune of 50 crore are already advanced to the beneficiaries.

Implementing the Forest Rights Act in Madhya Pradesh

The Government of Madhya Pradesh has taken measures to implement the Forest Rights Act which aims to ensure that tribals and traditional forest dwellers obtain legal access to forest resources and protection from exploitation.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, commonly known as the Forests Rights Act (FRA), was enacted by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to correct the historic injustice done to forest-dwelling communities. These communities traditonally cultivate and occupy forest land and using forest produce, but also have no historical security over the land.

The Act recognises and vests individual forest-dwellers with forest rights to live in and cultivate forest land that was occupied before 13 Dec 2005 and grants community forest rights to manage, protect, and regenerate the forest.

In Madhya Pradesh, the forest dwellers have taken it upon themselves to actively engage in the effective operationalistion of this Act.

Transforming rural livelihoods in Odisha

The Western Odisha Rural Livelihoods Project has taken up a livelihoods approach to their existing watershed management programme. It works to create an enabling environment for sustainable local employment and income generation.

The Kalahandi Bolangir Koraput (KBK) region of western Odisha is home to people who are among the poorest in India. The local environment can be difficult to live in as rainfall is irregular leading to intermittent crop failures, and there is often a shortage of safe drinking water. The health and education status of the people is very poor, and hence, they are highly vulnerable to shocks. Inequitable social structures, distorted land distribution, and indebtedness contribute to the widespread poverty and impede access to resources by the socially excluded and marginalised. To address these problems, WORLP has developed a livelihood approach to their existing watershed programme.

WORLP’s livelihoods approach focuses on leveraging the existing strengths and resources of rural communities. This model, also known as the Watershed Plus Programme, works to create an enabling environment for empowering people to make informed choices for their long-term well being. It involves all sectors of rural society across caste, class, gender and other divides. Many innovative processes and technologies have been tried under the programme’s directive, and much of the work has been successful. Lessons have been learned and replicated in other parts of the country.

RUDI - Rural Distribution Network

RUDI was launched to raise the economic status of women farmers within the SEWA network in a sustainable, scalable and systematic manner by nurturing livelihoods at all levels of the rural supply chain.

Supply chain management of farming activities in rural India is often disadvantageous for marginal farmers. Surplus grown and sold may be minimal, and middlemen buy from farmers at very low prices, resulting in profit margins on production that barely allow for survival. Poor access to both preservation units for bulk storage and a wide network of suppliers leave many farmers with little choice but to sell small quantities to the middlemen.

RUDI Multi Trading Company aims to generate funds, internal to the SEWA network, that would enhance the quality, capacity and efficiency of rural production. By leveraging their large-scale membership for nurturing local skilled businesswomen along the rural production value chain, SEWA piloted the RUDI initiative in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat.

Today, there are five RUDI processing centres catering to 14 districts in Gujarat. Each centre is comprised of technical teams that nurtures rural business women at all levels of the supply chain – from purchasing to marketing. The sales turnover has been doubling year over year and aims to reach 6 crores in 2010-2011. The profit margin has already reached 12 percent.

Stree Shakti: A novel approach to women’s empowerment

Project Stree Shakti is a joint collaboration effort of the Government of Delhi, community-based organisations and NGOs to empower women, especially those belonging to economically weaker sections of society.

The initiative comprises integrated capacity building to strengthen the ability of women to participate equally in the mainstream of society. In the first instance, the project has prioritised three areas that significantly impact the process of empowerment namely health, literacy and income generation.

The proposed objectives are met through a Gender Resource Centre. Its activities include the maintenance of a documentation centre and data bank on women’s issues; and dissemination of the data directly and through grass root level NGOs to the target groups. The centre would also act as a bridge between service providers and the community members.

Stree Shakti Camps are also organised, the underlying concept here is that these institutions/programmes should reach the target group at their doorstep within a period of two years.

Village Information Kiosks for the Warna Co-operatives in Maharashtra

This project aims to increase the efficiency and productivity of the sugar cane co-operative through access to information in local language about crops, agricultural market prices, government employment schemes and educational opportunities.

The Warna Wired; Villages Project has provided with an ICT-driven system to bring efficiency and transparency to its main economic activity, sugar cane production, in the region.

This project provides computerized facilitation booths that give information on various socio-economic aspects of sugar cane cultivation, including tele-medicine and redressal of public grievances at nominal cost.

This initiative has brought about increased efficiency in the growth of sugar cane cultivation and harvesting process, both in terms of saving time on administrative transactions as well as monetary gains. Through computerization, there has been an improvement in the management of fertilizer stocks and farmers savings, thereby improving the standard of living in the community

Gram Laxmi Vermicomposting Initiative: Converting rural waste into organic matter

By employing rural women in recycling units for converting animal waste into organic matter, the Gram Laxmi initiative of Government of Gujarat presents an indigenous approach for empowering women and positively altering agricultural practices.

In 2011, the Gram Laxmi initiative was started as a pilot in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), to convert agricultural and animal waste into organic manure. Gram Laxmi runs under Mission Mangalam- a Government of Gujarat (GOG) livelihood and poverty alleviation programme. Under the project, Gram Laxmi vermicomposting units are set up in villages and Self Help Groups of women are trained to run and manage these units. These women collect the agricultural and cattle waste from their farms and treat it in the unit. Post treatment, they derive vermicompost from the unit which is used as manure during farming. This vermicompost is sold to farmers at nominal rates and also used for personal consumption on the women's farms.

The cost of setting up a Gram Laxmi unit is financed through convergence of different centrally sponsored rural development schemes like the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), MGNREGA, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF), Nirmal Gram etc. and through a one-time public contribution.

From a pilot project across 25 villages in 2011 , the Gram Laxmi initiative today has been up scaled to 96 villages of Sabarkantha district. Gram Laxmi successfully demonstrates the potential that rural areas have for developing indigenous and sustainable livelihood options.The use of localised and easily available raw materials, the pooling together of funds from well established national and state level schemes and the leveraging of existing network of local human resources (SHG women) involved in government functioning makes Gram Laxmi a sustainable initiative. The development and implementation of Gram Laxmi did not require any major changes in government processes, nor did it burden the community with additional responsibility. Community members have to invest only one hour of their time daily for making additional income, managing waste in their community and generating organic manure for use in their fields. These factors make the initiative environmentally and economically viable. Furthermore, the initiative is proving its social relevance by providing rural women an opportunity to step outside their homes and earn a living and contribute to the community's well being.

Gram Laxmi reflects how government dedication and understanding of the local context and livelihood situation can help to harness existing resources in an economically and socially beneficial manner. This commitment has to be complemented by creating community awareness about the vast potential of locally available resources.

Improving earning capacity of farmers

Fasal Intuit is a free SMS-based service that connects rural farmers in Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with buyers; provides them with real-time price information to make better market decisions and earn profit.

The majority of farmers in India have access to two or more mandis where they can go and sell their produce. Unfortunately, these farmers do not have easy access to agriculture related information. Most of the time they do not know prevailing whole sale market prices in their area because of which they often end up going to a market with lower price or sell at the village level at lower price.

To help farmers address this challenge, the Global Business Division team at Intuit conceived a simple yet sophisticated solution in 2008 known as Fasal. Fasal is a free SMS-based service that connects rural farmers with buyers and provides them with real-time price information. This service uses SMS technology available on simple mobile phones to provide real time market price information to farmers as well as connect rural farmers (producers) with buyers in their area/Mandi to sell their produce at best possible price. Farmers can subscribe to this service by calling the Fasal call center 1800 102 8767.

Intuit Fasal can be termed as an innovative practice because it provides personalised, real-time information to farmers for commodities and markets in local language; allows farmers to make informed decisions about marketing their produce and helps them make, on average, 15% to 20% more money for their crops and finally uses widely available SMS technology to deliver relevant information when farmers need it.

Currently, approximately 800,000 farmers across three states use the service.

Sustainable development in north east India

NERCORMP, a joint development project of IFAD and Government of India, works towards the objective of creating livelihood for vulnerable groups while contributing to environmental conservation.

The North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) aims to address the existing issues of inefficient government service mechanism in the livelihood sector and the absence of ideal development projects in the north-east region of India. The project, implemented jointly by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Government of India represented through the North Eastern Council, brings together the knowledge, expertise and ideologies of the government, IFAD, local civil societies and the communities to unleash the potentials for development tapped in the backward areas.

This case study captures the impact of the project in Meghalaya, and describes the bottom-up model as the project emphasizes on active community participation in the planning and implementation processes. Formation of community building organisations are a key to implementation - Natural Resource Management Groups and Self Help Groups are formed in the project villages for this purpose.

Further, NERCORMP assists in generating various livelihood options focused on agriculture and forest based, such as organic agriculture, sustainable shifting cultivation, livestock and fisheries, forestry, Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), medicinal and aromatic plants, and non-farm enterprises such as eco-tourism, handloom and handicrafts. While creating these livelihood opportunities, efforts are made to conserve the rich biodiversity in the region. A major endeavour in this direction has been the awareness campaigns that were taken up to demonstrate effective environment friendly ways of managing shifting cultivation.

While the absence of efficient local NGOs is identified as its major challenge, its sustainable success in the conflict areas is highlighted as the project’s major impact in the region. Nevertheless, positive response to the initiatives in two hilly districts of the Meghalaya has encouraged the Government of India to launch its second phase in 2012. The Planning Commission, the Ministry of DoNER and the North Eastern Council will be supporting the activities of this phase.

Enhancing livestock productivity

Project Nandini, a livestock information system implemented by the Government of Orissa aims to provide extension services to cattle farmers in Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Mayurbhanj districts of the state.

Under Nandini, a web-based portal houses a dependable animal database along with details of their owners. The portal focuses on systematising the reproductive life cycle of crossbred cows by monitoring specific details like animal to attain peak yield, animal due and suitable for oestrus, animal due for pregnancy diagnosis, animal to be dried off, animal due for parturition and animal to be vaccinated/de-wormed. Based on the information and data available, a decision support system is provided to government departments/functionaries. Reports generated out of a web software helps government livestock inspectors and veterinarians get a fortnightly ‘To Do List’ to render selective and need based services in a timely manner.

The farmers also receive vital information related to the health and reproductive cycle of their cattle through an SMS alert, a helpline and also by visiting the village Common Service Centres. The information helps farmers take accurate precautionary measures and gradually increase the productivity of their cattle.

Project Nandini is a first of its kind initiative in India. Through Nandini a proper pattern for livestock related service delivery is being established wherein the needs of both service providers and the end users have been connected through an organized online information system. Nandini has turned cattle breeding into an integrated process that’s benefiting farmers in over 880 Orissa villages.

Conserving indigenous agro-biodiversity

The Community-based Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation Programme aims to conserve agro-biodiversity, and build self-reliance and livelihood security for communities involved.

The debilitating effects of Green revolution-induced high yield variety seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides and mechnised farming techniques have been rampant for farming communities in India, particularly in the south. Farmers' suicides have been directly linked to their over-dependence on the market and resulting capture in the debt trap. The nutritional value of crops fed on chemicals is minimum and the worst hit are those who grow them. Farmers have been reduced to the role of mere 'facilitators' in the processes of farming, their traditional knowlegde systems relegated to the background.

Against this background, started by the GREEN (Genetic Resource Ecology Energy and Nutrition) Foundation in 1996, the Community-based Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation Programme aims to help small and marginal farmers conserve the subsistence crops very basic to their food security.Having started its work with seed conservation, the programme has expanded to include a more holistic view of sustainable agriculture- organic farming, use of bio-pesticides, bio-fertilisers and soil improvement. Along with these, maintenace of kitchen and community gardens, vermicompost production, organic farming certification, organisation of farmers into a federation called Janadhanya, Field Farmers' School Programme, and income generation activities like handicrafts, also come within its purview. Women are accorded a particularly enhanced role in the programme, based on the understanding that they are the ones who do most of the 'invisible' work related to agriculture. A major plank of the programme is to provide sustainability to its efforts in the villages it works in- farmers' federations, Village Development Committees and Community Resources Persons are being developed for the same.

The programme currently covers 65 villages in Karnataka and has impacted nearly 4000 farmers. It runs 14 community seed banks across the state and a gene bank that houses approximately 420 seed varieties. The impact of the programme extends far beyond this. Its partners over the years have adopted the approach in their respective regions of operation, extending up to Bangladesh and Nepal. The Karnataka government's Organic Farming Mission is substantially inspired by it.