New path to progress

Thanks to a project initiated by the Haryana Government and an international bank, women in 400 villages of the state are getting loans to set up cottage industries under self-help groups. The programme aims to increase the green cover in Haryana and reduce villagers’ dependence on forests by offering them alternative means of livelihood. Ruchika M. Khanna reports

A women’s liberation movement of a different kind is sweeping through the villages of Haryana. In a typical male-oriented set-up, hundreds of women, cutting across lines, have joined hands for their economic and social empowerment.

Engaged in cottage industry like masala-making, wooden beads jewellery, hand-made paper, mushroom cultivation, bee-keeping and floriculture, for the past almost one year, these women — belonging to below poverty line (BPL) families — are now earning a monthly income of anything between Rs 1000 and Rs 1500. This new-found economic independence has also helped them earn the respect of their families.

As Amarti Devi, who is head of a self-help group (SHG) in Ghel village, Ambala, says, "Ever since I have begun to contribute to the family’s meagre earnings through mushroom cultivation by our SHG, I can see a new-found respect for myself in my husband and children’s eyes. Our living condition has improved, and we are now able to save Rs 1000 a month for higher education of our children."

Started as an initiative under the state government’s Integrated Natural Resource Management and Poverty Alleviation Project, the ambitious project aims to uplift poor families by involving them in income-generating activities and reducing their dependence on forests. This project is being run by Haryana’s Forest Department, with financial support from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The project was initiated in 2004, when the JBIC agreed to fund Rs 267 crore for the development of natural resources in the forest areas surrounding 800 villages of Haryana. The project — "natural resource development" through people’s participation — aims to increase production from forest lands (mainly in the Shivaliks and Aravallis), community lands (panchayat lands) and farm lands (agro-forestry) with the help of afforestation and soil and water conservation.

The project included institution building and community organisation, through poverty alleviation programmes. Till 2010-11, when the project ends, it is proposed that Rs 161 crore would be spent on plantation and over Rs 10 crore on soil conservation measures, water harvesting structures and rehabilitation of water storage structures. At present, the project is being implemented in 400 villages, while another 200 villages will be covered later this year.

Says the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Haryana, J P L Srivastava, "Besides undertaking tree plantation by the Village Forest Committees (VFCs), four new low-cost dams (at Asrewali and Dudhgarh in Panchkula, and Solapur and Nagli in Yamunanagar) have been constructed and 16 existing dams in the Shivalik area have been repaired and made operational again. Though the primary objective of the project was to increase tree cover in the state, we realised that villagers’ dependence on forests could be reduced in real terms only if we provided them with alternative ways to generate some income."

"So, over the past two years, 650 SHGs have been formed under the VFCs in 400 villages of Haryana. The Forest Department launches the project with a loan of Rs 1 lakh to each of the VFCs, which in turn contribute Rs 10,000. This money is first used to create, improve or repair the existing infrastructure of the village. It could be the phirni (circular road around the village) which requires attention, or the retaining wall, or the public toilets or the bus-stop shelters — or whatever is desired by the villagers. The VFCs are given Rs 2 lakh each as a revolving fund. Groups of 10 women each, belonging to the low-income category, are formed. These women are trained in inter-loaning and development of entrepreneurial skills. These SHGs are then provided loans at nominal rates of interest (three per cent) for starting their own enterprises.

Earlier, the SHGs set up under the Haryana Community Forestry Project, or under schemes of district rural development, were engaged in activities like durrie- making, candle-making, soap-making and vermi-compost… which were not very profitable. Under this project, we decided to encourage the SHGs to set up a small cottage industry. These industries are working on a public-private partnership model. The Forest Department acts as a facilitator and arranges a buyer for the products made by them. Often, the buyer provides his own raw material to the group, which processes it and then gives it back. In the process, these women get a sizeable chunk of the profit (20-25 per cent), which is often more than the Minimum Daily Wage, as notified by the government," says C R Jyotirwal, Conservator of Forests, who is overseeing the implementation of the project in North Haryana.

Take the example of Laxmi Bai SHG, Mata Gujri SHG and Kalpana Chawla SHG at Mandhor village in Ambala. Created in December 2005, the three groups are already getting rave reviews from forest officials as well as the Japanese financiers for their success in running a unit for making masala, now popular as the "Lal Munia" brand.

"The three groups were given Rs 58,000 as loan to buy a machine for grinding spices and were also granted a loan of Rs 10,000 each to procure raw material. After all the raw material was used, the Forest Department helped the groups ink a Memorandum of Understanding with a Delhi-based spice trader, who now provides them with the raw material and procures the ground spices. These groups get 20 per cent of the profits accrued through sales," informs Gokul Sharma, Range Forest Officer.

Says Rajesh Kumari of Laxmi Bai SHG, "Our spices are of very good quality. It is not without reason that other spice traders from Delhi have also started approaching us. And with the growth in the business, we have begun to repay the loan taken from the VFC."

Seeing the success, villagers, too, are now supporting these women. Mandhor Sarpanch Gurwinder Singh, who was earlier sceptical about the success of the project ‘by the women and for the women’, now lends them a helping hand. "He even exhorts village elders to accompany the women when they go to order packaging material or for marketing their produce. Our SHGs are now being quoted as an example of success, and anywhere in the state where an SHG has to start a masala-making unit, they come to us for training," says Sunehri of Kalpana Chawla group.

In Shekhpura village of Karnal, when it was not possible to get a proper place in the panchayat ghar or government school for setting up the masala unit, Prassani Devi, an SHG member, volunteered to let the group use two rooms in her house. "This activity will not just help me but also other women in earning some extra money. Besides, women who are free during the morning hours after their husbands and children are away, now get together to work as well as discuss and share their problems," she says.

Young girls like Sonia and Salammat, who finished their school two years ago and had no work, have now joined this SHG. They say they are now saving money as well as supporting their families. "... eh to chhoron ki tarah apne ma baap ke budhape ki lathi hain (they are supporting their old parents like sons)," says village sarpanch Satish Sharma.

In fact, unlike in Mandhor, where the SHGs have tied up with a spice trader to offer the raw material and then buy the finished product, the women of Shekhpura have been more enterprising and are marketing their masalas to numerous high-end eateries on the GT road near Karnal. "We did not have buyers, so we decided to approach the eateries and now many of them, including Haveli, are buying our products. The authorities at the Madhuban Police complex, too, have agreed to buy turmeric powder, garam masala, red chilli and coriander powder from us. But we are on the lookout for a buy-back arrangement with a spice dealer, " says Bimla Sharma, an SHG member.

The cottage industry which is being set up is not just about spice-making, though this is the most common industry under the project. Depending on the skills of the women in villages, they are being encouraged to set up specific industries. Like women in Bhiwani are being asked to set up wooden bead jewellery units, while women in Kurukshetra are starting a hand-made paper unit and those in Kakru village of Ambala are coming up with a herbal gulal unit.

In the Morni area of Panchkula and in Ghel, mushroom cultivation helped the women earn a neat income. Satya Devi of Ghel says that by cultivating mushrooms each unit member earned Rs 1200 a month in the winter season. The group has already paid three instalments of the loan taken from the VFC after they were able to get 10-12 kg of mushrooms a day in February-March.

"This year, we will be selling our mushrooms in Chandigarh, and are also tying up with hotels in Ambala and on the GT Road," says Karmo Devi.

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