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Sustainable Livelihood Creation Initiatives |
Case-III
Moulding Her Future |
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Background |
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There
are nearly 2,375 people living in Kalavati village but not
only a handful of them have land of their own. They earn their
daily breads by working as labourers on the land of others.
But due to strong competition from modern equipment and machines,
the importance of manual labour has reduced. The landless
villagers are not able to earn that much which will meet their
daily needs. The women face more difficult circumstances.
They have to spend a great deal of time and every of to arrange
fodder for their cattle. Chandramukhi is one of the women,
who is going through the same situation all the time. She
is only a functional literate. So, the option of doing work,
where literacy is required is also difficult. Hence, she was
also forced to provide her services to the landlord in return
for a meagre amount. Somewhere in her mind, the desire to
come out of the current situation was there, but she was helpless
to find the way out. |
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Emergence
of Idea |
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She
came to know about Aseed when the organisation was facing
resistance while trying to convey their aims and objectives
to the menfolk. The poor villagers were already made fool
by many chit fund companies who had deposited the money with
them and in the end had run away with the hard-earned money
of the villagers. The workers of the organization kept coming
to the village to convince the menfolk that they were genuine
people. Chandramukhi was curious to know about this organization,
but could not do anything. She could clearly see that people
in the village were not interested in the organization. But
one day she gathered some fellow women and encouraged them
to listen to the worker. During those meetings, the field
worker clearly told that the group would be run by the members
themselves. This was a new thing for the women. So, they started
taking interest in the awareness meetings. Fourteen of them
agreed to make a group to deposit small amounts of money.
They were given all the necessary instructions to help them
perform their duties effectively. |
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Apart
from that, they were motivated to take up social issues and
given information about various things. It brought about visible
changes in the personality of the women. They were very much
confident and ready to take the risk. With the passage of
time, the savings in the group reached a figure that was beyond
the imagination of its members. They started discussing their
financial problem with the field worker who was by then aware
of the circumstance faced by these women. In one of the group
meetings, the members were then told about various income-generating
activities, which could be taken up by them. Chandramukhi
got the idea of Self-employment from there. She discussed
the matters with her husband, Tara Chand, who hesitated for
a while, but soon started nursing the dream of a better future. |
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Initiation
of Action and Generation
of Support |
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Chandramukhi
talked to the field worker about her decision and asked for
support. She was told to save as much as she could for future
investment and soon she was sent for training of operating
a machine for making paper plates. She concentrated on training
and acquired information related to the machine. She was then
advised to take loan from her group for initial investment.
Considering her good behaviour and the saved amount, she didn't
have any problem in getting a gurantor and the loan. She decided
to set up the machine at her house. This saved her infrastructural
expenditure and physical effort for commuting to another place.
Now, she could do her work according to her convenience. She
worked very hard to set up her work. With the help of the
Aseed workers, she found the market in the neighbouring areas
for her products. Soon, her work expanded so much that her
husband Tara Chand started assisting her in supplying paper
plates to the wholesalers. |
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Recognition |
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Chandramukhi,
who was once the woman who used to be in veils for the rest
of the world, is now the one who has occupied the centre stage.
Her struggle and success is not an unknown story for the villagers.
They have seen her sweating to share responsibility of supporting
her family with her husband. She has gained a higher status
for herself in the society as well as the family. She is a
source of inspiration for her husband and has played an important
role in guiding the fellow villagers to the path of development.
She has motivated many women to join the SHG to avail the
advantages of associating with the group. The idea of her
success can be taken from the fact that she had applied for
bank loan to buy more machines and give employment to a few
women from her own village. She is now in a position where
she cannot only save her SHG accounts, but also manage to
save from outside for future investment. She has acquired
all the facilities and is leading a happy life today. |
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