The piece came in 'Grassroots' June 15, 2013
Bricks or turmeric powder, women show they can do better than men
PRADEEP BAISAKH, Bhubaneswar
The self help movement in India has brought
about entrepreneurship among rural women, which was not quite conventional
earlier. With the guidance of civil society organisations, in many places in
Odisha several women’s groups have proved to be performing entrepreneurs.
The women self-help group (SHG) members of
Jerabanji village
of Balangir
This money was invested by the women in their
children’s education, making houses and meeting daily household needs. “My son
Suasant studies in intermediate. I purchased books and notes for him and borne
upon his travel expenses from home to college from this income.” says a proud
Bilasa Bhoi, President of the SHG. Similarly other members like Mula Dharua and
Usha Dharua spent on their children education. Apart from selling the bricks,
some women like Bilasa Bhoi and others made their own houses of their handmade
bricks.
In the area brick kilns were operating for
last some years by some local businessmen where the families of these women
used to work. Some of the male members of these families also used to migrate
out of state earlier. But this time around they took up the challenge onto
themselves. All the family members of
the women worked in their own kilns. They sold their bricks to the local
traders who sold them in the district market. The staff of the local NGO, Friends
for Human Development (FHD) supported the women in making a good bargain with
the traders. Had they been the labourers in other’s kiln, each of these women
would have earned a wage of meagre 2200 making those many bricks.
There are some families in this remote
village which migrate to other states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to
work in brick kilns. In fact Balangir district is infamous in sending migrant
labourers to other states. This happens due to dearth of work in the villages. The
families which migrate to other states to work have to go through severity of
life and torture by the employers. This time a village women Bhagyabati Dharua,
who went with her relatives to work in kilns in Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh,
was made to work for more than eighteen hours a day and was given paltry to
meet her daily food expenses. Bhagyabati did not get any advance money nor any
payment for her month’s work. Finally she and her group clandestinely flee from
the place back to village.
In local brick kilns at least there is not
harassment. “For us it is easy to have own brick kilns. We are not under any
pressure to work stretched hours. Simultaneously when we are seeing our daily
household chores, we mould bricks. The kiln is in the end of the village. We
may stay near the site or stay in the our houses in the villages.” Says Bilasa
Bhoi. Motivated with the last year’s success, this year also the women have
again started moulding bricks and making their own kilns.
Women turn turmeric traders!
Women in the adjacent Boud district have
become traders! Conventionally it is the domain of men in Odisha. The women
members of the Nari Vikas Samavaya Ltd, a women cooperative have turned
themselves to turmeric traders. Along with managing their daily household
chores, the women in the cooperative prepare turmeric power for personal
consumptions and they also sell it to the villagers. This unadulterated turmeric
powder is also used in preparing the mid day meals for the students in the village
schools.
In 2007 Youth Council for Development
Alternative (YCDA), a local NGO facilitated the formation of a cooperative of
women in two Panchayats in Khamanimunda and Khuntigura GP under Kantamal block of
Boud district consisting 105 women. Out of them about 30 members are now quite
active in the cooperative and each member saves some money every month in the
account of the cooperative. In 2010 the NGO provided some financial support to
start a grinding meal for grinding turmeric and wheat. “We then started
purchasing raw turmeric from Baliguida market of neighbouring Kandhamal
district and process them for making the powder.” Says Kavita Behera, President
of the group. The women make their initial investment from the regular monthly group
savings. The business provides employment to the women of the cooperative. They
do not outsource any work. This is like a self employment unit. Two or three
members are given the task to purchase turmeric. Another group of women may
wash, dry and cut the turmeric into small pieces which could be grinded. A
person is employed to run the meal. The powder are then formed into packets of
different denominations with the brand name “Nari Vikas Samavaya Ltd”. All the women who are involved in the purchasing
and processing are given daily wages. The meal has been built on the land of a
woman from the cooperative itself. She has opened a shop adjacent to the meal where
she sells the product. She keeps some percentage of profit from the sell and
rest goes to the group account. The group purchases about one to two quintals
of turmeric each year with an investment of the range 15,000 to 30,000. The
final product is sold with about 20 percent more rate than the raw material.
“This is quite a modest rate. “But as this is quite a pure form of turmeric,
our own cooperative women purchase them. Some neighbours also purchase. Now we
are selling this product to six schools who use them in preparing mid day
meals.” Boastfully say Savita.
The product of the cooperative is not very
competitive in the market as the market rate of turmeric powder is less than that
of the cooperative’s product. Even then the villagers prefer the cooperative
product due to its purity. In fact the ones sold in the open market are
adulterated, say the locals. “The labour of women and the sale-ability of their
produces need not be seen in the perspective of profits but with consumption.
More than 100 families consume pure form of turmeric. And what’s more that their
own children in the schools eat food cooked using this pure products . This is
the success of the women in the cooperative” says Suresh Pradhan of the local
NGO.
……………
Pradeep
Baisakh is a Journalist based in Odisha, India
and a media fellow of National Foundation of India
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