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By Aditya Malaviya Self-help groups in Betul district, Madhya Pradesh have a new confidence as they augment their agricultural income with small business practices such as trading in red chillies and making rooftiles
Tadar in panchayat Patakheda, janpad panchayat Chicholi in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh is a typical village -- happy in its anonymity. It is difficult to reach, windblown, hot and dusty, with a smattering of thatched huts. In this village resides Ramla Maskote, who does not believe in doing things halfway. “We have been thinking about doing something that will both take care of our food security as well as be a consistent source of income. And don’t forget, our effort is to make everyone contribute, depending on skills they already have. We did not have the time to retrain ourselves over a period of six months and then set out to try a new idea…” he says with a laugh. Ramla Maskote, Brajlal Salame, Sunderlal Irpat, Munna Lal, Ramadin and Bhagwati are a growing tribe of people in this village who have been successful in trying newer initiatives to augment their incomes, which so far have come only from agriculture -- like trading in red chillies, for example. Says Brajlal Salame, “Red chillies are a staple in our diet. No Gond tribal will cook any meal without a handful of red chillies thrown in. Chillies are as important to us as salt. The traders realise this, and that is why they have been taking us for a ride over chillies all these years. But now we are turning the tables on them,” he says as he looks around the crowd sitting around him, who nod sagely in agreement. Interestingly, the villagers drew a parallel between what they so desperately wanted as part of their diet, and the high price they were ultimately paying for the chillies. Says Anil Bhusari of Gramin Vikas Sanstha, Chicholi, the CSO working with villagers on the issue, “We went from door to door and met everyone to instill in them the advantage of doing something that would make them economically better-off. Then we held a rally which went around asking villagers to work together on a business plan that was both simple and practical. This is where the idea of trading in red chillies was born…” In January 2007, a small self-help group (SHG), the Majhi Swaran Jayanti Swa-Sahayta Samooh, was formed consisting of 10 members, both men and women, and they agreed to start trading in chillies in a limited way. Says Sunderlal Irpat, “First came market research: the group members realised that buying chillies from the neighbouring town of Harda made better business sense than buying form a village trader, since the rates in Harda were far less than anywhere else (chillies were trading for Rs 80/kg in their village as against Rs 55/kg in Harda).” Having selected the market to buy from, the group put together their resources (Rs 5,000 plus some money they had from a bank loan) and traveled to Harda to make the purchase arrangements. Once there, the members went around negotiating the best price for their goods. They finally settled at a cost price of Rs 51/kg for the chillies, and bought Rs 6,400 worth of chillies. Says Ramadin, “The group also bought its own certified weights and measures from Chicholi and measured our government-certified measures against those being used by the traders. We found that the weights/measures being used by the traders weighed less than the ones we had!” The chillies that the group bought (approximately 120 kg) for Rs 6,400 were sold by them in the village at Rs 70/kg, thus earning a net profit (after expenses) of Rs 7,500! The group realised they had a win-win formula that, if worked out properly, could lead them to economic independence and, more importantly, rid them of the wily traders and moneylenders. Because there were 88 families living below the poverty line, Gramin Vikas Sanstha contacted the District Development Officer (DDO) to register the Samooh. A meeting for the same was held by the Samooh and Gramin Vikas Sanstha functionaries in July 2006. Once the Samooh was registered, it could get its own bank account by August 2006. Says Anil, “Gramin Vikas Sanstha also involved the CEO in the process, because he had heard about the initiative of the Samooh and had in fact visited them during Diwali last year, promising his support to their endeavour (the name of the Samooh -- Majhi Swaran Jayanti Swa-Sahayta Samooh -- was suggested by the district administration itself, which is now encouraging them to learn about, and take advantage of, other government-run schemes). Once the bank account was opened, the bank knew the Samooh had officially come into being for trading.” Today, the Samooh buys chillies from Khedi, a small village in Madhya Pradesh and a trading post for chillies from Maharashtra. They buy their stocks from Khedi and while they do sell in their village of Tadar, they also travel from village to village doing brisk business in chillies. This year, they made a small profit of Rs 3,988 over and above the Rs 4,500 they had invested in chillies. The group has not been content with merely sitting back and watching the business grow. They have, instead, forayed into other opportunities. Like when the group applied for, and got work, under NREGA to work on road construction near their village. About 25-30 persons from their village received employment for 10 days in the road construction work, a first for any SHG in the area. Inspired with the success of this group, other groups are seeking their expertise and want to initiate similar activities. The group has also hit upon another innovative money-making idea -- because they have certified weights and measures, a lot of people come to them for help in weighing their produce. So the group charges Rs 1 for every 10 kg they weigh/measure. This is helping their corpus grow! Four group members have also been trained at Anooppur (district Shahdol) in making lac from lac insects. Lac (laccifer lacca kerr) are scale insects (Homoptera, family Coccidea) native to India and Southeast Asia. The name lac comes from the Hindi lakh meaning hundred-thousand. Lac has been intentionally cultured in India for over 3,000 years. The group has now bought ‘seeds’ worth Rs 160 from the training centre in Shahdol, and given the plentiful supply of palas and ber trees in the surrounding forests, is working on culturing these seeds to harvest lac for sale. Sticklac yields are dependent upon various factors: the insect strain, the host tree and the management system. Annual yields of sticklac per tree reported for MP and Bihar in India are: 6/10 kg on kusum (S oleosa); 1.5-6 kg on ber (Z mauritanea); and 1-4 kg for palas (B monosperma), and it sells in the local market for Rs 120/kg. Even with an average yield of 2-3 kg per tree, and with harvesting carried out twice a year, the group stands to make reasonable profits. Inspired by the effort of Majhi Swaran Jayanti Swa-Sahayta Samooh, other groups like the Ganga Swaran Jayanti Swa-Sahayta Samooh have also set up shop. Says Shiv Dayal Vishwakarma of Ganga Swaran Jayanti Swa-Sahayta Samooh in village Patakheda, which has 10 members who contribute Rs 100/month to the group’s corpus, “Most of these success stories are short-lived: they fail because we do not get support from anyone. Just money and an idea are not enough, is it? We need to be guided along, especially when we hit hard times, and this is when crucial support from NGOs and officials is required. When I heard of these initiatives, I also gave them time to see if they worked or not. Watching it work closely, I am now convinced that it is a good idea.” So good, in fact, that Vishwakarma has not only set up his own SHG in the village, but is already working on similar lines to make himself and others like him economically independent. Says Vishwakarma: “We set up the Ganga Swaran Jayanti Swa-Sahayta Samooh in September 2006. I have studied till class 5, but then dropped out because I had to contribute to my family’s kitty. But that little education gave me the confidence to understand numbers. That is why we initially began by buying and selling poultry three to four times a year. We did make a tiny profit -- Rs 500 in all -- but then the story of Majhi Swaran Jayanti Swa-Sahayta Samooh made us think seriously about more lucrative work. Then we hit upon making tiles for sale.” With their bank deposit totaling Rs 5,000, the group decided to get into making roof tiles in the village of Chikhali, taking land on rent @ Rs 2,000 for two months for 50,000 tiles (the land is needed both for the soil and for setting up their kiln and other related structures). “We made a total investment of Rs 12-13,000 in the business, and our calculation is that we will sell tiles to villagers only @ Rs 400 for 1,000 tiles. The rest of the math is simple, really, and quite exciting! This is also in keeping with our motto of ‘gaon ka paisa gaon mein, gaon ka paani gaon mein (the money of the village and the water of the village, both should remain in the village itself).” So far, the labour and the math both seem to be working well for Chikhali and its residents. (Aditya Malaviya is a Bhopal-based researcher and journalist) InfoChange News & Features, May 2008
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