TARAgram awaits replication

The livelihood models created by Development Alternatives are yet to catch on in drought-stricken Bundelkhand villages

For Uma and Sudha, residents of villages near Orchha, the headquarters of Tikamgarh district in Madhya Pradesh, economic opportunity 12 years ago was limited to menial jobs such as agricultural labours or helping their husbands at their daily chores. Now, an NGO's intervention helps them earn Rs 1,600 to 2,000 a month even as the drought-hit district is facing poverty and migration of population.

Both the women, along with 60 others, work at a paper manufacturing unit at TARAgram, the hub of operations of NGO Development Alternatives (DA). DA's TARAgram aims at providing sustainable livelihood to the villagers through sustainable business models which are meant for employment as well as for replication. While a few people are getting jobs in these units set up by TARAgrams, there is hardly any replication putting a question mark on the whole initiative.

In the Bundelkhand area, there are, at least, three TARAgrams covering 115 villages in three blocks on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. There is a TARAgram in Newari block in Tikamgarh district, another in Dantia block of Dantia district, both in Madhya Pradesh and one in Pahuj block in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh.

In Tikamgarh, there is the paper manufacturing unit employing 60 people besides a tile and brick manufacturing unit using fly ash, a fertiliser unit using cow-dung and a biomass-based energy unit generating 100 kw of power that lights up the TARAgram campus.

These enterprises are not being replicated in the poverty stricken villages but the immediate beneficiaries "" the employees "" are happy with the extra money that has trickled into their lives.

"The earnings from the paper manufacturing unit has helped me educate my children," said Sudha, who looks after quality control at the unit. "We take care of the accuracy of measurements of various sizes of paper. Also, we ensure that the bundling and packaging is done in a proper manner," she added.

Speaking on how the earnings have brought about a change in her livelihood, Uma, who also works in the unit said: "I am educating my children. The earnings have helped me get my daughter married."

Uma, who now owns a house in Azadpura village, does not complain about the meagre pay.

The unique aspect of the unit lies in the fact that it does not use wood for manufacturing paper. "The procurement of waste cloth is done from Tirupur in South India, which is a hosiery industry hub in south India. Their waste is our wealth," said Ragwesh Ranjan, associate programme manager, DA.

The consumer base of the papers manufactured here includes various institutional clients, including Jiwaji University, TERI, Army, and Nabard, among others. "The Jiwaji University, Gwalior, offers its degree certificates on the papers manufactured by us. During the last five years, the earnings of the unit has been between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 55 lakh. We are expecting it to be around Rs 60 lakh this year," he added.

Other livelihood activities at TARAgram include micro concrete roofing tiles. This section employs 13 labourers and 4 supervisors. "Tiles are manufactured here using the dust of crushing sector. We use their waste as our raw material," said a labourer, adding that the work pays him in the range of Rs 2000 to Rs 2600 per month.

Another livelihood initiative at the Tikamgarh TARAgram is Goshala, where women rear cows and use the dung to manufacture fertilisers using worms. The fertiliser is then packed to be sold in the market. A cluster of women SHG Sankalp Swashakti Mahila Mandal manages it.

"We have got training to make fertiliser using worms and are trying to replicate it in our villages," said Sarju of village Bagan. There are 367 women SHGs in the 115 villages having a total membership of 4608 women. The cumulative savings so far of these groups have been Rs 45 lakh, the DA workers say.

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Q&A: Ashok Khosla

Total number of TARAgrams in the country?
Three

What is the total budget for the project?
Budget comes in terms of projects. For these are self sustaining projects. Recently we got the Aragyam project which is for community drinking water supply. This crore-rupee project is from Akshara Foundation of Rohini Nilekeni. Our enterprises generate enough income to run the TARAgrams.

TARAgram employees get very low salaries. What is the use?
But there is a significant jump from where they were. The absence of a rural market or a supply chain are responsible.

So what has been TARAgram's contribution?
A We did set up models for social enterprise. It is for people to replicate.