FOCUS: WOMEN AND LIVELIHOODS

Project: Technical Training Of Women For Income Generation Through Appropriate Technological Interventions

Funding By:  ETC, Netherlands

Project Duration:  April 2002 - April 2004

Rationale

This Project has emerged out of the experiences of interacting with self-help groups of rural women over the past few months. The situation is as follows:

• There exists several women's self help groups promoted by NGOs
• They have the ability to raise finances from institutions and development loan schemes.
• They have certain limitations in terms of mobility, availability of time and skill levels.
• They lack idea for income generation
• When exposed to managing micro enterprise ,they are able to handle production-related activities and able to maintain accounts well. They need assistance in handling purchase but would be able to handle this aspect in course of time.
• They need marketing support and would continue to need it for some time to come.

TIDE has identified three type of micro enterprises that can be managed entirely by women self help groups. Some have locational limitations in terms of availability of raw materials and skills, others more universal. TIDE expects some products will do well in Karnataka and they are:

• Construction and maintenance of fuel efficient domestic wood burning stoves.
• Terracotta water purifiers fitted with zero B candles or conventional candles coated with silver oxide.
• Soap making using pre assembled soap kits.

Description Of the Micro Enterprises

Micro Enterprise-1 Construction Of Smokeless burning Stoves

Traditional wood burning stoves have fuel efficiencies of around 10%.In addition they liberate a lot of smoke in the kitchen making kitchen a health hazard. Continued exposure to smoke makes women susceptible to respiratory and eye ailments. The cell for ASTRA (Application Of Science and Technology to Rural Areas) at the Indian Institute Of Science has developed a two pan, smokeless, fuel efficient wood burning stove called Sarala ole. This stove reduces fuel consumption by over 30% releases smoke to outside the kitchen and makes the kitchen a cleaner / healthier / safer place. The time that woman spends in collecting fuel and carrying head loads of them over long distances is reduced. As the women would not exposed to the poisonous smoke anymore, the impact of the stove on the health of the women is also significant.

Micro Enterprise-2 Terracotta water purifiers fitted with conventional candles with ceramic filters

This income generation activity can be built around women engaged in the ancient craft of pottery. The pottery sector is currently going through difficult times because of the advent of plastics. However, pottery is a very versatile and affordable material and has the potential to reinvent itself.

A new application for pottery wares is to make the conventional water filter (consisting of the upper and lower water storage chambers inter connected by a ceramic candle) in pottery. Conventional water filters with ceramic candles filters water but does not purify it, but ensures that the water is filtered. In a rural/semi urban environment this is already a great intervention as it would contribute to good health of the rural household and ensure availability of safe drinking water in rural environments where ground water is contaminated (however the water still need to be boiled to ensure 100% removal of bacterial. It is expected that this water filter should not cost more than Rs.225/-.

Micro Enterprise-3 Decentralized Soap Making

The procedure for soap making is very simple. Soap can easily be made by rural women in their homes at their convenience. In order to simplify the procedure and ensure consistent quality, soap kits can be made available to them. Soap kits are assembled centrally and sold to individual women or women's groups. The kits essentially consist of alkali and small amounts of perfume and foaming agents. The ingredients in the kit have to be mixed with one kg of any oil (available locally and not supplied in the kit) and stirred continuously for half an hour. This is a cold process and does not require any heating. Upon completion of the process, the mixture is poured into a mould and allowed to settle. The cost of this mould may be less than Rs.100 . The potential for income generation is high and depends on the price at which the woman is able to sell the soap. It is also an income generating activity that can be practiced by the women at their homes as per the women's convenience.