Luhar Anusuya Ben, a female resident of remote village Adivada which is a part of Becharaji taluka, belongs to a deeply conservative family where she is the head of the family. The idea of women leaving their homes to earn livelihood is inconceivable in this strata of the society. Over the last few years, the economic situation of her family had gradually declined to an eventual standstill as they are doing labour work to survive. Anusuya ben ultimately decided to explore alternative means of income generation to provide her children a better living standard.

The total project area of the Adivada (IWMP-4) village is about 793.5 Ha of which 393.5 Ha is proposed to be treated under Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP). The nearest town is Bechraji which is about 10 to 20 Km from watershed area, which is well connected by pucca road. The project area lies in nearest boundary of patan district. Patel, Thakor, Rabai, Harijan, Darbar community resides in the village.

As Anusuya ben had the skills of making handicraft items, she was chosen as the livelihood beneficiary of the IWMP project. She had been given the training through Chuvad Gram Vikas Trust for making the handicraft items for one week. She had found the training useful for adding values to her skills of making handicraft and marketing with business representatives of different locale. As per Anusuya Ben “ The training took me a step ahead involved in making handicrafts of decorative items, how to improve upon their quality and how to meet the demand.”

Fig. 1 : Displaying Handicraft Items during National conference team visit (Rajasthan team) at Mehsana

For initiating the work she had been given a financial support of Rs. 10,000 under IWMP Project during Aug 2013. From that money she purchased the raw materials required for making handicraft items from Mahesana & Ahmedabad at wholesale price. She prepared the handicraft items at home like decorative wall hangings, door hangings, pearl anklets, bangles etc. She sells her handicrafts items at the neighboring villages of Adivada and also manages to bring order from the customer easily.

Her business has been doing well and she would like to continue developing it by streamlining the goods and products that are high in demand. Anusuya Ben business generates Rs. 50/- to Rs 70/- on per item. Every month she sells around 50 handicraft products which fetches her Rs. 2500/- to Rs. 3500/- per month respectively. A portion of her income is invested in the business while the rest contributes to the household expenses.

According to Anusuya ben : “Life has been good. I get enough money to sustain my family and I get to meet people and organize my Store of handicraft items on project occasions at Adivada Village. It has made me more responsible and improved the financial situation of my family.” 

Fig. 2 : Display of items in front of Anusuya Ben's home

Although it is a very small step taken for livelihood augmentation but it has bring a remarkable positive impact in her life. For future prospect of her business DWDU Mehsana is continuously involved for capacity building and scaling up the business.


Contributor: Bhatt Rajal Ben (WDT CM), Choudhary Balwant Bhai (WDT Agri), Deepali Solanki (Technical Expert), Arun Adhikari (Technical Expert)