4. MICRO ENTERPRISES
From End Of Poverty
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Livelihood Study:
NGOs lack basic knowledge in the identification of viable production units and/or service centres as they lack commercial nature. Hence, it is imperative to hire the services of the professional agency to take up a feasibility study of various opportunities for livelihood promotion in the target villages. The experts have to come down to the field and assess the field realities. It implies they need to study the various vocations and skills available in the area and explore the possibilities for sharpening them to turn them as viable income generation sources. The study should also take into account the local demands and see how best the local demands could be met by upgrading the skills and adding additional elements to these skills. At present, the external people is exploiting the market demands and the project should find a way how best it could be avoided and by meeting the local demands the income generation opportunities for the poor people should be explored.
Training Camps on Feasibility Study:
Based on the feasibility study, the particular skills need up-gradation will be identified. Once the skills are identified, artisans willing to go for training have to be identified by the respective people’s organisations. Feasibility study should specify the possible avenues to give up-gradation training. Accordingly, the identified artisans will be sent for external training. The skill up gradation will take place over a project period of three years. More detailed description of the trades and number of people will result from the outcome of the feasibility study.
While the target population will have basic skill and knowledge, they are no more appropriate in the present circumstances. In order to make it acceptable, some value additions have to be integrated in the skills or production process so that the market potential could be explored. Thereby they become viable income generation sources for the target population.
Another bottleneck of the poor even though they are very rich in the skills and knowledge is the lack of marketing techniques. For instance, the packing of the product is a great art and it attracts the consumer. Consumer is tempted to buy a product which is neat and tidy irrespective of the quality. Though the quality of the product is also important it becomes the later part. Hence, the producers in our target communities have to be oriented towards product promotion activities.
Livelihood Promotion Activities:
To break the cycle of the poverty, ASSIST believes the necessity of providing some sorts of livelihood promotion opportunities depending on the skills and capabilities of the target population. Possible schemes include sheep and goat rearing, poultry boxes, dairy, occupational activities etc. However, the skills could be identified based on the intended study in the project. Sometimes loans may be given to help village members start their own petty businesses. These schemes are the starting point for increased economic stability which will create the conditions necessary for sending their children to school instead of work. Income generation schemes also compensate for some of the losses incurred when parents withdraw their children from work. Income generation makes up for the wage that the child would have earned so that financially the family does not suffer.
The existing Self-help Groups (SHGs) or individual families will be motivated and mobilised to form into Mutually Aided Co-operative Thrift and Credit Societies (MACTS) at village level or cluster level or area level. Each MACTS will be consisting about 250 members from one to a group of villages. The savings amount of SHGs will be pooled together and MACTS will be registered officially to cater the needs of all the 250 members. Members will contribute Rs. 800- as their share capital in form of savings and an equal amount will be provided under the project as a matching grant. In addition to this amount every month the members will continue to their savings amount. With this amount the financial needs of the members will be tackled and they will rotate the amount forever. This completely managed by the respective members and required training and support is given by ASSIST.
Strengthen the Village Organisation and form a subcommittee:
While discussing with the villagers about planning to widen the scope of taking up more livelihood promotion activities to enhance the living conditions of all the families, the community has mooted the idea of strengthening the existing Village Organisation. It leads to the stage that VO should maintain the accounts in such a way that the profit of the unit should be used as corpus fund for the whole village. Accordingly, the VO will be strengthened and bye-laws will be developed with the Executive Committee of VO and later presented to the community for final approval and implementation.
For the proper execution of the project, a sub-committee will be formed at the community level. This committee would be responsible to give regular feed-back to the Village Committee and to the total village to maintain the transparency. The committee will have the representation from the village as decided by the village elders and the Community Organiser of ASSIST.
