Jay Bura Devi and Sahayta SHG of Sansargarh village have now started vermicompost, a method of making compost, by using earthworms to earn their livelihood. The SHGs received Rs. 94,000/- after the sale of the first lot of vermicompost to the Chhattisgarh government. They are content to stay in their village and support their family.

Sansargarh, is a cluster of 30 small tribal households of the primitive Gond tribe (PVTG) located 15 kilometres from the Ambagarh chowki block in the Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh. The village is dominated by the Gond tribe (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PTGs)) of central and south-central India. They are also settled in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha.

Jay Bura Devi and Sahayta SHG were formed 3-4 years back in Sansargarh village and selected under the livelihood promotion programme to enhance and sustain the family income of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).

Technical training was provided to the SHG to make vermicompost in their village on Ghawtan, a common community-owned land. Though the Ghawtan was built in their village as they had a commonplace, the SHG members could not function properly. There was no profit and SHG members were unable to band together and work for a common cause. After investigating the group’s dysfunction, they decided to withdraw from the scheme and dissolve the group. They raised their concerns in the Gram Shaba and decided to suspend Ghawtan activities.

In 2021, Caritas India’s Gram Nirman programme was initiated in the village with support from Caritas Australia and Australian Aid. After the initial round of mobilization and community-led resource mapping, a livelihood training program was initiated in the village.

During the training, community and SHG members raised their concerns which were presented in the 2022 Gram Sabha held in January and attended by PRI members, the Sarpanch, and the Gram Nirman team. During the meeting, vermicompost as a mode of income generation, its benefit and the steps of making vermicompost were discussed in the meeting.

SHG members accepted the challenge to come together again. After rigorous capacity building and handholding support, the community now understands how to make vermicompost and market it, and the groups work well together.

Gram Nirman has solved one of the most important issues of distressed migration which was distorting culture, and families and all kinds of exploitation. Now the tribal population don’t have to migrate for their livelihood and reap the benefit of collectivisation by staying together and working together.