“Now we receive appreciation and support from our husbands and community. We are not dependent and need not ask our husbands money for our personal needs,” says Parvati, member of Aprilphool SHG in Chindbahar village of Chhattisgarh.

Today, Parvati and 9 other women members from the SHG are successful entrepreneurs in the village making a living from tamarind business. Moreover, they are also expanding their business in the form of opening shops, doing collective farming and taking construction contact.

It all began five years back when the Caritas India Gram Niram program, funded by Caritas Australia came into Chindbahar village of Bastar in Chhattisgarh to ensure better livelihood and dignity of the tribal people. The programme is co-funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) for the promotion of sustainable development in the target population.

Most people in the village are smallholder farmers engaged in subsistence agriculture which they practice once a year. The situation of women was far difficult being in a patriarchal society, they did not have much freedom and were limited to house and field.

Gram Nirman focused on addressing the critical concerns of the most vulnerable 2495 households by sensitizing and capacitating to ensure participation and visibility of these networks and groups in decision making. It aims to increase the income of 60% Marginalized families by 20% through small and marginal farmers organization, various adaptive initiatives (on-farm, off-farm & forest) and linkages by June 2020.

The program worked with the community and synergized the defunct SHG group which started a few years back for saving and credit but could not sustain due to lack of interest. The regular meetings and exchange of thoughts, ideas earned them both knowledge and motivation to do something different this time. Even this sort of gathering increased confident in them to participate and raise their issues in the Gram Sabha.

These tribal women did not stop there but expressed their willingness to set up a small business to sustain the group financially. Considering the prospects of NTFP in the village, the Gram Nirman team has organised training on tamarind processing and marketing. Indeed, this developed enthusiasm and skill but how to start a small setup was a question for them. The group did not have enough savings to buy a processing machine.

“We approached many people in the village to support us with some finance, but no one entertained us especially the menfolk rather discouraged us,” said Ms. Kamli, SHG leader.

Gram Nirman team linked the SHG with the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) scheme to avail Rs. 75,000/ for setting up the unit. The SHG has setup the processing unit in the village and started purchasing raw tamarind at the rate of Rs. 30/- per kg. and processed to sell the local vendors at Rs. 90 per kg. In the last season, the group has sold 22 quintals and booked a profit of Rs. 90,000/- to Rs. 1,00,000/-.

These entrepreneurs share some portion of the profit among themselves and the rest is kept as savings in the group. The initiative has helped them and their families to grow strong economically and create recognition and social status in society. These women are sharing their labour and enjoy the benefits of their hard work which creates greater empowerment and resilience among the women.