Resilient Livelihoods – COVID-19 | SELCO Foundation

Provisional Stores and Solar Powered Refrigerators | Stories Of Resilience

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 14:23:29 +0000

Context

Mr. Parameshwaraih is an entrepreneur based out of Kalenahalli village, Gubbi Taluk, Tumkur District, Karnataka. He is a different abled person of humble background who has been running a business since the last 20 years. With support of his wife and other family members he runs a small provision store which caters to the local demand for daily consumption items. The income from this store is the only source of income for his whole family. His store is frequented by local community members as well as those who are coming for work form outside, as it is located on one of the main roads, connecting to nearby towns.

Solution Overview

Enterprising as he is, Parameshwaraiah was quick to spot that there was a latent demand for refrigerated products like packaged and chilled water packets / bottles and cold drinks in his village. No shop in the village was able to provide for this demand and he was keen to invest in a refrigerator and connect with vendors who could help him supply cold drinks, juices and packaged water. His shop often had powercuts, and that was the only reason he was questioning the investment on refrigerator for his shop. In 2019, he learned about solar powered refrigerators and contacted a local Clean Energy Enterprises and put in an enquiry. Soon he had used his savings, and taken a part loan to buy a 100 litre solar powered refrigerator for his store.

COVID-19 And Impact on Business

As soon as the nationwide lockdown was declared, the business had been severely affected. Since his customer base mostly came from people who would be passing by his village, the demand for the goods in his refrigerator was close to zero. His regular customers were primarily those who would come from nearby villages to work in the fields or any other workers employed under government employment programs. Due to the lockdown, such work had come to a standstill, bringing no visitors or tired workers demanding cold drinks to the village. Summer season is usually the peak season for his business and he was anticipating a good demand for the cold drinks since he had built his customer based over the last few months- more and more people knew that his shop would have a refrigerator and cold drinks. Many local fairs and weekly markets organised nearby would also bring in additional income. Mr. Parameshwaraih quickly assessed the scenario and started to stock up the items whose demand was likely to go up and whose supply was also not affected. He sharply observed that there was an increase in demand for curd and milk because of the summer. He started stocking up curd and milk, sometimes upto 10 litres each day. This helped him to steady his earnings on a daily basis. While cold drinks get him higher margins, Parameshwaraiah’s sales for dairy products has increased during this period. His sales for milk packets, have gone from 14 to 53 units per day, and curd has gone from 24 to 30 units. His daily profits from the refrigerator has seen a dip- from INR 190 per day to INR 147 per day because of the reduction in sales of cold drinks, ie almost INR 1200 a month, but the demand for dairy products has helped keep the earnings steady to a certain extent.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ability to make incremental investments helps businesses grab emerging opportunities and push up the earning potential- in this case the addition of the refrigerator brought additional sales and stability to the provisional store.
The entrepreneur has an ongoing loan for his Refrigerator. A moratorium on the loan contracted will be helpful in softening the impact on the health of the business.
Entrepreneur’s ability to gauge customer’s demands and preferences depending on the scenario is key in how businesses pivot and adapt during crisis times.

“Business has been impacted there is no question about it but my
investment in the (solar powered) refrigerator has turned out to be a life
line for me, bring in much needed income on daily basis.“

– Mr. Parameshwaraih, Provisional Store Owner

Koraput Livelihood Centre | Stories of Resilience

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 05:58:03 +0000

Context

Koraput is a remote district in the state of Odisha with a predominantly tribal population. Kanjariguda is a village in Lakshmipur block of Koraput district which is very remote with tribal communities engaged in agriculture and NTFPs. The main crops grown in this region are rice and ragi. To access basic services people in the region have to walk kilometers across forests and mountains. Due to this reason, organizations such as IGSSS and IDS, in partnership with SELCO got together to establish a livelihood centre in order to decentralise critical services.

Need and Key Issues:

Rice and Ragi: Rice is an important major crop in the area. The community is engaged in rice cultivation and would have to spend an entire day commuting – leaving early morning and returning late in the night just to get their rice, millets milled and to access other basic essential services. The amount spent for 50 Kg paddy hulling is INR 100. Also, the community has to travel 6-10 kms for hulling, which has its additional costs (economic and opportunity costs). The community is also engaged in ragi cultivation and is an important secondary crop after rice. A lot of drudgery is involved in turning the ragi grains to flour. The women would do this activity by hand, manually. In the larger flour mills, the community would pay around INR 4-5 per kg for milling their ragi produce.
Mobile Charging: There would be heavy power cuts in the area ranging from 12-15 hours a day at times. To charge their mobile phones, the community would have to travel 15-20 kms and would have to pay INR 10 for each charge. The monthly expenses on mobile charging itself would amount to around INR 150 per phone.
Printing and Photocopying: The community would have to travel 15-20 kms to access printing and photocopying services and would spend a day to access these services. They would require these photocopies and printouts for government documentation, school work and for other official purposes.

The Intervention

The main objective of the livelihood centre was to mitigate the drudgery, time, money and effort expended by the communities in the nearby regions to access basic services. The livelihood centre was proposed to be completely run and maintained by a Self Help Group (SHG), and the income from these services are divided amongst the members. The centre has a plan to convert the space into a training centre in the near future but has been stalled due to the lockdown. The livelihood centre presently has a decentralised rice mill, ragi mill, a mobile charging unit, a lok seva kendra (photocopier, printer and a camera) and a sewing machine. All the technological interventions are solar powered and have been installed by a local enterprise, Shreyas Solar. The installations were completed in February 2019.

COVID-19 Impact

As the region is very remote, the communities have not interacted with anyone post the lockdown. The village is 12 kms away from Yeshmantpur which is the nearest large town where a patient was detected positive post COVID testing. The patient has since been moved to the district hospital in Koraput and the area has been strictly shut down. Since the past few weeks, the towns have been opening up services have been disrupted due to a minimum of 4 hours of power cut every day- Unable to procure diesel, leading them to close early. This has not been the case with the solar powered Livelihood Centre run by the SHG. For people to know about this centre in the wider region, it took 15 days of awareness building to link the nearby villagers to this centre. IDS, the local NGO partner was doing mask distribution and other relief work during which they informed the villagers of this centre. The sarpanch (village leader) has also been immensely supportive of the centre from the start and has helped safeguard the SHG members from any trouble or disruption from local police or other authorities. The people from 17 villages within the 12-15 km radius are now dependent on this centre for accessing essential services. The local communities accessing the milling services do processing on a weekly basis and not on a bulk basis. They do not have storage and there is no packaging system due to which they leave the produce tied up in cloth or steel tins causing pest infestation. Weekly milling is very essential for the communities for this reason.

Solar Powered Printing/Photocopying Unit: During the COVID lockdown, the need for accessing photocopying and printing services has come down as there are no regular government services, employment related services or school supplies required. Due to this, the income has dropped to INR 1800 per month from INR 2500. However, with schemes, loans and other government services that will start to kick off, the need for this service is predicted to resume.
Solar Powered Mobile Charging Unit: The mobile charging unit has 15 charging points allowing 15 mobiles to charge at the same time. The service was primarily used by school teachers, local youth especially during the rainy season when power cuts are at its highest. During the COVID lockdown, the number of people accessing this service has reduced as there have been protocols on physical distancing with people now being allowed to crowd the space. Per day there are 2-4 people who have been accessing this service.
Solar Powered Rice Mill: Within Lakhimpur block, there are 500+ rice cultivating farmers associated with IDS. Initially, there was one machine which was milling both the rice and ragi in the same machine. But due to increased demand, two separate machines based on the requirements were designed by SELCO Foundation and installed in February, 2020. The mills are open from 7 AM to 7 PM with a 2 and a half hour break in between. During the lockdown, they are able to earn approximately INR 1200 per day.
Solar Powered Millet Mill: Through the IDS program, there are 270 households cultivating ragi within Lakhimpur block itself who are promoted by the organization. Post the lockdown, the ragi mill is also running for 9 hours in a day, more or less being used constantly. The charges have been increased to INR 5 per kg (from INR 3 per kg) due to additional operational hours and people required. During the lockdown, the SHG is able to earn close to INR 700 per day from milling ragi.
Solar Powered Sewing Machine: One sewing machine was installed, being used by the daughter of one of the SHG members. The local villagers give her their clothes on which she could do basic repair work and simple embroideries. She keeps half the income that she would get and gives the rest half to the SHG. Due to the lockdown, one of her uncles who owns a tailoring shop in Lakhimpur has had to shut shop and return to the village and will return post. He is very skilled and is using the solar powered sewing machine to take orders and stitch clothes, repair, do embroidery etc. He is using this time to teach the girl more advanced tailoring skills which she has successfully been picking up on. Due to this, the panchayat has given her the order to stitch all the 7th grade school uniforms for the coming year which will increase her income multifold.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Support from IDS: The NGO has been engaging in relief work across the region from the start of the lockdown. Due to their access to mobility, they have been inundated on the issues that the communities have been facing with lack of access to basic services during this period. They spent that time also creating awareness and informing those communities of the solar powered livelihood centre in Kanjariguda allowing people to resume accessing these services at this centre.
Continued income and increased business in the future: Due to communities wanting to access these services, the SHG has continued to earn their income while many others with shops and services haven’t. With a lot more people from nearby villages being aware of this centre and accessing it, they have been expressing to the SHG on the convenience and their continued support to this centre post the lockdown as well.
Panchayat support: Due to the sarpanch being involved right from the setting up of the centre and being supportive throughout, he has ensured that there is no form of harassment or disruption from any local authorities or other villagers on the centre’s activities.
Energy Resilience: Due to powercuts, a lot of mills and other centres in towns have not been able to operate smoothly as diesel has not been available in required quantities or in convenient locations. However, the Kanjariguda livelihood centre has remained unaffected by these power cuts and lack of diesel availability due to it being solar powered with backup of 6 hours which is more than sufficient for all the services.
One-stop shop: Due to the livelihood centre having multiple facilities under the same roof, it has been very convenient for the villagers to access these services. During the lockdown due to mobility being restricted, they would have been able to access a service or two if they were scattered. This has allowed for time and costs to be saved for these communities.

Decentralised Rice Milling Unit in Odisha | Stories of Resilience

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 05:28:33 +0000

Context

Nabarangpur is a district in Odisha with the city of Nabarangpur being the district headquarters. The district has a majority of tribal population who are involved in agricultural activities and NTFP produce. Harsha Trust visualized impressive growth in paddy production in their operational area of Kosagumuda Village in Nabarangpur district through improved paddy production technique, which was coming under its livelihood enhancement activity. Not only improved paddy production technique but also geographical suitability plays a great role in quality paddy production in Kosagumuda region. 

Harsha Trust supported Danteswari Women Farmer Producer Com Ltd is establishing the production of aromatic paddy, black jira rice and normal varieties of rice with 470 of their registered farmer members and shareholders. Post this, the procurement of the paddy, milling, packaging and marketing was established in partnership with Harsha Trust, SELCO Foundation and the District Collectorate office to establish a milling centre in Kanhaguda block, Kosagumuda.

Need for a Decentralised Rice Milling Unit

Barter System and Emergence of Middlemen: A common transaction method in the region was barter system- a traditional practice where farmers would barter part of their harvested produce with other commodities. A form of this practice has been adapted by saahukaars (middlemen) who procure paddy from farmers for x amount and return them milled rice of the same amount. This practice also applies for cotton, millets and other pulses which farmers sell. The milled produce given to them is often of poor quality, and sometimes the produce given is of lower rate. Middle men capture the markets in this manner and have turned the traditional barter system into an exploitative business practice. Hence, the
setting up of the SHGs and FPOs with decentralized milling systems were critical in this region.

Procurement Model: The milling centre has been operational since December 2018 which is run by the production staff, mill operator and a night watch. Their procurement policy is that they procure the paddy from the member farmers at the same rates which are offered by the block level government centres. However, the additional benefit is that at the end of the year, the profit is redistributed to the member farmers in the form of dividends. The procurement of paddy happens twice a year, right after the harvesting period. Since the storage facility isn’t sufficient for all the paddy to be stored, there is a rotational system in place – where some SHGs give their produce and some store it at home all of whom are given payment in advance for their quantity of produce. Once the first batch has been milled and stored, the second batch is brought in. Another system in place is that farmers write letters to the FPO stating the quantity that they require for self consumption and the quantity they would like to sell. Deducting the processing charge, the amount is paid in advance and the rest is maintained in their registers.

Input Supply: The FPO also supports the farmers with technical support, awareness of new scientific techniques for productivity enhancement and cropping practices, input supplies like seeds, irrigation, fertilizers etc which makes it more compelling for the farmers to sell to the FPO as opposed to the market.

Processing: The stored paddy is processed daily in batches, packed and sold to the vendors using their mini truck which they invested in for both marketing and procurement. The members pay a processing fee of INR 2 per kg. With the mill being established locally, time and money spent on traveling to towns has also been saved.
Marketing: The main towns around the village are Nabarangpur, Joypur and Papadahandi. The FPO board of directors, vendors, government representatives conducted a meeting for formulating the marketing plan before the mill was established. Through this local team, linkages with surrounding vendors were formed who were responsible for micro-selling. This was taken into consideration before the technology capacity and energy system design was done.

COVID-19 Impact

With the lockdown in place, all activities in the towns came to an abrupt halt. 150 migrant families returned and have been settled in the nearest schools and community spaces which have been converted into quarantine centres. The FPO has been going and supporting them with sanitizers, masks, gloves etc. They also received orders from the government to supply quarantine rations to 20 schools i.e. quarantine centres. They have been supplying 5 bags (50 kgs each) to each school on a weekly basis. During the start of the lockdown, the FPO vehicle was used to provide relief materials to the selected villages by the collectorate which they did not get reimbursements for. But during the second phase of the lockdown, two local partner NGOs, RCDC and Gobindalaya used the vehicle for distributing relief materials for two weeks and paid the FPO INR 2000 per day which acted as an additional income source. However, the FPO continued their milling activities through the lockdown period as they had a lot of paddy stocked in their storage space – 6 tonnes of black jeera rice. The markets were functioning in Nabarangpur and Papadahandi and they have been able to sell their milled produce to the vendors, allowing for movement within the district. The produce that would go to the next districts Umarkot and Koraput have stopped, cutting their income from those sources. But that stock is now being bought by local NGOs to provide relief material which has been constant since April, May and the orders will continue in June as well. Other than the registered FPO farmer members utilising the milling services, non FPO farmer members would also come to access the mill. These non FPO farmers were reliant on the town markets and exploitative middle men who are unable to function at the time due to the lockdown, making this mill a critical service for them to be able to access. To take care of this additional load, the night staff has been trained to operate the mill and they run the mill in the evening for 2 extra hours.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Government Support: The local government officials were informed from the beginning in the formation of the FPO and the establishing of the milling centre. The FPO was able to get permission to be able to continue their services during the lockdown period because of that network established. Through the government, the FPO was also able to receive orders to supply rations to the quarantine centres in the district.
Stocks: Due to the stock in their storage facility and in the homes of farmer members which they already had paid advance for, the FPO could continue milling and selling the produce allowing the income to flow through during the lockdown as well.
Orders from NGOs: Being the only rice mill running in a decentralised manner, the local NGOs were able to utilise their services to procure rice to be distributed as relief material to families and communities in need, especially the ones without ration cards.
Farmers from Nearby Villages Access the Service: The number of non-FPO member farmers from nearby villages who would visit the milling centre has more than doubled on a daily basis as the middle men have not been able to procure their paddy. One reason for this is that the farmers would get milled rice in return for their paddy which the middle men have not been able to access due to milling centres being shut in towns. Due to this, awareness among these farmers has increased and understanding the value of milling their own produce has also been created. The FPO is expecting more such farmers to continually visit their milling centre post the lockdown as well.

“Our mill is the only mill working in the district. Before the lockdown 5-6 people would visit per day and post the lockdown, there are 12-15 people visiting, with an approximate increase of 6 quintals per day and an increased income of approximately INR 1200 per day.“

– Mr. Subhrajit Satpathy, CEO, Danteswari FPO.

Tailoring Training Centre, Converts into a Mask Production Centre | Stories of Resilience

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:49:15 +0000

CONTEXT

Priscilla Centre, a training cum production centre for women based in Guwahati, Assam works with women, school-dropouts, widowed women from the states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and other neighbouring states on skill training. They conduct two year training programs post which the women who graduate are linked to other advanced skill training institutes. One of the main programs run by them is Sustainable Income Generating Program (SIGAP) focussing on textile based training which is conducted at their training centre in Guwahati and also at other partner grassroot NGOs. Priscilla Centre also has a sister concern which is a for-profit organization that helps with market linkages and selling of the products made by the trainees and graduates – sarees, kurtas, traditional clothing, bags etc. SELCO Foundation partnered with Priscilla to understand their model better and explore sustainable energy interventions in their training centres.

COVID-19 AND RELIEF WORK

The training centre is located in Panbazaar, a main market area in Guwahati city which is under a containment zone due to positive cases that have been detected in the region. Due to this, the trainees and trainers from the city also have not been able to access the sewing machines as they are housed at the centre. All the trainees from neighbouring states like Manipur and Nagaland left for their respective home towns and districts right before the lockdown. This also led to a complete stop of the training program temporarily due to the lockdown.
Meanwhile, a senior tailoring instructor who lives in Guwahati city received a request from Satribari hospital for producing masks, caps and gowns for the hospital staff using the green coloured medical cotton based cloth. Using the sewing machine at her home, she single handedly met the demand of 300 numbers of masks, 100 numbers of caps and 50 numbers of gowns for the hospital within 20 days. The organisation has also received a certificate of acknowledgement on assisting the hospital at this dire time.
In the early days of the lockdown, the organization received a letter from NITI Aayog which states that NGOs have to use their financial resources, staff and skills to complement the government’s efforts. As they received the letter towards the end of March close to the financial year, they had some remaining funds in their organizational account. Utilizing these funds, they could carry out 8 prescribed types of activities out of which they decided to choose two:

Preparing packets of dry rations which they would procure and deliver to villagers nearby. These are being delivered to families with no ration cards due to which they have not been able to access free rations through PDS.
Stitching masks for volunteers, a list of which was provided to them from the district administration.

To carry out the stitching activity, they roped in 4 of their graduates who lived nearby and had sewing machines at home. They did not have any form of livelihood due to the lockdown presently. The organization had a lot of stock cotton fabric which they delivered to the graduates to start stitching masks. Using their funds, they are paying the workers INR 20-25 per mask and they are making 500 masks a week. With the help of the graduates, current demand rate and availability of limited raw
material, the organisation is planning to produce 2500 units of masks for next month. Moreover, if the rate of demand is increased they will keep a repository of stitched new masks. However, to meet this demand there might be a requirement of working capital to procure the raw material.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Entrepreneurial Staff: Due to the entrepreneurial nature of their senior staff and her contacts, she was able to provide critical PPEs to the hospital staff due to which the district administration was able to identify the organization and the potential work they were able to do during the lockdown period.
Income for Workers: Their graduates who have no other source of income at the moment, are receiving work through the organization and steady income even during this lockdown perio

Solar Powered Decentralised Rice Milling Unit in Jharkhand | Stories of Resilience

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:38:58 +0000

Context

Life Education and Development Support (LEADS) is an organization that works in the districts of Jharkhand, primarily in Khunti, Hazaribagh, Laterhar, Ghumla (amongst others) to promote sustainable livelihood solutions in rural and tribal communities. They also work in urban areas with their base located in Ranchi. Within the livelihoods work, they focus on agriculture and natural resource promotion, animal husbandry for sustainable livelihoods and more. They have members grouped in Self Help Groups across the districts, some of which are driven by women participation and leadership.

In Latehar and Ghumla districts alone, they have 1,600 members who practice rice cultivation. These farmers live in very remote forested regions and predominantly belong to tribal communities.

The Intervention

Kurokala village in Mahuadan Block, Latehar district is a remote village with Santhal communities residing there. They are all small and marginal farmers who grow rice for one season and practice horticulture farming as well. The farmers primarily grow a special variety, Black Jeera Rice along with some other varieties of rice which they consume and sell. 300 households cultivate paddy in this cluster of Mahuadan block with each household producing about 15-20 bags of paddy (10 quintals) per season. They keep enough paddy aside for self consumption and sell the rest.

Kisan Mahila Mandal is a women based SHG with 20 members who decided to take up the decentralized solar powered rice mill intervention as they observed the need for hulling of rice and polishing there. The nearest rice mill was in a town, about 10 kms away- large in scale, it was primarily catering to large farmers, bringing in paddy in larger quantities to be hulled. A small building infrastructure was set up with the help of the Jharkhand Livelihood Mission and the solar powered rice processing machines was installed in May, 2019. Multiple training sessions were conducted by SELCO Foundation staff for the women members. The women operate the machines, handle packaging, accounts, registers, maintenance etc.

The decentralized mill is being run as a service model where they sell their produce through 4 middlemen who they have developed linkages with. Due to not having their own transportation, they sell to the middle men who come regularly and pick up the milled produce as well as paddy from the farmers. The middle men take the produce to markets in nearby towns like Daltonganj.

COVID-19

The lockdown has severe repercussions in Latehar district, with many establishments having to close down. This includes the oil mill, flour mill and the rice mill which people from the town and villages nearby would access. With this access being cut off, villagers from nearby villages of 5-6 kilometer radius started to come to the SHG run solar powered mill as they heard of it from the middlemen. The SHG started to mill and polish the produce charging town folks INR 5 per kg and their associated Farmer Producer Organization members INR 2 per kg, as opposed to the usual rate of INR 3 per kg. The mill has been running for an additional 3 hours per day milling 150 kgs of paddy to rice per day.

Due to this, the SHG has been making profits even during the lockdown. People accessing this mill have been expressing that they prefer this as they have reduced time and expenses as the centralized mill in town would charge them INR 2 per kg but would not return the husk. Whereas, the SHG members have been returning the husk to the customers along with their hulled rice. The husk has many uses for the farmers in the form of mixing it with manure to make bio fuel, using it as fuel to keep the pots going which they use to make alcohol and laying poultry farms with this base to revoke ammonia. This husk is usually sold for INR 50-70 per bag for fuel used to make alcohol and INR 30-40 for the poultry shed with each bag weighing 20 kgs. The decentralized rice mill generates 60% rice and 40% husk of the paddy being fed. The solar powering has been very useful during the lockdown as the region suffers heavy load shedding and frequent power cuts. If diesel were to be used as a backup fuel, they would take 2 days to procure diesel during the time of lockdown which would have hampered their service and production.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Income and profit: Even during the lockdown, due to the unit being located in a remote region, the SHG members remained unaffected and were allowed to operate through it. This brought in more customers, increasing their income and turning in profits.
Additional customer base: Due to the mills in the town being shut down as a result of the lockdown, people from nearby villages and towns started to use this service to mill their produce. At least 100 people newly accessing this mill have expressed to the SHG members that they will only come to their centre henceforth even post lockdown as it is more economical, convenient and time saving.
Food security: Farmers and communities from nearby villages and from Kurokala have been able to process their stored paddy to rice which is giving them food security in a time where access to essentials has been difficult.
Awareness on solar: A lot of the visiting communities are seeing solar energy for the first time and have learnt of its existence, uses and applications beyond just lighting.
Combatting energy issues: The remote region suffers a lot of power cuts, frequent load shedding and voltage dips which would have required the SHG to rely on diesel, if it weren’t for solar. It takes 2 days to procure a batch of diesel and in the time of lockdown, it would have taken longer with additional permissions required to be able to access it, causing hindrances in their service.

Solar-Powered Decentralised Rice Milling Unit | Stories of Resilience

admin — Fri, 22 May 2020 10:43:19 +0000

In Latehar and Ghumla districts alone, they have 1,600 members who practice rice cultivation. These farmers live in very remote forested regions and predominantly belong to tribal communities.

Intervention

The huller and polisher are two separate components with the huller processing 60 kgs per hour and the polisher cleaning 50 kgs per hour. With the machines running for 6 hours, they can mill 3 quintals of produce per day. The decentralized mill is being run as a service model where they sell their produce through 4 middlemen who they have developed linkages with. Due to not having their own transportation, they sell to the middle men who come regularly and pick up the milled produce as well as paddy from the farmers. The middle men take the produce to markets in nearby towns like Daltonganj.

COVID-19 Impact

Key Takeaways

Income and profit:

Even during the lockdown, due to the unit being located in a remote region, the SHG members remained unaffected and were allowed to operate through it. This brought in more customers, increasing their income and turning in profits.

Additional customer base:

Due to the mills in the town being shut down as a result of the lockdown, people from nearby villages and towns started to use this service to mill their produce. At least 100 people newly accessing this mill have expressed to the SHG members that they will only come to their centre henceforth even post lockdown as it is more economical, convenient and time saving.

Food security:

Farmers and communities from nearby villages and from Kurokala have been able to process their stored paddy to rice which is giving them food security in a time where access to essentials has been difficult.

Combating energy issues:

The remote region suffers a lot of power cuts, frequent load shedding and voltage dips which would have required the SHG to rely on diesel, if it weren’t for solar. It takes 2 days to procure a batch of diesel and in the time of lockdown, it would have taken longer with additional permissions required to be able to access it, causing hindrances in their service.

Awareness on solar:

A lot of the visiting communities are seeing solar energy for the first time and have learnt of its existence, uses and applications beyond just lighting.

Solar-Powered Digital Service Centres supporting Communities during COVID19 | Stories of Resilience

admin — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:18:51 +0000

Access to digital services- printing, photocopying, photo studios are integral for entities such as government offices, schools and colleges, financial institutions, local businesses etc. These services become critical in undertaking business transactions, maintaining records and for individual households in accessing bank and government schemes, subsidies and so on.

The Lok Sewa Kendra or LSK is a solar powered digital service center that gives a comprehensive set of solutions from a single photocopy machine to multiple systems. Some of these are co-located at the house of the entrepreneur, while others are located in village centers or within the premises of local government or educational institutions. A large percentage of them, implemented by SELCO Foundation or though the SELCO Foundation channels, are financed through bank loans that are being paid off by the entrepreneur through the increased income from the business.

The onset of COVID 19 and the subsequent lockdown imposed by the Indian government directly affected the business and income of these LSKs. However, a few LSK entrepreneurs managed to not only serve customers but also increase their income through certain coping mechanisms.

Solution Overview

The cases of two specific LSK entrepreneurs in Kalahandi- Subas Chandra Disari of Hirapur (in Jayapatna) and Haru Majhi of Dumerpadar (Thaumal Rampur) – are particularly interesting in terms of resilience and the value of decentralized energy systems and micro-energy entrepreneurship. Kalahandi district in Odisha is one of the poorest districts of the country, with a large population of tribal communities who have historically faced challenges of poor socio-economic development. In such a region, the effects of a lockdown such as the current one could strike a deathblow to many micro entrepreneurs, but these two entrepreneurs are finding ways to cope with the current crisis.

Diversification and reliability of services: The solar powered Lok Sewa Kendra afforded Subas Chandra Disari of Hirapur in Jaypatna, Kalahandi, an opportunity to add a banking kiosk of the State Bank of India (SBI) to his offerings at the center. Such banking kiosks require reliable energy services and digital systems allowing for easy withdrawal, deposits and other transactions for locals in the area. This is the only kiosk of this sort in the local village panchayat jurisdiction. As banking is considered an essential service, the kiosk was allowed to stay open during the lockdown and allowed Subas Disari to continue some aspects of his business. His typical monthly income prior to the lockdown was INR 10,000 per month. In April, he earned around INR 15,000 as his incentive from the bank for all the transactions undertaken through the banking kiosk.

Reliability of the Energy System: The day after the announcement of the lockdown, a huge failure in the power system caused the transformer near Hirapur to break down. The entire area remained without electricity for a period of 40+ days in the midst of the lockdown. Without access to the solar powered Lok Sewa Kendra, households would have had to find ways to travel more
than 12 kilometers to the nearest bank to withdraw cash for basic needs.

Creation of Linkages and Networks: As the LSK became more popular and was used more regularly by the local community in Dumerpadar of Thaumal Rampur in Kalahandi, Haru Majhi, the LSK entrepreneur, was able to expand his networks and take on additional work through local government channels. His networks and popularity of the LSK resulted in him becoming a Gram Saathi for MGNREGA (Employment guarantee programme) in his village.

Solar-Powered Mask Production Centre by the Urmul Desert Crafts | Stories of Resilience

admin — Fri, 08 May 2020 11:34:35 +0000

The Urmul Trust, which began its activities in 1986 was focused on the provision of health and education support to village level milk societies. In 2015, SELCO Foundation partnered with the Urmul Trust to provide solar-powered back-up solutions to run sewing machines, lights and other basic energy services in their center in Bajju.

With the onset of the COVID 19 crisis, the need for masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) has skyrocketed. Often rural communities are the last to access PPE owing to the high demand in urban centers, which directly affects the health and well-being of medical staff, police and government workers and the local community in these areas.

Production of Masks

To meet the needs of masks in the local area, the center, with the help of 20 village artisans, has produced 20,000 reusable cotton masks so far. Basic training was provided to those involved in stitching, packaging and delivery of masks to ensure strict sanitation and hygiene guidelines are adhered to. For artisans working at home, including young women who have completed schooling but are awaiting job opportunities, raw materials are provided by the center. As mentioned above, the main production unit in Bajju is powered by solar energy which has not only reduced the cost for production but also facilitated a reliable power supply for round-the-clock production.

Safety and Sales

The unit also ensures following the safety mandates of social distancing and sanitisation during production as advised by government and health officials. Raw materials such as cloth (procured by UDC as part of regular business and elastic procured from Delhi and Bikaner prior to the lockdown) are delivered by an individual from the center to each household-based artisan. Masks to doctors, nurses, field staff, and village government institutions are sold on a nonprofit basis, while covering the labour costs of artisans and others involved in the production. The team is also working with government institutions and ensuring prompt delivery. Supply to members of SHGs, producer groups and artisans who are part of the UDC network is free.

Other related Initiatives

Beyond Bajju, UDC has provided assistance in the Pokhran region of Jaisalmer as well. As part of the HDFC Bank Parivartan’s Holistic Rural Development Program, Marugandha Project, 119 women versatile in craft techniques have decided to invest their skills in manufacturing face masks. With Support from UDC’s. artisans over 10,000 cloth masks were delivered between March 27th to 31st in the project focused areas i.e 14 villages across 5 Gram Panchayats of Pokhran region.

We have self-isolated inside the Urmul campus/ center in Bajju. Urmul has helped me and thousands of artisans in the region with a source of livelihood. Today, we have the opportunity to give back to the community, so we are helping the team to produce these masks and contribute our bit. It makes me really happy that we are serving our community in these times.

We have self-isolated inside the Urmul campus/center in Bajju. Urmul has helped me and thousands of artisans in the region with a source of livelihood. Today, we have the opportunity to give back to the community, so we are helping the team to produce these masks and contribute our bit. It makes me really happy that we are serving our community in these times.

Manoj Kanwar, Artisan at Urmul Desert Craft Tweet

Key Takeaways

The strategy to diversify product lines and move into the production of masks has ensured that artisans continue to have a source of livelihood during the crisis, while meeting a basic health and sanitary need. As the market for other products slowly begin to pick up in about 3-4 months, the production of masks in the interim can ensure an income source for the center.

The existing networks of Urmul Trust and Urmul Desert Craft have provided a strong foundation to continue activities within the center and through artisans. The availability of raw materials, solar powered back-up solutions for lighting and sewing machines, the existing production lines for collection of finished products from artisans, linkages with government and health institutions as a market and so on help ensure a continuity in supply and demand.

Milking Machines and Woman Dairy Farmer in Karnataka | Stories of Resilience

admin — Fri, 08 May 2020 11:03:00 +0000

Shilpa Chandrashekar is a dairy farmer from Bettahalli village, Mandya district, Karnataka. A family of 4, Shilpa and her husband practice dairy farming as their primary occupation. They have 12 cows of which 8 are adult cows with 5 giving milk regularly and 3 more cows which will start within a month. The couple also own a 3 acre farm which is uncultivable as their bore well failed after multiple attempts to resurface it. They have dug a small pond which allows them to cultivate little fodder and some vegetables.

Early this year, right before the installation of the milking machine in January 2020, Shilpa’s husband suffered with a serious bike accident severely injuring him in the head and his stomach. Since his accident, he has not been able to engage in dairy activities; and has not been able to take up alternative employment either due to his condition. He has to receive regular treatment in the district hospital which is 22 kms away from their village. dapibus leo.

Solution Overview

Shilpa is an active member of a Self Help Group formed by SKDRDP, a local micro ﬁnance institution that supports women. In January, 2020 a local enterprise along with the dairy secretary had conducted a meeting where they showed some videos of solar powered milking machines and it’s applications to local dairy farmers. She was very keen on adopting the solution as her husband could not help her in the dairy farm anymore, reducing her productivity and milking capacity. She saw this machine as an opportunity to revive her livelihood and sell to the nearest collection centre. SKDRDP informed SELCO of her CIBIL score which is below 500 due to which she was unable to take loans from ﬁnancing institutions. With the machine cost of INR 73,000, she was linked to the Karnataka Milk Federation scheme which covered INR 15,000 of the amount and the remaining support was given by SELCO Foundation and SKDRDP.

She also took up the lighting solution (2 light system in her home and 1 light system in the shed) as they need to start milking the cows by 5 AM before sunrise. The region also suffers with 3-4 hours of power cut which are erratic due to which the light is very reliable and helpful.
Due to the milking machine, her husband is also able to help with milking the cows where it takes about 6 minutes to milk each cow, twice a day.

I was hesitant in adopting the milking machine initially because it felt like an expensive prospect. However, I would not have been able to practice my livelihood today without it. After my husband’s accident I have to manage all the work myself and without the machine it would have been impossible. Due to the lockdown, KMF collection centres are only open in the morning and evening between 4.45-6.00. With such odd timings, my family cannot help and I cannot hire labour because of the lockdown. The intervention has been very helpful to us.

Shilpa Chandrashekar, Dairy Farmer Tweet

Key Takeaways

Decentralized Market Linkage:

The lockdown was very strict in the region with all the district borders sealed off. However, the dairy industry was deemed as an essential service producing essential commodities allowing constant income. With the closest collection centre being one kilometre away in a decentralized manner, she was unaffected by the lack of transport and the lockdown.

Labour Shortage:

Shilpa would have had to hire a labourer to support her with milking and other activities due to her husband’s condition. This would not have been a possibility due to the lockdown as labourers are unable to move freely and seek employment. Due to the milking machine, she has been able to manage by herself even on days that her husband cannot assist her.

Lack of Fodder:

The dairy industry across the country has been impacted by one critical component – fodder. The lack of availability of fodder has affected a lot of dairy farmers as it is a
key input supply, severely affecting the output of the cows. Shilpa has also been impacted by this. Karnataka Milk Federation would usually supply them with a particular seed, which is used in the feed. This has been unavailable due to the lockdown. Due to this, the nutritional value of the feed has reduced resulting in the cows producing 45 litres as opposed to 60 litres per day. The milk has grades as well based on the fat content on the basis of which rates are decided, with the milk falling down a grade. This has reduced her income since the lockdown.

Support from Financial Institution:

The loan repayment has been put on hold by SKDRDP due to the lockdown impacting the livelihood of most communities. Shilpa, on the other hand has been able to pay the loan back as per her convenience. She has also gotten a personal loan of INR 25,000 with no interest from the institution to take care of her husband’s medical expenses.

Heat: The Next Big Inequality Issue | Stories Of Resilience

admin — Fri, 01 May 2020 10:27:00 +0000

Urban housing shortage in India stands at 18.78 million units, out of which about 96% is in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS, 56%) and Low Income Group (LIG, 40%) categories put together.

25% Anganwadis functioning from Kuchcha houses, or open/partially covered space. 50% with no toilet facilities and 32% with no drinking facilities.

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