A small wave extends to the infinity…
While we were working for the women self-help groups while on our placement, it was found that almost all the women were involved in agriculture which is the primary work and is quite competitive in some rural states in India. We thought of letting the women and the community know about different avenues of work as a secondary source of income and Saket Saurabh, my fellow volunteer suggested that as there is loads of production of potatoes and rice in the village, inspite of selling whole raw product in the market, they could use this abundance to make Papad making a business here. This would also be beneficial for the families with no or less piece of land for agriculture.
Both of us sat and planned on how to bring in other avenues of work which women could do as a side business, and this could build up their confidence and also help them in their financial status.
So, we decided to do a video screening for the local women portraying the lessons on small businesses like Agarbatti making, and Papad making.
This was followed by talking to the community women about how to proceed with the video screening activity in the village and deciding on a date & time for the same.
The major focus was kept on planning and doing activities which involve more talking by the women and also, keeping in mind about the financial literacy status and how it needs to be worked on.
Usha Devi, my primary-actor-partner, proved very helpful in mobilizing the women for the activity as she went house-to-house for gathering them. She made sure that the venue for screening the video was ready.
On the day of the event, an unexpected no. of women turned up and it really motivated us as the curiosity to learn could be seen in the women. Women asked a whole lot of questions and we actually had to pause the video at the times to answer their questions.
While communicating with his primary actor partners, Saket realized that the screening activity really did bring an impact on the women as they already started discussing about how to get the raw material to start making Agarbattis and the keenness could easily be seen in them during the conversation
Hopefully, we will soon get to hear about some women who have started making Agarbattis and selling them in the nearby District. This will add up to the income generated by just agriculture as the business there.
Also, women are looking forward to starting sewing training lessons so as to start sewing as another business for them.
