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Weaving the Strands of Growth & Prosperity

May 17, 2019

India has so much to offer when it comes to its beautiful Handicraft heritage. It might just take you by surprise that the handicraft sector statistically forms the second-largest source of employment in India and thus it is one of the important aspects of our market ecosystem.

 

The handicraft sector has created tremendous opportunities for individuals – primarily women, skilled in traditional handicrafts.

 

Almost all Indian women are the nucleus of their families. They encompass the strength and skills that are hard to match. Unlike cities, rural India needs a greater push towards development, the concept of financial inclusion of women and opportunities to help women earn, grow and become self-reliant. With an aim of empowering 480 beneficiaries from Kothawan block of Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh through a unique livelihood, leadership and skill development program, HCL Samuday has joined hands with Jaipur Rugs Foundation. Jaipur Rugs Foundation is one of the largest manufacturers of hand-knotted luxury rugs and experiments with the originality of rural artisan to nurture their creative potential by providing them with a global stage. This intervention aims to upskill women from Kothawan, in District Hardoi in the craft of carpet weaving and help provide them with sustainable channels of employment.

 

Ms Navpreet Kaur, Director – HCL Samuday said, “Uttar Pradesh is known for its crafts industry. Several women in the Hardoi District are already associated with the unorganized crafts sector but are not remunerated as per market standards. HCL Samuday’s tie-up with Jaipur Rugs Foundation will ensure that women are skilled by proper hands-on training and they are able to find meaningful employment close to their home. This will not only make women financially independent but also ensure that migration away from these areas towards urban centres decreased substantially.”

 

Built on a foundation of compassion and financial inclusion, JRF reaches out to remote rural areas and establishes bonds with underserved communities, especially women, thus enabling them to start weaving not just rugs but also their own success. Currently, Jaipur Rugs Foundation is working with over 40,000 artisans in 600 villages of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Rajasthan impacting around 200,000 people. HCL Samuday resonates with this dream of JRF and aims to work towards implementing a successful model of growth and happiness. This partnership aims to create a sustainable livelihood for hundreds of women and their households, offering a remuneration of Rs. 8000/- per month. HCL Samuday will establish 30 weaving units in Kothawan block where, 500 beneficiaries will be trained and later employed.

 

Carpet weaving is an age-old tradition of India. Rajasthani carpets are traditionally well known for fine-quality hand-knotted woollen fibres & Uttar Pradesh is particularly known for their unique colours and patterns when it comes to carpets. HCL Samuday and Jaipur Rugs Foundation’s collaboration will not only hone the beneficiaries’ skill sets but will give existing artisans an opportunity to adapt & learn new skills as well. Jaipur Rugs Foundation will provide 120 looms to the 30 centres and will also offer intensive hands-on training for six months.

 

Mr Yash Ranga, Stakeholder Engagement Partner – Jaipur Rugs Foundation said, “Jaipur Rugs Foundation reaches out to women from the economically marginalized sections of our society and provides them with the opportunity of becoming skilled artisans in the carpet value chain and earn sustainable livelihoods. Today we are engaging with over 40,000 women across the country.”

 

The Women in Hardoi will now weave a successful and happy future for their families by enabling themselves while enhancing their leadership attributes!

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Training and Extension

Agriculture is a dynamic sector that deals with specialized knowledge which is ever changing. HCL Samuday regularly makes associated farmers aware of latest developments through Training and Extension intervention. The farmers are empowered to address existing issues and mitigate and adapt for future challenges.

With the objective of bringing agriculture technologies at farmers’ doorstep by establishing a ‘Center of Excellence’ in Uttar Pradesh, HCL Samuday is setting up Center for Agriculture Technology Transfer (CATT) in Hardoi district. It shall act as a ‘single window’ / ‘one stop support system’ aligning various interventions of state department of Agriculture with HCL Foundation as an intermediary and farmers as end users in a learning, decision making and problem-solving exercise.

Nutrition Garden

Nutrition Garden is a low cost, scientific model of home garden organically producing a variety of nutritious vegetables and fruits throughout the year. The primary objective of promoting nutrition gardens is to make ½ kg of fresh vegetables available for daily consumption to rural households. Secondary objectives include reduction in daily expenditure of HHs and increase in the consumption of green vegetables for improved nutrition.

2,714 households have benefitted by adopting a Nutrition Garden.

Community Mobilization and Institution Building

Interventions aimed at mobilizing community and facilitating institution creation lend long-term sustainability to the efforts for agriculture development.

     a. Farmer Clubs

Farmer Clubs are formed with the objective of propagating the idea of collective, uniting farmers in groups which work for the benefit of their community. 199 such clubs established so far under this intervention are providing a platform for knowledge dissemination and better market linkages.

        b. Farmer Producer Organisation

HCL Foundation is the promoting agency of Hardoi Kisan Producer Company Limited (HKPCL), a Farmer Producer Organization constituted in 2017 to address challenges faced by farming community in the project area. Comprising of 2,350 shareholders and governed by an 11-member board of directors, HKPCL registered a turnover of ₹ 6.85 crores in last financial year (2019-20).

       c. Vegetable Aggregation Points

Ensuring market is a crucial part of vegetable supply chain. To facilitate better linkages with market, 7 vegetable aggregation points have been set up across 3 blocks and regular communication is made to enable farmers to choose and opt for most suitable option. Realising better prices for produce, 917 Tonnes of vegetables, worth ₹ 1.30 crores, got aggregated at these centres in 2019-20.

       d. Farm Mechanization

Through Farm Mechanization, focus is on increasing income of farmers by improving affordability and accessibility of machines for precision agriculture. It is aimed at reducing farmers’ cost of cultivation and easing farm operations. Carried out in an entrepreneurial model, thus far 3,249 farms have been supported with advanced agricultural machinery and development of 45 entrepreneurs has been facilitated.

Crop Diversification

Due to lack of awareness and perishable nature of produce, few farmers practice vegetable cultivation. Crop Diversification intervention aims to bring sustainable income enhancement by adoption of diversified crop practices. HCL Samuday is pushing this agenda and the concurrent efforts made have engaged 13,500+ farmers so far in vegetable production.

 

After successful response of vegetable cultivation, various add-ons in Crop Diversification have been introduced so that farmers having disparate needs may opt for most suitable cropping pattern. These include –

  • Nano Orchard- a small area of land ranging from 840–1680 sqm is devoted exclusively for cultivation of fruit crops like Guava, Papaya, Banana, Apple, Ber and Thai Lime (seedless) along with vegetables taken as intercrop. 425 farmers have successfully established Nano Orchards.
  • Floriculture - promoting flower cultivation, HCL Samuday is propagating better practices and solving farmers’ erstwhile problem of unavailability of good variety. Marigold cultivation is being promoted under floriculture in project area.
  • VASUNDRA -Village Action for Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resource and Demonstration of Resilient Agriculture (VASUNDRA) has been initiated to enhance productivity of degraded fallow lands having high pH value. Adopting scientific methods of land reclamation through cultivation of resilient crops like Lemon Grass and Palmarosa combined with PH resistant horticulture crops like Amla, Ber and Lemon, so far 140 acres of land has been reclaimed.

Traditional Crop Promotion

Traditional Crop Promotion intervention focuses on training and demonstration of traditional crop farmers (Maize, Paddy, Wheat, Urad etc.) and bringing them under Package of Practices (PoP) based production system to increase productivity and adopt better crop management practices.

HCL Samuday has worked to enhance productivity by adopting soil and nutrient management, land development and institutional building for effective market linkages. 26,000+ farmers are currently engaged through this intervention and have adopted better practices on their farm.