From Tractors, to Mushrooms and explosives : The diverse enterprises of SHGs in MSRLM Umed

From Tractors, to Mushrooms and explosives : The diverse enterprises of SHGs in MSRLM Umed

Imagine a village in which a group of women are empowered enough to buy a tractor and learn to drive it, a village where one woman is a mushroom entrepreneur and another is a group of women working in an enterprise manufacturing explosives. The wonders that MSRLM Umed creates due to the capacity building of women through SHGs is there for us to witness and applaud.
It was extremely heartening for me to see diverse enterprises in Sarvadi village of Karanja block in Wardha district where I had gone for a field visit.
As soon as we reached the village , I met Ms. Rasika from Pardhi village. She was bubbling with excitement. And why not! She and her group had purchased a tractor worth Rs. 4.15 lakhs with the subsidy of Rs.3.15 lakhs they received from the Department of Social Justice, topped with an investment of Rs.60,000 from the CIF. The Secretary of the SHG, Sonu Deshbhratar happily shared that they had made their contribution of Rs.40, 000 too.
She and her group were now a proud owner of a tractor. They would be using it for their fields and also earn money by letting it out on hire. Handing over the keys of the tractor purchased through such convergence gave me great pleasure.
I was then taken to Ms.Aditi Rajubhau Raakas's home. I was taken aback to see a room in her house converted to a mushroom unit. This was an individual activity with an investment of Rs.9,500 with a loan taken from the CIF. She had plucked three harvests by now and made a profit of Rs.29000/-.
She enthused that she has learnt the art of growing mushrooms where seedlings were planted in wet soya husk and covered with polythene which was cut once the mushrooms germinated and started growing. She then collected these oyster mushrooms and sold them wet or dry. Being close to the highway she capitalised on the hotels there. From an investment of just Rs.9500 she would be earning more than ten times that is upto Rs. 60000 or more.
When I went to the office of the Village Organisation in the village, I was in for a greater surprise. From food products to food grains, wooden handicrafts, wollen artefacts, compost and neem oil, many goods to be sold were on display.
Sushila Ambaadas Nihaare , the Pashu sakhi sharing her experience stated that when she joined Umed a couple of years ago she had one sheep. Today she has a flock of 40 sheep. The chicks in her backyard poultry grew from one to six. She also has a cow which gives almost 5 to 6 litres of milk which she sells after consumption. Her economic growth has therefore been good. She is able to earn more than a lakh of rupees from all these avenues. Her services as a Pashu Sakhi to the community also gives her Commission. It has also enabled Pashu Palaks to see a growth in the numbers of their sheep upto 400.
Saarika, the Krishi Sakhi is equally exuberant with the agricultural services she offers. Doubling up as a agricultural guide and a provider of organic manure like neemastra, brahmaastra she earns good money as well as gets a good yield. The food grains and fruits or vegetables are organic and therefore good for health. She says the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana MKSP has been a boon for women farmers.
As a practice , I normally discuss the importance of Dashasutri, the need to maintain and update books of accounts regularly. After doing that I shared the importance of insurance specially the PMBSY, PMJJY and the Atal Pension Yojana. The investment of just Re.1 per month for PMBSY or just about Rs. 30 per month for PMJJY could be a great blessing if due to any unforeseen accident, disablity or death of the person occurs,  the bereaved family could receive Rs.2 lakhs as sum insured. With a commitment from the women that they would work on all aspects of the Dashasutri I left for my last stop in the village.
To my surprise it turned out to be a unit with 17 women working on 17 machines to string wires together for detonators or explosives of the company CDET Explosives based at Pulgaon.
The unit comprises of 35 women from Shram Village Organisation, working in alternate shifts and managed by a Suoervisor, Ms. Netra Ghagre who is the VO President. They earn about 300 /- per day as wages for making bundles of wires and capping them with plugs. These wires are used in explosion of CAD camp which is the 2nd largest storage depot in Asia
(Central Ammunition Depot)
The Supervisor lamented that lack of space hindered their growth or they could have employed many more ladies as there was great demand for this work. However that was something they would have to figure out.
For me the experience that in one small village of Karanja block women were engaged in such diverse activities was encouraging. Also the fact that the  vision of the mission was being achieved could be an example which many more would follow.