Madhya Pradesh | Orissa | Uttarakhand | Assam and Bihar | Jharkhand



Tribal people of the Northeast States (the single largest region with poor growth rate of 4.5% vs 6% for the rest of India) are traditionally skilled in working with bamboo: but lack of developed economic opportunities using these skills and resources is fuelling insurgency and conflict in the region. The northeastern states combined produce abundant raw bamboo products every year (more than 50% of the total production of the country). They produce everything from homes, to bridges, utensils to jewelry out of bamboo. Some of these products have not found a very profitable market as yet; but there is an enormous demand for alternative uses of bamboo. In India, the housing and furniture industry extensively uses timber and steel, both of which are becoming monetarily and environmentally expensive. Bamboo can be woven into mats of different textures and sizes and can be cold pressed and glued to make items like bamboo roofing sheets and ply for furniture. Bamboo can also be chemically processed to increase its life and is a green alternative to the galvanized iron sheets presently used for roofing. Our business idea of having women make bamboo mats developed after market research and in-depth discussions with the construction industry. Spearheaded by the BDS Center, Guwahati that has been provided with a small grant from the National Foundation of India (www.nfi.org.in), we are developing this into a strategic, microenterprise opportunity that is also environmentally sustainable. A feasibility study (conducted in collaboration with a team from the Yale School of Management) on bamboo mat weaving enterprise to be implemented by migrant Bengali Muslim and Hindu women in the Goalpara district showed the potential of this enterprise to directly impact the lives of 1000 families within the first 3 years. The goal is to help these families at least double their incomes from less than a dollar a day that they presently earn.

In a first and significant effort to reach as well as empower the especially disadvantaged, we have begun initiatives to explore alternative livelihoods for 'retiring' female sex workers in the Kishanganj district of North Bihar. Kishanganj shares its borders with Nepal and West Bengal. The proximity to Bangladesh through a very small stretch of West Bengal serves as an important corridor for the trafficking of women. It is estimated that there are 20 red light areas in north Bihar alone that serve as transit points and destinations for trafficked girls.

Udyogini is partnering with a local NGO, Koshi Anchal, to work with the women and develop alternative livelihoods for them. There are three primary benefits to this work. Firstly it is hoped that this will facilitate the women to leave the profession if they so choose at some point in the future. Secondly it will give an alternative option to the children of the women who almost always follow their mothers into the sex trade. Finally it is hoped that by training the women in an alternative skill it will stop the transition that most women make from sex worker to pimp. This will weaken the management hierarchy of the trade and hopefully will make the women less likely to exploit other trafficked girls and vulnerable women in the future thus undermining the sex work cycle.

An abundance of bamboo in Kishanganj makes it the most promising commodity to develop into enterprises.