Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007 ePaper |
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Tamil Nadu
Making good returns : Members of the self-help groups engaged in making brooms. SATHYAMANGALAM: Self help groups, run under the Tamil Nadu Afforestation Programme (TAP) here, enjoy b(r)ooming profits. Members of the SHGs manufacture brooms using ‘seemar pul’, a wild grass which when tied together makes a broom. The activity gives each of the members Rs. 4 per broom and a woman easily manufactures about 50 brooms a day. According to S. C. Natarajan of Sudar, an NGO involved in training the SHGs, value addition of the grass into brooms doubles the income for the women. “Earlier a kg of grass gave them only between Rs. 14 and 17. After the grass is tied into brooms, each of which weighs half-a-kg, the women earn Rs. 15 per broom.” Sudar has trained three SHGs of 20 women each, and is in the process of training more women. Mr. Natarajan says for the tribal women, the grass alone gives them an income of Rs. 3,000 a month. The grass, a minor forest produce, grows in Sathyamangalam forests in about 700 tonnes a year. The rights for harvesting the grass lies with the tribal women, who have earned it by being a part of the village forest committees. In the past, though, the minor forest produces, including the grass, were contracted to private persons, who bought if for a meagre amount and sold it in the open market to make handsome profits. In the past two years, however, the SHGs were given the rights. Last year they auctioned the grass and this year they have converted it into a value added product to earn more revenue. District Forest Officer S. Ramasubramanian says that by handing over the rights of collecting minor forest produce to village forest committee’s women members, their income has increased. ‘Last year, the VFC earned Rs. 80 lakh and this year we hope to cross it," he says. The VFC is also looking for a market for forest gooseberries, which are rich in fibre.
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