|
|
 Khairatilal
Ji
Village: Piplai
Khairatilal Ji is a successful weaver cum entrepreneur from
Piplai village in Thanagazi, Rajasthan. Earlier, he used to
work as a single
weaver selling his produce to greedy
middlemen in his village. He was not having sufficient
expertise to try out new techniques in carpet weaving. In
his village, the main profession prevalent among the
villagers was farming. They predominantly grew
wheat, maize
and barley during the period January-March. They had to sit
idle for the rest of nine months. Even the earnings from
farming proved to be dicey due to the gamble of monsoons.
Some years ago, representatives of Jaipur Rugs visited
Khairatilalji’s village. Gradually, people started working
with the representatives. Of late, the pilot project started
by this organization has been gaining momentum in this
village. Self-help groups are being formed consisting of a
combination of both men and women, with no bar on age and
caste (according to him). The villagers are free to decide
on their group members.
He earns around Rs.150 per day for his average working time
of around 8 hours. Second-hand machines required for weaving
carpets cost in the range of Rs.5000-6000. He had money to
buy this machine, so he bought it from the company. Those
who cannot afford to buy these machines can work on the
machines owned by the company. Those who want to buy the
machines through loans can also do so because the company is
working for fulfillment of their credit needs with the help
of SHG Credit Linkage through banks. As per him, the banks
charge 12% interest rate on these loans as the loan amount
itself is only in the range of Rs.5000-6000. If the weavers
work on their own machines, their payment per square feet
will be much higher than if they work on company’s machines.
Since, he had prior experience in weaving carpets alone, he
had to undergo a training for only 26 days. During this
period, he was paid Rs.50 per day.
 Kesari Devi
Village: Pachpadi
Kesri Devi could never see up the world in full, she was
blind from birth. She had a long story of struggle and
challenges with additional handicap of being from the
disadvantaged Schedule Caste sections. She is married to
Rameswar Raigar, used to be a daily labour, from village
Pachpadi, Thanagazi Tehsil. She has nine children of which 6
are girls and 2 are boys. The children dropped their formal
education and were sitting idle. 4 of her daughters are
married and the 2 unmarried daughters- Asha Bai (19 years) &
Sita Bai (18 years) learnt weaving of hand–knotted carpets
and started weaving on contractors looms. The working
conditions were harsh and the payments for the job works
were erratic and low. Their monthly income was on average Rs.
1400 to 1600 only. The contractor used to resort to heavy
deductions on the ground of poor quality of carpet.
With the launch of the Thanagazi Carpet Cluster Program,
Asha and Sita were selected as potential artisans for group
formation and the skill up-gradation training programme
through their participation in motivation seminar and
follow-up meetings organized by the project coordinator and
allied persons. Both became active members of the SHG group
“Mata Self Help Group.” Regular meetings of the group raised
the awareness level of the group on health, education and
livelihood problems.
In December 2008 Asha & Sita were selected to attend a one
month duration skill up gradation carpet training conducted
by Jaipur Rugs Foundation. They were trained in the color,
design and the weaving techniques by Master Trainers. It
raised their awareness about the quality of carpets woven.
The Cluster related interventions led to many positive
impacts on the family of Kesri Devi. Due to the training,
the quality of carpets woven by Sita and Asha improved which
led to increase in their monthly income to Rs. 2500 on
average. The raised income encouraged them to construct shed
for the Carpet loom and sending the boys to the government
schools. With the interventions of the social workers,
books, uniforms and school bags were also provided by the
school. For the blind Kesri Devi, she was helped by the
social workers to be availed of the Bus pass for free
commuting on State Transport
|
