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Ch. Prashanth Reddy

Hyderabad , Sept. 2

SURYAPET, about 140 km from here, is not known for jute production but the women of the small town recently received an order from Sri Lanka for supply of 10,000 jute bags.

With the support of Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Programme (APRLP), 20 women from the town started a micro-enterprise for manufacturing jute bags by importing jute from Kolkata.

That enterprise has become successful and in the last four months, sold 10,000 jute bags at about Rs 17 each, making a profit of Rs 3 per bag.

Now, APRLP, in association with Marketing and Research Team (MART), has branded the Suryapet jute bags as `Surya Fiber' and developed a specific logo for the products.

Recently, a designer was introduced to the women to help them design various kinds of school bags. APRLP and MART selected 26 women to scale up the activity.

Each of these women has been advised to initially sell jute bags in the local shandy and understand the issues related to market before taking up the activity in full scale.

Like in Suryapet, a group of women of Wanaparthy in the neighbouring Mahabubnagar district started a tailoring centre.

A study of local market was done with the help of MART to understand the local demand and the needs of the customers for petticoats and blouses, the needs of local schools and readymade shops and to identify the best sources of raw material.

The tailoring centre recently bagged an order for supply of 400 T-shirts, worth about Rs 30,000, to the students of Jawahar Navodaya School in the district.

They also got an order from the District Medical and Health Department for stitching aprons and caps for doctors and nurses. Besides, they got orders for stitching dresses for marriages.

These two are among the pilot projects undertaken by the Programme Support Unit (PSU) of APRLP in association with MART for promoting various income-generating activities in the rural areas that currently include production of mango jelly, vermicompost, mushrooms and honey.

As a part of the initiative, three shandies have been set up on a pilot basis and another 15 are in the pipeline in the five districts where APRLP is being implemented.

Each of the shandies clocks a sales turnover of about Rs 1.5 lakh on the weekly shandy day, Mr Kriti Prasanna Mishra of MART, told Business Line.

According to Mr S.P. Tucker, Co-ordinator of PSU-APRLP, the whole initiative centres on the concept that every individual has a skill but to harness it, needs support at the critical time.

APRLP has also explored whether one major economic activity could be started in each village and the villagers could become entrepreneurs.

A large number of women thrift societies exist in Andhra Pradesh and effective use of the self-help group money is the vital element in the entire initiative.

A Livelihood Resource Centre (LRC) has been set up as a partnership initiative of APRLP, CARE, the State Commissioner of Women Employment and Self Employment and Sri Ramananda Thirtha Rural Institute.

The LRC provides demand-oriented business development services to the micro-enterprises in rural areas with a focus on niche markets and provision of market access to quality surplus from rural areas. It will also facilitate institutional credit to SHGs.

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