Economic Growth India Project #21941

Alternative livelihoods for 500 ragpicker families

by Tiljala Society for Human and Educational Development

Project Report | Dec 28, 2016
How your Generosity has changed Lives

By Jane Manson | Fundraising Director

Salim at home

Salim lives in a single room with his wife and four daughters. He is disabled - and uses a prosthetic "Jaipur Foot" to enable him to walk. Before daybreak every morning he takes the train out to the wholesale market in a suburb of Barrackpore where he purchases fruit, whatever is in season, to sell from his cart on a street corner in the slum close to his home. When I visited Salim in August, he was selling guavas. Salim was one of the fortunate recipients of a grant to help him improve his income. He explained how difficult life had been before his £80 grant. In order to buy his stock, Salim needed to borrow from the local moneylender. Annual interest rates with these lenders are typically 36% and his repayments made it very hard for Salim to make enough money to keep his family. The grant helped Salim to clear his debt and to buy stock. He told me that this has doubled his daily income from Rs150 to 300 (from around £2 to £4 per day).

Under the terms of the grant Salim has promised to keep his daughters in education and to attend meetings and training courses to help him run his business and his finances better. He has also pledged to repay the grant back into a revolving fund which will be used to help other needy families.

Salim's story shows how your donation has been very well spent. Salim is a hardworking and responsible person who was being crushed by a debt he couldn't clear. The staff at Tiljala SHED knew Salim well and were delighted to be able to help him. This grant ensures not only that Salim's family will now be more comfortable, but also that the next generation stays in education. As time goes on Salim will repay small sums into the revolving fund and more families will benefit.

Please consider a further donation this holiday season to help others like Salim to make a better life for their families. So far you have helped 87 families. Another 250 have been identified and we need the funds to help them.

With his smallest daughter

Selling his guavas

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Oct 4, 2016
How you have put smiles on so many faces. Read about Safikul and Nasima

By Jane Manson | Fundraising

Safikul

I had the great privilege of getting to meet a number of the beneficiaries of this livelhood project when I was in Kolkata in August.

I want to tell you about two of them: Safikul and Nasima

I wasn't scheduled to meet Safikul, but as we were making our precarious way along the railway tracks (the main thoroughfare through the squatter camp), he bounded up to us. He wanted to show me his new cycle van. Safikul seems younger than his years: I was surprised to hear he is married with a son and a daughter. He is a carrier at the Sealdah Market. He explained that before you bought him his cycle van he had to hire one. So every day, regardless of how much business he got, he had to pay away Rs100 in hiring fees. Now that he has his own van, he clears a respectable Rs 300 - 400 per day. "I'm going to make a big business" he grinned. "You'll see the big chance in one year". I am looking forward to reporting back in a year's time!

Later I was taken to meet Nasima. She has a jewellery stall on the street close to the Park Circus squatter camp where I met Safikul (and where she lives). You gave her £150 to buy stock. Before this her stall had been tiny - just a few items (hair clips combs and cheap jewellery) and very little business. She was making Rs 50 (50 p) a day. Her husband is a day labourer earning £4 - £5 a week - and they have 2 daughters to support. I had to wait some time to meet Nasima because, as you can see from the photo, she was rather busy with customers. She said that she now makes a profit of £1.50 a day, has no debt and does not have to borrow from money lenders to stock her stall. She told me she is very happy indeed - and produced a lovely smile to show it.

I also got to spend time in the Tiljala SHED office and learn more about how this project is structured. The grants are conditional upon a number of criteria e.g. the beneficiaries must guarantee they'll keep their children in school; that they save money where possible and reinvest; and that they ultimately contribute back into a revolving fund so that others can benefit in future; they are required to attend meetings and programmes helping them with their business skills. Now they have bank accounts under a Governement of India scheme which allows the ultra-poor to open zero balance accounts. Slowly they are learning to make use of them and grow into a more sustainable future

So, by contributing to this project, you have lifted 87 families like these out of destitution. Their children are attending school and they are learning business skills and good saving habits.

Please consider a further donation to this livelihood project. There are dozens more needy yet motivated and energetic people who would put your donation to very good use. By promising to keep their children in school, Nasima and Safikul hope that they will be the last generation to live under tarpaulin and corrugated iron beside the railway.

Thank you very much

Safikul with his new cycle van

Nasima

Nasima's busy roadside jewellery business

Attachments:

Funds Utilisation and Rationale (PPT)

5 Attachments

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Jul 11, 2016
How you have changed Soni's life.

By Shafkat Alam | Project Leader

Soni in our office to receive her grant

Soni, a widow, resides in a small hut beside the dirty canal in Topsia. She has to work day and night to meet the expenditure of the family through rag picking. But since the Kolkata Municipal Corporation installed huge compactors around the city, there is much less waste for this vulnerable and marginalised commuity to live off. These days Soni barely clears 100 - 150 rupees a day (less than £1.40). Once again food prices are rising in India, placing yet more pressure on society's poorest.

Soni's only son has recently started a small business. He has a sound box with mic which he rents out for special events in the community. In this way, he is able to help his mother. To grow the business, and make a decent living they need to buy a DJ Box with other electronic gadgets which will eventually increase the revenue. They applied for a bank loan but bank rejected their loan request as they are rag pickers and there is no guarantee of income. Depressed and frustrated they didn't know which way to turn.

In this challenging situation, Global Giving fund came as a sigh of relief for both of them. This fund will help them to grow the business. They got 12000 rupees (£110) with which they will purchase the DJ Box and other electronic gadgets. Now, they are happy. They can earn enough to keep themselves as well as to invest further in the business. Your donation through Global Giving was the game changer in their lives and they never imagined that resources from UK would open the doors for them when the banks in India have shut the doors for them.

Many families have now benefited from this project.

Total No. of families covered: 72

Total Amount Disbursed: INR 753184 (£8000 approx)

Type of business covered: Cycle rickshaw, cycle van, selling new clothes, cobbler shop, selling female accessories, sewing machine, DJ box with music system, selling fruits, tea stall, jhaal muri selling (popular junk food), vegetable (grocery shop) selling, satoo selling stall, imitation jewellery selling door to door, buying scrap-making and selling slippers, bangle shop, selling bangles door to door.

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