Alternative livelihoods for 500 ragpicker families

Arjina is 32 years old. She is a rag picker by profession and stays in one of the pavements near ESI Hospital. There are five members in the family (2 daughters + 1 son). All the members of the family stay near ESI hospital on the pavements under very extreme conditions.

Her elder daughter studies in Class IV and her younger daughter studies in Class II. Her son studies in Kindergarten. Arjina and her husband work together as a rag picker. They earn around Rs.150 to 200 per day. But this income is not enough for running the household expenses. Sometimes the family goes to bed without food. She took Rs.20,000 as a loan Dated on 05.05.18 from Tiljala SHED alternative livelihood program. She sells detergent powder and most of her income comes from rag picking. She repaid Rs.16,000 and the rest Rs.4,000 is due.

After the lockdown and covid pandemic situation her earning has drastically reduced to Rs.50 to 100 a day. They sleep in an open pavement. During the rainy season, the conditions become very difficult as they sleep under a tarpaulin. Local goons and police are a daily harassment for this family. The young girls do not have any security. The local political goons drink alcohol nearby their temporary makeshift structure and takes away water which is being stored for the family drinking purpose. Since they are basically on the footpath, diseases are more prevalent among them. Diarrhoea, Malaria, High Fever, Coughing are regular problems and found in almost all the homes. Previous 2020 lockdown to now June 2021 she cannot repay. Her situation is very bad. After the last year pandemic things started getting little better from this year February 2021 and she was in regular contact with our livelihood team and attended all the group meetings. But after the second wave of the Covid the state government announced lockdown from April 2021 and she again had to suffer the same situation like last year.

She is hopeful that she will revive her income once the lockdown is eased, and situation becomes normal. She is committed to transform her life through her hard work and dedication.

There are many beneficiries like Arjina who have been struggling because of the pandemic situation. The income has gone down to almost Nil and with little support from government and NGOs they are able to survive. As soon as the pandemic situation gets better she will revive her financial condition back to normal. Tiljala SHED has been assisting these families during the pandemic and we have organised Emergency Food Distribution for such families who have  suffered the most during the pandemic. 

Livelihoods were the first casualty of India’s lockdown. The informal sector – street vendors, rickshaw drivers, domestic helpers, beggars, rag pickers, tailors and all those who work for a daily wage – were suddenly unable to work.  Most of the women on this project were among this group. Fledgling businesses failed and the loans taken out were used to feed hungry families or pay medical bills. Fortunately for these women the loans came from you, administered by a humanitarian NGO, Tiljala SHED. Repayments have been forgiven or delayed.

In the report below, you’ll see how the programme is picking up again and more loans are being administered. It is now more important than ever that our beneficiaries can set up or build their small businesses and become self-sufficient. We continue to insist that the children remain in education as a condition of joining the programme, so that the next generation is even more resilient.

A report from the field:

Livelihood Programme Report for The Month Of October to December 2020 

The livelihood had 16 trainings as per their quarterly plan (Oct to Dec 2020) but could do only 8 trainings during this period.  The planned activities got affected due to the huge fire disaster that took place on the 10^th of November 2020 at Topsia, one of our target areas where we work with our beneficiaries. Many of our beneficiaries and other poor population residing along the canal side in squatters were severely affected as all their belongings burnt into ashes.  The people could only save their lives. Many of the Tiljala Shed staff including the Livelihood program staff were involved in relief work to these fire victims. As it is they were mostly hit by the Pandemic Covid 19 and super cyclone Amphan which had shaken them financially leaving them without any source of income. There were lot of distribution of the essential things done trying to bring them back to their normal lives.

 Altogether 8 trainings were done on CIG, core group members on the process of identifying new and old beneficiaries and loan approval process (standard operating procedure). 

 In these meetings there were discussions about repayment of loan and disbursement of new loan to old beneficiaries. Beneficiaries requested for more time to be given to them for repaying the loan amount as they are struggling for their daily bread. People have lost their job and many had loss in business which they were doing due to Covid 19.  The livelihood team has shown some leniency by allowing them to repay in small amount of the monthly installment as and when they are able to so that they can repay their debts.

A donation of £250 is enough to help a destitute woman set up a small business, to give her financial power and the ability to support her family.

Thank you