Alternative livelihoods for 500 ragpicker families

The Alternative Livelihood programme, thanks to your generous donations, is truly changing lives – and not only by helping increase incomes.  As a rag picker (and likely to be female) you are right at the bottom of society.  Even in the squatter camps, where most families engage in rag picking, those who are not rag pickers enjoy a higher status: they get to the front of the queue to collect water.  So by helping a woman like Aleya to switch from the despised occupation to the more dignified fruit or vegetable selling, she gains status in the community. And you’ll see from the story below that this empowered her to approach her children’s school management to demand better school dinners.  And this is exactly what will bring about real change in these communities – the confidence to assert your rights.

Anirban, Tiljala SHED’s Programme Manager, reports on one of the beneficiaries:

“Aleya is an enterprising and vibrant woman. There are eight members in the family consisting of husband, wife, four sons, one daughter and one daughter –in-law. All the members live together in a squatter near Topsia canalside. Her younger daughter studies in class IV and attends coaching regularly in our remedial education centre.

Earlier Aleya was a rag picker, but one opportunity changed her profession. On 17 June 2016 Tiljala SHED granted her Rs.8000 to help her establish an alternative livelihood. She bought vegetables from Sealdah market and sold them in her local Topsia market. Her business started profiting. Now she is earning Rs 400 to Rs 500 per day. Aleya is doing multiple businesses like printing on Flip flop ‘chappals’, she also sells a popular snack “Jhal muri” in the evening. Her older children are also involved in ‘chappal’ printing.

Aleya is a courageous lady. One day she gathered few ladies and went to her daughter’s school where the quality of the statutory mid-day meal was poor. She fought with the School Management Committee and asked the committee to provide the children with a good midday meal. Now Aleya’s financial condition has become stable and she is leading a good life. Aleya has repaid her grant totally. She wants further grants from Tiljala SHED to expand her business.”

About the Livelihood Programme

Since the introduction of waste compactors by the municipality, rag pickers have found their incomes have dropped by half.  In response to this crisis Tiljala SHED raised funds through GlobalGiving and ran a pilot livelihood programme through 2016.  87 small conditional grants were made to destitute families. The loans averaged Rs10,000.  Some beneficiaries received rickshaws or cycle vans and others, like Aleya, set up or invested in informal retail businesses.  The grants are conditional upon repayment into a revolving savings group fund and undertakings by the families to keep their children in education. The beneficiaries in each area have formed CIGs (credit interest groups) which are now responsible for ensuring prompt repayment and also authorising new grants.  The scheme has been very successful with 97% of beneficiaries repaying promptly into the revolving fund.  75% of the beneficiaries have been women and they report not only economic improvements but also reduction in domestic violence.

 “I have power and respect now” said Doulari from Park Circus.

The numbers

118    Total grants made since April 2016                                     

94      No of beneficiaries who have increased their income        

87      No of grants from original fund                                             

31      No of new grants from loans already repaid into revolving fund    

Highest grant amount =  Rs15,000

Lowest grant amount = Rs3,000

Impact

• Reduced levels of domestic violence
• Evidence of empowerment (see Aleya’s story)
• School drop-out rates have dropped from 16% to 3%
• Reduction in alcohol and drug use
• Social participation has improved
• Both adults and children taking more interest in education

Meet Morjina Bibi.  
She is a beneficiary of Tiljala SHED’s Livelihood Programme.  Thanks to your donation she was able to take a small loan of Rs10,000 in May 2016.  She set up a business selling vegetables.  The family income increased from Rs3500 (£44) per month before the loan to Rs12000  (£150) per month now.  She has also repaid the full amount into a revolving fund so that the money can be used to help another family.   

Morjina Bibi lives in the Topsia Canalside squatter camp, one of Kolkata’s “rag picker” communities.  They are mostly Muslim and are migrants from other parts of West Bengal and northern India.  They are generally Urdu speakers, illiterate and many lack identity documents and are therefore barred from accessing their rights and entitlements. Most of the families here depend on rag picking for a livelihood, supplemented by exploitative piecework like chappal trimming.  

710 families, averaging 6 individuals per family, live by the Topsia canal, a polluted waterway which has contaminated the ground and water in the area with heavy metals and other toxins.  There are just two drinking water taps, one at either end of the community, and these flow just twice a day, so residents need to queue to collect drinking and cooking water.  Open defecation is the norm here as the few toilets that exist cannot be kept clean through a lack of running water. Residents avoid them.

Morjina lives in a single room with her family of six. Her husband is not always at home as he has another family so Morjina is currently the only earning family member.

Under Tiljala SHED’s livelihood programme Morjina applied for and was granted Rs10,000 in May 2016 to set up a vegetable selling business.   Every day she buys vegetables from around 3000 up to 6000 INR. She pushes a mobile shop and goes to different areas to sell the vegetables and makes around Rs400 to 500 a day.  Despite the difficulties caused by demonetisation her small business has thrived.  She has repaid the loan in full and has lifted the family income from just Rs3500 per month to Rs12000.  She also reports that she has already saved Rs40000 in her bank account. She can afford good food and a good education for her children. Morjina Bibi says “I want to give my children a good future.”

Because this programme has been so very successful and there is now great demand from other families, we are coming back to our generous donors and asking you to consider a further donation. Or even making a regular commitment.  Every £100 donated will help many families as it will be granted to one family, repaid and then "recycled" to help another family.  We know it works - 97% of beneficiaries are repaying their loan on time or have already repaid.  

Meet Noorjahan

For every fortunate Morjina there are hundreds like Noorjahan. I met her last month in Kolkata.  I crossed the road to find out what she was collecting in her huge sack (horrible old used shoes)  and to my amazement she addressed me in English. Her aunty, she told me, had worked for some years in Ireland and had taught her English. Noorjahan is a rag picker and a pavement dweller, the most vulnerable of all Kolkata’s poor. She lives with her three children, 2 daughters and a son, and a husband who is unable to work because of an addiction to chullu (cheap country liquor) a very common affliction here. She is proud that her children are in school and she is keeping the family together on Rs100 – 150 per day (less than £2).

Noorjahan means “Light of the World”.

Noorjahan is next in line for a grant from this programme and you can help her and others like her by making a small donation. With a grant, she can set herself up in a business selling vegetables or garments, a far better prospect than rag picking. She’ll open a bank account and have the chance to save and/or borrow.  She and her children will be able to eat properly, her children will come to our after school children’s club where they are safe and supported in their health and education. Her husband may even be able to lift himself out of his cycle of despair, give up the chullu and help her out. 

About the Livelihood Programme

Since the introduction of waste compactors by the municipality, rag pickers have found their incomes have dropped by half.  In response to this crisis Tiljala SHED  raised funds through Global Giving  and ran a pilot livelihood programme through 2016.  87 small conditional grants were made to destitute families. The loans averaged Rs10,000.  Some beneficiaries received rickshaws or cycle vans and others, like Morjina, set up or invested in informal retail businesses.  The grants are conditional upon repayment into a revolving savings group fund and undertakings by the families to keep their children in education. The beneficiaries in each area have formed CIGs (credit interest groups) which are now responsible for ensuring prompt repayment and also authorising new grants.  The scheme has been very successful with 97% of beneficiaries repaying promptly into the revolving fund.  75% of the beneficiaries have been women and they report not only economic improvements but also reduction in domestic violence. 

“I have power and respect now” said Doulari from Park Circus.