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Livelihood opportunities with
Alternative Sujoy Chaudhury chaudhurysujoy@hotmail.com T he Building Materials and Services Bank ( BMSB ) is a unique concept that integrates rural livelihoods with delivery of rural housing and other habitat related deliverables for overall habitat security. The fundamentals of this concept lie in the fact that the BMSB is an institution in which the primary stakeholders are the rural unemployed. This concept seeks to integrate management and delivery of safe and secure habitat solutions through the use of alternative and appropriate building materials and technologies through a decentralized process that ensures economic benefits both directly and indirectly.The proof of the concept is being demonstrated by the Building Material and Services Bank at Chowduar in the Cuttack district of Orissa. The BMSB was set up following the reconstruction project initiated by CARE with technical assistance of Development Alternatives for rehabilitating victims of the Super Cyclone of 1999. The area around the BMSB was once upon a time not very long ago, thickly forested, rich in bamboo and other forest resources. The forest resources found their utility in industries both within and outside the state. Unscientific exploitation of resources have however rendered the same area bereft of any tree cover and the tribal families dependent on this resource, without any major source of livelihood. Apart from casual work as daily wage earners ,most of the people are unemployed subsisting on their meager earnings from agriculture and small livestock. The BMSB has been located in this area with the principal objective of including these communities to better their individual well being as well as to provide and inculcate the spirit of collective or group enterprise with a strong element of advocacy to influence favorable policy interventions towards the overall development of the area. The BMSB, on the process of being registered as a section 25 company ,has as its major stakeholders tribal women from the villages around. The BMSB is involved in producing a number of alternative and appropriate building materials and also extends its services in installation and construction of residential, institutional and industrial buildings. The unique selling proposition of the products and services are quality, cost effectiveness and resistance to damage by floods and cyclones. About 50 people out of which about 37 are women are involved in the activities of the BMSB. Some of these women have graduated to becoming operators of machines and other equipment requiring high skills, this has been made possible by intensive training provided by Development Alternatives. It is proposed that by the end of the year about 100 people would be provided with direct livelihood options while the number of people benefiting indirectly would be about another 50.
The BMSB seeks to further strengthen backward and forward linkages, whereby communities in adjoining villages can get marketing support from the BMSB. Capacity is also being strengthened whereby the BMSB could tie up with financial organizations and offer credit for rural housing. It is expected that over the next couple of years the BMSB will have positioned itself in the market with its strong objective of social enterprise. It would be able to seek funds both locally and nationally for all development related activities which the communities would then manage and implement.The strength of the concept is its transformation into a model for providing livelihood options to rural communities, that can be, for replicated in different parts of the country. q |
