By divorcing itself from the realities of the vast majority of our people, today’s science can only end up marginalising itself. Fortunately, there is a growing feeling among, at least a few organisations that things should not continue like this.

Development Alternatives (DA), a Delhi-based not-for-profit scientific research organisation is one such entity. For the past 28 years, DA has been working in rural areas, primarily in the Bundelkhand region of central India, with a broad objective of improving the lives of the rural communities, especially the rural women, through the application of science and technology. The organisation uses sustainable technology for the betterment and empowerment of rural women.

Development Alternatives Group has innovated and developed a product range for basic needs and income generation that includes devices for energy, agriculture, habitat, employment-generation and other human needs, by combining modern scientific tools with traditional knowledge and translating the results into forms useful to rural women.

The approach adopted by DA is to mobilise the rural women into clusters and Self-help Groups for capacity building through adequate trainings and workshops. Once trained, the technology is transferred into their hands, enabling them to set up sustainable enterprises. The Gaushala (Green Energy Cluster) is a classic example. Approximately 40 members of women-self-help groups, representing five-six villages, own and manage green energy clusters, based on biogas from scrub cattle (Gaushala). The cluster is an energy source for six-eight livelihood enterprises, engaging 30 to 40 women.

DA realises that Science and Technology itself cannot support innovations and requires other systems to make the interventions work. The women engaged in Gaushala, for instance have been linked to other employment generating schemes, such as quality fodder manufacturing to feed the cows in Gaushala to obtain good quality cow dung, which can then be used to generate power to other enterprises.

The Sahariya tribal women in Bundelkhand have been organised into federations to build their capacities in paper making, thus empowering them to take up alternate livelihood options. The Shakti Mahila Mandal is an example of such a federation. Under the TARA Akshar programme, DA in collaboration with the Poorest Area Civil Society Programme (PACS) partners has mobilised rural women in Chattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand to interact with women from other self help groups like SEVA and Tilonia. The platform offered an opportunity for the women to share and pass on knowledge and information to each other. The exchange of information led to the empowerment of the rural women, helping them gain entry into the male dominated employment sectors, such as construction, thus enhancing their socio economic capacities.

In its pursuit of empowering women through science and technology, DA has entered into partnerships with various NGOs and local bodies, institutions and local and state governments. In July 1995, the government of Madhya Pradesh leased ten acres of wasteland near Jhansi to Development Alternatives to set up a Sustainable Resource Centre. The centre, known as TARAgram, addresses critical issues of sustainable livelihoods, based on technological innovations, waste to wealth solutions and local capacity building.

Under the Bundelkhand Integrated Development Programme, with prime focus on the rural women, DA focused on building community partnerships with stakeholders like The Indian Grassland and Fodder research Institute (IGFRI), National Research Centre for Agroforestry (NRCAF) and International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to demonstrate new agricultural technologies. DA partnered with ICRISAT Hyderabad to set up a model in the Jhansi district to offer livelihood options to the local rural women through scientific watershed management. With the support of NABARD, DA demonstrated scientific agri-based livelihoods, with active participation from rural women.

The organisation collaborated with the local Panchayats and the district government of Orchha to acquire land for setting up the Gaushala Model in Orchha and has collaborated with MART, a rural marketing consultancy firm, in establishing sustainable enterprise linkages for the rural women of Bundelkhand.

Amongst the world’s first social enterprises, DA has pioneered the NGO scene with the concept of making development a good business – by creating technology-based livelihoods for rural communities, particularly, rural women, through technology-based sustainable enterprises, which are local, commercially viable and environmentally sound.  DA has innovated over 20 sustainable technologies which are being used in rural areas for basic needs and for establishing small enterprises. These technology packages which are economically viable, use local material and resources and provide affordable products for housing, energy and clean water, such as TARAcrete roofing tiles, cooking stoves, recycled paper units, and Gaushalas.

More than 25,000 community based institutions have been established by DA in rural areas of which nearly 75 per cent have an all-women membership and enable the poorest to get empowered and have a dignified income. The paper recycling units and the Gaushala model, in particular have provided decent income opportunities to rural women, who now earn Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 per month. These women are organised in self help groups and are now running sustainable enterprises themselves. Since its inception and operations TARAhaat has addressed the literacy needs of over 60,000 women across five of the most severely affected northern Indian states.

Under the Core Support Project of DA, initiated in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology, SEED Division, the lessons learnt from DA‘s work in the construction sector in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan will help in developing a context specific training modules for rural women to help them find a foothold in the construction sector.

Time is now right to adopt radically new ways to deal with future where women get to play an integral part in our society, using new technologies and new systems of managing our resources. DA has taken a step in the right direction towards empowering the rural women with the help of Science and technology and now it is for the rest of us to follow suit. q