DA Bangalore going from strength to strength
AVM (Retd) C S Doraiswami

DA’s regional office in Bangalore was established eight years ago. Here we recount the success story of Sathanur which is providing sustainable livelihoods to under privileged people.

Development Alternatives’ regional office was set up in Bangalore in September 1989. It began with a small complement of just three members as office staff and the first professional joined in November of the first year. Over the years it has grown both in size and strength and now has three field centres operating from vastly different locations.

With 28 professionals and seven support staff, the goal is to utilise their expertise to “promote sustainable livelihoods for people through technological advancement in consonance with the environment.” We have three branches, namely Environment Systems Branch, Shelter and Textiles operating mainly from Bangalore with its field offices at Hoyisalakatte (Tumkur district), Devanahalli and Santhanur which are at a distance of 195 km, 35 km and 75 km respectively from Bangalore.

Inspite of odds such as inadequate office space, the professionals are contributing their mite towards meeting the overall organisational goals. There have undoubtedly been setbacks along the way but there have also been success stories such as Sathanur, Mysore district and Hoyisalakatte.

Here we focus on the Sathanur success story which is providing sustainable livelihoods for many underprivileged people in the area.

Empowering women - The Sathanur way

Sathanur, 75 km from Bangalore was an impoverished village, where employment opportunities were virtually non-existent. There are no major industries situated within a radius of 40 km and local employment opportunities are hard to get except for petty trade. About 50 per cent of the population consists of SC/STs, who generally live below the poverty line. This village falls in the lee-ward side of the Malemadeshwara hill range. Monsoons are highly irregular and generally the villagers cultivate one crop in a season. The rest of the year, the menfolk normally go out and work as labourers. A few farmers, fortunate to have irrigation facilities from deep bore wells, practice sericulture and horticulture. The water table is fast receding and open wells are drying up. A day is not  far when all means of agriculture will fail, leaving the population in dire straits.

DA has been working in Sathanur since 1990, when it started a training programme for SC/ST women of Sathanur in handweaving on the TARA loom. DA has trained 20 ladies of Sathanur during 1990-91 and these candidates were found to be eligible under Karnataka State Functional Corporate (KSFC) norms to avail loans for setting up TARA looms. Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation (KHDC) extended their marketing support to these trained ladies and these weavers have been weaving for a livelihood since then.

The ladies of Sathanur have proved to be good weavers and have also trained the menfolk and children in assisting them, not only in the preparatory processes to weaving like winding, pirn winding, warping and drawing but also to become handweavers. The involvement of the whole family in weaving on the TARA loom has resulted in each family increasing their earnings from Rs 650 per month to Rs 1,500 per month. As a result, the weaving families of Sathanur now have a guaranteed monthly income, which gives them pride of place as opinion makers in the community.

Continued training of more women at Sathanur has been the function of DA.During 1996-97, 10 ladies have been trained in silk spinning and hand weaving of cotton for six months and another 10 ladies have been trained in hand weaving for nine months. The batch that underwent the nine months schedule has been provided advanced training in hand weaving of silk too. It is gratifying to see that four of the trainees of the second batch have now been absorbed in the production system of  TARA,

TARA opened a training-cum-production centre at Sathanur with two TARA looms for production and another four TARA looms for training. Along with training on TARA looms, hand spinning of waste and pierced cocoons on the Medleri charkhas and dyeing of silk and cotton with natural dyes and eco-friendly synthetic dyes were the other activities taken. Training was but a means to an end and TARA found a ready market for the fabrics woven out of spun silk yarn (termed as Ahimsa or cruelty free silk). This market was essentially for export as foreign buyers appreciated silk fabrics which were different in terms of subdued sheen and being produced by hand. Between April 1997 and September 1997, TARA has made a turnover of Rs 1,39,494 by way of sale of Ahimsa silk fabrics, regular silk fabrics and cotton fabrics. This has enabled nearly 50 handspinners of silk and five handweavers to earn decent wages ranging from Rs 30 per day to Rs 60 per day.

To cater to the local needs, keeping in view that traditional silk sarees have a ready market, we have started training the local ladies in these skills also. The trained weavers have now become competent to weave with dobbys and this will be upgraded to include jacquard weaving which is considered to be the ultimate in design weaving as evidenced by the Kancheepuram silk sarees. All these training activities have been conducted within the small internal resources of DA and if there is to be a quantum jump in the number of trainees, then we would require to seek funds from other sources which we are actively pursuing.

Since not all silk sarees and dress material need to have zari, we have introduced design by way of colour. DA which believes in being in harmony with nature and in the preservation of the ecological base, has taken care to see that only bio-degradable and eco-friendly dyes are put to use. A first step in this direction is the use of eco-friendly synthetic dyes and natural dyes. The local ladies are now being trained in the use of Procion dyes and natural dyes like indigo, pomegranate rind, myrobalan, lac for shades of blue, yellow, khaki, crimson, purple, green and also other combination shades.

Care is being taken in this training programme to ensure that the ladies appreciate nature which has given birth to these dye yielding plants and to inculcate a measure of reverence for nature by growing these dye yielding plants in the kitchen garden of the lady weavers. By these measures, we are sure to convert the arid scenario of Sathanur to a green belt, using in the process all the waste water flowing from their drains to their kitchen gardens. To meet the growing market demand for cotton and silk madeups, we propose to train some of the local ladies in cutting and sewing as it was noticed that they have the rudimentary knowledge in sewing, and we intend to upgrade these skills.

Other plans are to involve the local ladies in the construction of their own living cum workshops and introducing the concept of rooftop rain water harvesting, vermicomposting by the use of household wastes from the kitchen to convert them into valuable organic fertiliser and using solar energy for cooking at least one meal a day to conserve scarce bio-mass.

Along with awakening the inherent talent of the local folk in the various possibilities for gainful employment by skill training, DA has gone a step ahead by bonding the trained weavers into a co-operative society. This co-operative society will play a major role in strengthening the well being of the community at Sathanur in the days to come.

Marketing the co-operative’s  products is an important element which will be handled by TARA Bangalore and TARA New Delhi. TARA has market savvy, having been in the field for the last 14 years. The links developed over these years among the exporters, boutiques, merchandisers, wholesalers and retailers will be utilised to provide an effective marketing service to these empowered women of Sathanur.    q    

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