Socio-economic interventions in the brick sector with emphasis on Women Empowerment

Reena Tete              reena_tete@hotmail.com 

The brick sector is one of the fastest growing sectors. This has been clearly visible in the growth and mushrooming of the number of open clamps, in and around Datia. According to the people living in the area, the total number of open clamps has increased three folds in the last ten years.  There are many reasons for the increase in the number of open clamps. Some of the most important reasons are:

Ü Increase in the market for the finished fired bricks
Ü Assured profits
Ü Availability of cheap labour
Ü Availability of skills in terms of  brick moulding and firing available.

Paradigm Shift

Not more than a decade ago, people associated with the open clamps were all from the Prajapati community alone. Today, the region has seen a tangible shift of the Prajapati bhatta maliks (or clamp owners) to most of them being simply job workers (moulders and firemen). With the disintegration of joint family system, the fragmentation of land holdings forced a lot of locals to look out for other means of earning their livelihood. An obvious choice was shifting to the brick sector. Since the Prajapati community has an edge over others in terms of traditional knowledge, most of the firemen and moulders still belong to the Prajapati community, whereas, labourers and transporters are generally from different communities. The general observation has been that people setting up large clamps are no longer the Prajapati, but those with the capital to invest in clamps - the Thakurs, Bundelas, Yadavs etc., who have been attracted to brick making primarily due to assured profitability and availability of a ready market.

There is no other sector in the region, which has the potential to absorb as many people for a sufficiently long duration of time. According to the local people, there is enough work in the clamps for everyone. Unlike other sectors, they do not have to move in search of work as contractors come 2-3 months before the commencement of the brick season in November and pay in advance. Ironically, these advances bind the firemen and moulders to the bhatta maliks.


India Brick Project- Initiating social change in the brick sector

The India Brick Project (IBP) primarily focuses at the recognition, selection and upgradation of rural technologies, the focal point being the traditional brick making practices in the brick sector. This project is an initiative of the partnership between Development Alternatives and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation.

The Social Action Component of India Brick Project was initiated, keeping in mind the need to understand the different but interrelated aspects of the rural brick making practices. The traditional brickmakers and potters in the region is the Prajapati community. Today these skill-rich artisans have turned from owners to job-workers, the reason primarily being non-availability of finance, especially for working capital.

The Project thus felt the need to look beyond the conventional economic feasibility of the brick sector and has focused on social change in consonance with energy efficiency. It has also looked at addressing gender issues within the techno-economic processes. The intervention has involved interactions with different stakeholders involved in the brick sector. We started by entering into a dialogue with the concerned community so as to identify and prioritize the ‘felt-developmental needs’ of the community.


Techno Social Integration

The integration of traditional knowledge with improved technological innovation in the milieu of the practices observed by the target group is called Techno Social Integration. This entails the learnings from the community on one hand and innovative technological intervention on the other hand.

The primary focus of the IBP has been Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK) dissemination, i.e., the technological aspect. Aspects of social intervention, i.e., interventions with the nano brick makers was added later in the project. This again pertained to information collection in terms of existing traditional knowledge, supporting infrastructure or rather, the lack of it.  Techno-social Integration was conceptualized for strengthening or building up the social capital in the form of social and economic upliftment, while addressing the issue of energy efficiency.

A Techno-social Integration (TSI) Committee was formed to act as a forum for promoting new ideas, insights, new learnings that emerged form the project partners’ interventions.


The Intervention

The interventions of the IBP Social Action Component can be broadly divided in three phases-

Ü Understanding phase This involved an understanding of the traditional brick making practices in Datia region. Socio-cultural aspects that play an important role in the technical aspects of brick making were looked into.
Ü Prioritization phase Repeated meetings and dialogue with the communities in the target villages brought forth the basic issues as the immediate concern of and by the community. These were- lack of finance, limited access to resources, networking and awareness, need for timely fuel and most importantly basic amenities like drinking water and water for irrigation.
Ü Initiation of Experimental Action This phase concentrated on leveraging finance for enterprise development and fuel efficiency.  A focus group of brick makers started their own kiln, thereby shifting from being job-workers to bhatta maliks. Ceiling on sale price of bricks was fixed by some of the nano brick entrepreneurs (cluster wise). Another focus group is also exploring setting up a fuel bank. 


Tapping Women Power       

The techno social integration component of IBP, has aimed at addressing gender issues within the techno economic processes, at capturing the dialectic between problems and solutions from a gender perspective. It was also felt that problems, most commonly pertain to long hours,  hard physical labour, familiar responsibility, illiteracy, absence of health care, sexual exploitation etc. However, in  the absence of an identification of their strengths, such problem identification leads to both - distorted understanding as well as false solutions.

An assessment of women’s strengths and initiatives therefore becomes essential. This covers their knowledge about themselves; their work and nature; their skills related to production; upbringing of children, sanitation and life in general; their values including the approach and desired solutions; their organizational thinking and their  ideas on solidarity and so on.

Our experiences have strengthened our belief that women need to be able to effectively and meaningfully participate in technological systems and processes that impact their livelihoods. More importantly, their needs as expressed by them, ought to be addressed by enabling them to weave these needs into business-as-usual scenario.

The techno-social integration process has helped in understanding of (1) problems faced (2) locale of women’s strengths (3) locale of women’s initiative (4) sources of strength. The following section conceptualizes the understanding.


1.     Problems

Women are actively involved in the household activities and support the livelihood related economic activities. For clarity, let us view the problems in three categories, such as:

a. Those that affect the whole family
b. Women specific problems
c. Occupational hazards
 
a) Those that affect the whole family such as
● Low irregular income
● Poor Living Conditions
● Non-conducive work environment
● Lack of basic amenities
● Engagement of children in economic activities
b) Women specific problems related to
● Unequal distribution of domestic work
● Non-acknowledgement of women’s work
● Lack of Security during migration for work

c)

Occupational Problems such as
● Lack of new skills
● Lack of community organisation and unhealthy hierarchy amongst brick makers and bhatta maliks
● Inability to respond to the seasonal market and stocking needs of small entrepreneurs 
   
2. Locale of women’s  strengths has been identified at Individual, Family and Community levels.  Gendered solidarity amongst women of this community is another strength.
3. Locale of women’s initiative is in their own initiatives, leadership of their  individual forms of solidarity and response to interventions by external parties (eg. NGOs)
4. Sources of strength of the Prajapati community are in Knowledge systems, Skills, Organizational abilities and that of the Prajapati women is basically in “Being a woman”.

Achievements
  Information collection and dissemination
  ● Traditional knowledge and practices: The initial phase of IBP- Social Action Component was poised at obtaining information on traditional brick practices.
  ● Technical inputs: The information sharing was a two way process; we got to know as much about the traditional skills as the brick workers got to know about upgradation in practices, wherever needed.
 
  Community mobilization
  ● Awareness generation: Awareness generation entailed awareness on leveraging finance for enterprise set ups, networking, health, education, sanitation etc.
  ● Setting up focus groups/ SHGs- Identification and formation of user groups was a crucial outcome of the community mobilization process.  This was achieved through continued interactions, information awareness and sharing with the women groups and the community as a whole. 
 
  Capacity Building
  The capacity building process was an inclusive approach that not only reached out to the women groups but also to the respective families and community as a whole.  The inherent entrepreneurial strengths and initiatives of the focus groups were sharpened through training, exposure visits and leveraging finance for enterprise set-ups.
  ● Exposure visits: potential focus groups were given an orientation to the other SHGs/ focus groups formed through DA intervention. 
  ●

Workshops and Creation of platforms for information sharing: Networking amongst various groups were encouraged. Workshop on common issues across various groups were periodically organized.
  ● Enterprise development: Focus group was assisted by leveraging finance for the bhatta set-up, that demonstrated entrepreneurial strengths and risk taking ability.
  ● Trainings of moulders and firemen conducted at the Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln  (VSBK) Centre.
 
  Gender concern in technical processes
  The project has specifically -
  ● Addressing women concerns in a participatory manner
  ● Recognizing the role of women in the skill based occupation

Learnings and the way forward

One of the important learnings was that the people know the best, what they need

Women's Cooperative in brick making

is information and at times a little direction. Exposure visits were found to be an effective tool for awareness generation.

Downscaling of Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK), which was supposed to be a major milestone of the intervention, could not be achieved.

 

The Way Ahead

Interactions with the community have reaffirmed the belief that the community is the best judge of its problems and its probable solutions. What they need is information, linkages and networking. Strengthening of the platforms established and enabling the interested groups/ individuals to leverage finance for enterprise set-ups is the need of the hour. A synergy between women’s involvement in livelihood and technology (construction and energy efficiency) is aimed at. Technology, in terms of brick making is seen as a tool to ease and make better the lives of women and their families involved in the brick making processes, thereby addressing gender issues within the techno-economic processes.  q

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