Our partners in India support women’s self-help groups to build their capacity to earn a living and support communities involved in environmental education and the reforestation process in Tamil Nadu. India is now an emerging economy, but in this land of contrasts many are still living in extreme poverty.

Pitchandikulum Bio Resource Centre

Environmental Education in Tamil Nadu

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Innovations Program

Like its title suggests, this innovative program hopes to address a lack of adequate models for renewable energy and building materials that are applicable to small-scale rural contexts. This new one year program began in December 2009 with all of the funding coming from AusAID. It is located in Nadukuppam Village, Tamil Nadu in Southern India and is being implemented by existing QSA project partner, Pitchandikulam Bio Resource Centre (PBRC).

The goal of the innovations program is to provide a model of a range of environmental initiatives more suited to a village setting. The development of a rural design centre, with demonstrated environmentally sustainable methods of addressing water and power supply, building materials and design, fuel efficient and smokeless stoves all suited to a village setting will be the focus of a range of educational meetings and workshops for widespread dissemination of these concepts with a view to influencing public and government opinion.

This program will showcase new housing styles, such as bamboo composite roofing material, traditional granite pillars and thatch varieties for verandas alongside modern eco-friendly technologies for clean energy and water, and encourage the community to participate in the design and building processes.

The first few months of the program have been spent in investigating the variety of alternative technologies in regards to water, energy and housing design; also the opportunities for partnerships with other organisations and discussions were just beginning to analyse the data obtained to decide the most appropriate course of action. Also undertaken has been a very extensive baseline survey of the residents of Devikulam Village, addressing household information; communication; means of transport; amount of land; animals; house construction; water resources; income; power and lighting sources.

Photo: example of electric bikes staff will use to visit project sites

Women’s Self Help Groups

Another project of Pitchandikulum Bio Resource Centre is the formation of 26 Women’s Self-help groups, enabling local women to gain skills and earn an income.  From its beginnings in the village of Nadukuppam the work has expanded to more than 26 groups in eight villages, with the Women’s Centre located at Nadukuppam being a focal point for activities and training. 

Training has taken place in indigenous plant species, tailoring, vermi-composting and food growing and processing including Spirulina as a food supplement to name but a few. There is also training in sanitation, health matters and hygiene and with support from the federation of women’s self help groups recently created, they have advocated for change locally and successfully increased local bus services and had alcohol sellers moved away from schools.

Practical support in small business management has also been provided, which allows groups access to microfinance and small loans from the Tamil Nadu Government. There are now more than 130 income generating activities underway, including goat rearing, sheep rearing, a group nursery to produce seedlings, a tailoring shop and a variety of other agriculture initiatives. One innovative group is recycling waste and selling it on to recyclers as an income generating activity.  

Photo: growing spirulina (below left) and tailoring classes (top right).

Vasandham Society

Women's Self Help Groups

One project of the Vasandham Society is support for 143 women’s self help groups. These groups are given training in income generating activities, and have proceeded to run milk societies, use kapok cotton to make pillows and mattresses, operate a rice mill, rear goats, and run small shops and hotels. These women are able to repay the loans and have had funds leftover to support their families. The Vasandham Society also advocates non-violently on behalf of its member groups. For example, one milk society was owed money by a large milk company, and Vasandham Society is working to retrieve those funds for the group.

Warehouse

The Vaigai Federation, found from women’s groups of the Vasandham Society, can be very proud of its recently constructed warehouse. In July 2006, QSA funded the construction of a warehouse, which was to house coconuts, silk cotton and cashew nuts purchased at a fair price so that they could be sold again when the market improved. There are plans too to use a silk cotton (kapok) to produce pillows and mattresses. A recent visit to the area revealed that this warehouse has delivered. Now 8 staff members are employed as community development workers on the profits produced by this storing process alone.

Photo: women in front of warehouse

Environmental Restoration

The Vasandham Society aims to bring practical knowledge of environmentally sustainable agriculture and agro-forestry techniques to a remote rural area of South India where deforestation over the past 70 years has lead to seriously low groundwater levels and desertification of 90% of the land. Construction has begun on an Environmental Training centre and a rain water harvesting pond has been constructed at the upper side of the land for use in rain water harvesting and to increase the ground water level.

One thousand seedlings (30 varieties) have been purchased and are being maintained in a nursery. These seedlings will be planted in the rainy season between September and November this year. They have also planted seedlings and conducted routine watering and maintenance work done for 600 planted seedlings during last season. Seventeen Vasandham staff team members visited PitchandikulamForest, PBRC and saw the wind turbine, solar energy system and the GIS System. There are plans for future visits between the two organisations in the near future so that knowledge and ideas can be shared.

Photo: one of the 600 seedlings being planted

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SPRIT – Paper Cups

The Society for Participatory Research and Integrated Training (SPRIT) recently entered into a partnership with Quaker Service Australia in order to involve women in the production and trading of paper cups. The decision to produce paper cups rather than plastic ones was a deliberate one, with the aim of raising awareness in the wider community about caring for the environment.

The project is working with 15 widows and 5 separated women in part of Tamil Nadu, who are all working together to produce paper cups which they then sell to drink sellers in the local area. The cups are made using clean recycled paper and a hand operated press which means that they are able to produce around 1,500 cups per day between them. The women are supporting each other and sharing the work and the profits, and already have been able to increase their family income. The cups are sold to local restaurants, drink vendors and at the temple, and it is hoped that the market will expand as a nearby township has declared itself plastic free and plastic cups will therefore no longer be permitted.

Photo: Ms Mareeswari, a 42 year old widow, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Concord Trust

With a new project partner, Concord Trust, QSA has suggested the establishment of a cow bank for a small group of women in Kalasamudram Village, Tamil Nadu. These women will be trained in animal husbandry skills and also record keeping so that the profits from the sale of the milk can be correctly apportioned.