Livelihoods Improvement

The Activities to be Supported Are :

Income generating activities

Homestead gardens

Backyard poultry & goat rearing

Support for Producer Collectives

Support for Haat Bazars

Income Generating Activities

IGAs will be identified as part of the VDP preparation. The beneficiaries will be identified by the VDCs with the facilitation of NGOs. They will be chosen from among the poorest households, such as women headed households, old people without family support systems and PVTGs. The activities chosen will be from among activities the households are familiar with or already engaged in, including production, gathering and service sector activities. Finances for IGAs will be routed through the GPLF/VDCs.

Homestead Gardens

The programme will provide a kitchen garden package to all interested households comprising materials and labour for establishing an enclosed kitchen garden plot with water storage tank, hose for watering plants and planting materials. As sizes of kitchen garden plots vary from 40m2 to 400m2, appropriate facilities based on the SCAMPIS experiences in developing kitchen gardens under the OTELP will be provided. The Programme will provide seeds of various seasonal vegetables and seedlings of drumstick, papaya, etc.

Backyard Poultry & Goat Rearing

The programme will identify and train one CSP each for 5 villages to set up demonstration units in backyard poultry and goat rearing. CSPs trained in poultry will be provided a mother chick unit (brooding unit) to rear 1,000 day-old chicks for 15 days and a backyard poultry unit and working capital support for feed and medicines for one production cycle. The CSP will supply 15 day birds to households in the village and provide veterinary support to them. CSPs trained in goat rearing will be provided a goat unit with one buck and 5 does and feed support for one production cycle. The CSP will sell goat kids to other households and provide basic veterinary support. Regular animal health camps will be organized and universal vaccination of all goats and poultry birds will be ensured. Training to CSPs will include feeding, management practices, feed preparation with local raw materials, vaccination and basic veterinary care. NGOs engaged by the programme will link up CSPs with veterinary hospitals and reliable sellers of veterinary products. A system of paying for the services of CSPs by the service seeking households will be put in place to ensure sustainability. The programme will support expansion of backyard poultry and goat rearing activities among interested members. This will include training, materials for sheds, goat units (5 does and 1 buck shared by four households) or night shelters for 10 poultry birds, one lot of 10 poultry birds reared for 15 days and feed.

Support for Producer Collectives

The programme will support aggregation, value addition and market linkage for agricultural and horticultural products and NTFPs, with major focus on NTFPs by organising producer collectives. The aggregation related activities will be the initial building block of the Producer Collectives linked to implementation of minimum support prices for NTFP by TDCC and improvement to haat bazars. This process will be facilitated by the Livelihood Resource Agencies (LRA) to be engaged by the programme. Upon gaining adequate experience in aggregation and marketing of NTFP, the Producer Collectives will be facilitated to explore value addition in respect of a few of the NTFP and agricultural and horticultural products subject to availability of adequate raw materials within the command area of the Collectives and the financial viability of the proposed value addition.

Support for Haat Bazars

The programme will provide the required support to improve the infrastructure of haat bazaars with proper sheds, platforms, etc. and link up the collectives to the Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation (TDCC) of GoO to procure NTFPs from them as per Government policy pertaining to minimum support price.

Vocational Training

The programme will support skill development for masons, plumbers, electricians, computer operators and mobile telephone repairers, etc. for PVTG youth. The criteria for selection of trainees will include: (i) a member of PVTG; (ii) a pass in the 7th grade examination; and (iii) aptitude and interest for taking up the vocation. The programme will provide training, board and lodge costs and a stipend to compensate for loss of wages.