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Empowering Resilience
Tathagat SHG’s Initiative during Covid and Cyclone Tauktae
Tathagat SHG is a group of 10 women, based in Dungarpur village of Junagadh district. This SHG had been engaged in regular credit saving work till before the cyclone. In Covid too, even with reduced incomes, this SHG continued with credit saving, and in fact also gave loans to people from their village.
During the second wave, they received an order from Satguru Rohidas Ashram for preparing 250 ration kits. However, these women had never done this before and were unsure. HDRC stepped in to support, and increased their order to 500 kits. The organization also helped these women in procuring and preparing the ration kits. Soon the women took charge and were able to complete the order. 250 ration kits were sent to Satguru Rohidas Ashram, and the remaining 250 kits were distributed buy HDRC.
After the cyclone, going from their previous experience, these women decided to make ration kits again. The cyclone had left several mango plantations completely destroyed. These women noticed the fallen mangoes and decided to make mango pickle out of these to include in the ration kits.
They collected the fallen mangoes from plantations and started making pickle. However, since they were doing it for the first time, they also faced challenges of mistaken measurements, which they overcame by deciding to make two different types of pickle- sweet and sour. They made pickle packets of 250 grams and added it in the ration kits. The SHG ended up distributing 5500 ration kits across 2 villages of Junagadh. It is also fantastic to note that out of the 20 women involved in this ration kit process, only 5 were from the SHG. The other 15 had been mobilized by these 5 women from the village to provide support. they continued making mano pickle and started selling these 250-gram packets for Rs.40 each. The women also received Rs.500 for per days work in ration kit making.
Going by this experience with Tathagat SHG, HDRC has also planned to create a cluster of SHGs from 8 villages of Junagadh, with 10 to 15 SHGs. They are planning to train these women on stitching, beauty parlour work, jewellery making, etc., and facilitate them to start income generating activities soon.
