Khajuri village is located at Bisam Cuttack block of Rayagada
district of Orissa. The village is located at 4 km away from
the Bisam Cuttack Railway station towards Chantikona waterfall.
The village is surrounded by a good forest area. The village
is named as Khajuri as number of Khajuri trees was available
in the village earlier. The village has a total of 73 households
out of which 53 belong to Dangaria Kandha and the rest belong
to Scheduled Castes. The total population in the village
is 375. The language that has been practised by most of the
villagers is kui. Most of the population in the village are
dependent on a food item extracted from salap tree. There
is good harmony among the villagers but due to the less awareness
on collection, processing and marketing of non timer forest
produces, which have been available with a tune of lakh of
rupees around the forest, they have to borrow money from
the local land lords at the time of abject poverty.
Siali leaves and hill broom are vastly available in the
nearby forest area but due to lack of access of markets and
knowledge on processing technologies among the villagers,
they were collecting a small portion of the produces from
the forest. Even the produces like turmeric, pineapple etc.
is sold in the nearest Chatikona weekly market at throw away
prices. The female members work as daily labourers but they
are not paid properly.
To address all the above issues, Dangaria Kondh Development
Agency (DKDA) has floated a group consisting of 15 women
on 15th September 1999. The group as named Khajuri Mahila
Sangha, chaired Wakada Kamaredy as Chairperson and Sikka
Teladi as secretary of the organisation. Each member of the
organisation paid Rs 20 in every month and the money was
deposited at Koraput Panchabati Gramya Bank at Chatikona.
The organisation constantly met in every month to discus
the issues related to forest protection, the civic amenities
of the village etc. Convinced by the organised and systematic
effort of the group, DKDA and DRDA helped them financially.
While the former provided a loan of Rs 5,000 first the latter
an amount of Rs 25,000 of late. To collect and process forest
produces in the area DRDA organised a seven days training
programme on processing of hill broom in 2002.
The organisation for the first time in 2002-03 started collection
of hill broom. The trained members of the organisation collected
1000 kg of hill broom, made them 3000 pieces and sold @ Rs
12/- per piece in the same year.
| 1. Total cost of the hill broom @ Rs 20 per kg for
1000 kgs |
= Rs 20,000 |
| 2. Binding cost approximately 150 labour days @Rs 40
(15 members of the organisation engaged in 2 months for
at least 1-2 hours per day and approximate) 150*40 |
= Rs 6,000 |
| 3. Transportation, plastics, storage etc. |
= Rs 6,000 |
| Total expenses |
= Rs 32,000 |
| Total income 3000*Rs 12/- |
= Rs 36,000 |
| Net Profit |
= Rs 4,000 |
The profit was distributed equally among the members of
the organisation and the organisation is now planning to
get into the market for other produces in large scale.
|
