JAGRITI

JAGRITI
SECURING RURAL
LIVELIHOOD OPTIONS AND
BIO DIVERSITY CONSERVATION
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Ministry of Environment &
Forests (MoEF)
U N
D P
CEE
GEF India UNOPS
Centre for Environment Education

Jagriti, a grassroot level women centered NGO
established in 2003 is working in Kullu and has
initiated the community management climate
change, livelihoods and enterprise development
project in Lag and Gadsa valley of Himachal
Pradesh in India. The village areas are located at
an altitude varying 2000-2700 meters above sea
level. Many of the remote villages like. Manihar
and Thatch have no road connection and are
linked by narrow pathways. The communities
work cohesively with Jagriti.
Geographic area:
4 Panchayats to 2 Districts
(50 villages)
No. of participants:
196 households to 1000
HHS.
SGP Grant: 43,402 USD
Scaled up: 41,000 USD
Cofinancing: 24,000 USD,
54,000 USD.
Time Period: 2004-06-09
Project Objective:
Expand and diversify livelihoods of poor rural women and
raise and conserve high altitude threatened species of
medicinal plants.
Project Rationale:
The Gadsa Valley represents the scattered settlement pattern
on higher altitudes in the Western Himalayas. Deep-rooted
social sanction against scheduled castes has restricted their
settlement to the periphery of villages which usually has
poor, less fertile and smaller land holdings. Harsh climatic
conditions and inaccessibility to basic services impose
greater drudgery and livelihood pressure on poor
households in meeting their needs.

Even within the poor households the burden is much more on women because of the nature of
their activity profile like collecting fuelwood, fodder, grass cutting, grazing cattle, fetching water
etc.
Besides, using resources for own consumption, selling fuelwood, fodder, medicinal plants and
sheep and goat rearing are main sources of income in the Valley. Heavy dependence of poor
households on forest resources for livelihood is contributing to rapid depletion of available
resources like fuelwood in the area. The burden of obtaining resources has increased considerably.
Since women are predominately engaged in these activities, the drudgery and increasing time in
obtaining existing resources has further exaggerated and extended their work burden.
The project strategy has been essentially structured around WSCGs (Women Self Care Groups) and
all activities centered through them, the women members of the community are directly involved
in project implementation. Since the project emphasis is on collective planning and execution of
activities, homogeneity of a group is a crucial factor in ensuring representative decision making
processes within the group. In order to build stake in the project, community contribution both in
kind and in cash has been enlisted thereby lifting myths about cost sharing, money and mindset.
The critical step of demonstrating awareness through action has been the cornerstone of Jagriti,
softly influencing policy making procedures. Gender sensitive budgeting is also being
encouraged in the project.

Project Activities:
Social mobilisation and institution building
Formation of Women's Saving Care Groups (WSCG) was
preceded by a detailed survey based on location specific
indicators of identification of poor households. Record
keeping and group management were key for effective
group functioning. Today more than 30 WSCG, are
functioning having savings of Rs. 5 lacs per annum and
links to banks for credit of another additional Rs. 3 lacs per
annum. More than 1000 women are members in these
groups.
All the group members regularly save on monthly basis
and deposit the same in their respective group account.
Panchayat level meeting of the group members facilitate
inter group learning and sharing of experiences. Training
programmes, workshops, mahila mela forum for
confidence building and effective participation in public
are organised by Jagriti.
Drudgery reducing and time saving technologies
Introduction of energy saving and drudgery reducing
devices namely Hamam (Water heating device) was
distributed to members on cost sharing basis. This has
greatly reduced the time and drudgery for women and
given them greater opportunities.
Enterprise Management
Under the project, a system of procurement of the apricots
and peaches was introduced to ensure quality control.
Indicator at each level has been developed. It was found
some of the products are available in small quantities and
in order to reduce the transaction cost, local collection at
village level and then at the panchayat level provided
monetary benefits to members. Nearly 20,000 kgs of peach
kernals are collected in a season giving nearly 400 litres of
oil and an additional income of Rs. 4 lacs for SHGs. Value addition and marketing of the local
fruits and forest produce collected by the Women's Saving and Credit Groups in the villages is
the hallmark of Jagriti. Amaranthus flour, apple chips, apricot oil and scrub, beeswax cream,
buckwheat flour, corn flour, rosechip herbal tea, roasted barley and soya bean, popped
amaranthus are some of the products from the range of products marketed by Jagriti.
Raise medicinal plants and promote energy plantation:
Conservation of threatened medicinal plants like Aconitum heterophyllum, Picrorhiza kurroa,
Valeriana wallichii, Podophyllum, Dioscorea deltoidae etc by setting up nurseries and making
people aware about the sustainable use of natural resources. This activity is supported by the
PCCF, Forest Deptt. Himachal Pradesh.
Vermicomposting:
Popularizing Vermicompost so as to promote organic farming in the area. For this initial support
was provided by the organization in three areas namely Lag Valley, Gadsa Valley and Jagatsukh.
The result have already started coming in and the total production of vermicompost as per now
in the three regions is 1339, 349 and 120 quintals respectively. Similarly, the production of
Vermiwash is about 365, 91 and 116 litres respectively.

Results and Lessons:
1. 51 WSCGs formed and registered with the Bank with total
savings accumulating to over five lakhs. Intra group loans
to the tune of Rs 94,800.
2. 17 WSCGs having 60 pits engaged in production of
vermicompost. Total production of 1879 quintals of
which, 293.3 quintals used by members in their fields and
remaining sold to big farmers and orchids.
3. 495 hamams (water heating device) distributed to women
members on cost sharing basis. Members contribution to
the tune of Rs. 43,170. More efficient use of household
and agricultural waste for water heating and lesser trips to
forests in summer for fuelwood. Now members have
more time available for other household chores and
leisure and less exposure to indoor pollution. The
ordinary woman's workday here stretches between 16
and 18 hours.
An analysis (carried out by Jagriti in Gadsa valley) of the
activity breakup and hours spent on each activity shows
that time spent on cooking, utensil washing and fuelwood
gathering adds upto a daily total of 6 to 7 hours.
According to the preliminary survey conducted by Jagriti,
in a year an average household roughly uses 15-17
quintals ('00 kg) of fuelwood with bulk of it in winter.

Besides cooking, fuelwood is used for heating of room, water
for bathing and for washing. Average hot water requirement
per day per household in winter months i.e for six months is 50-
60 liters. A comparative study of fuelwood consumption in
traditional chullah as against Hamam suggests that to heat 20
liters of water in a traditional chullah takes roughly 10 -12 kilo
of hard wood and time taken is 35-40 minutes whereas, in
Hamam it takes 2 kilo of household litter, crop residue or small
twigs to heat 20 litres of water in 15-20 minutes. So, with use of
hamam for approximately 130 days in a year, a household
saves 1.5 tons of fuelwood.
4. The project has also introduced energy efficiency devices as
pressure cookers.
5. Women's participation and PRI: WSCG's members are
actively participating in the gram sabha meetings. Earlier
women saw their role as only voters and often could not muster
courage to even attend the gram sabha. According to some of
the women members, gram sabha is mainly attended by men
Gender Sensitive Energy
Benefits
Welfare : Lighten the daily
burden of poor women.
Efficiency : Community
cost sharing developing
interest and local
ownerships of actions.
Poverty : Different income
and enterprise based
actions are impacting
livelihoods.
Meeting Millennium
Development Goals
(MDGs) : Expanding access
to modern energy services
for the poor.
as quorum counting is done on the basis of one vote per household. It has been seen that the
presence of women in large numbers in village level bodies greatly influenced to their ability to
lobby & build collective pressure to push decisions in their interest. Several examples have been
cited in the project on how WSCG's members joint representation at panchayat level has made a
big difference in how decisions are made in the gram sabhas. Thus, as a first step 'even the
presence' of women in good numbers produces a favourable impact.
6. The NGO Jagriti has recently won the SEED Award 2008 for entrepreneurship in sustainable
development: The NGO has also established a marketing outlet on Kullu Manali main road as
"Mountain Bounties". This is linked to the women federations and is marketing a range of
products for a total value of Rs. 20,000 per month. This has provided income and empowerment
for the local women in the area. The NGO is actively linking its products with the Himachal
Pradesh Tourism Department through retail outlets in Simla and Manali.
7. Women play their roles effectively, when involved in the decision making processes and given
opportunities centrally in planning the actions, implementing and monitoring the program.
8. Women see women workers as 'great inspiration' in the program, more so when they are
managing and dealing with financial matters and resources.
JAGRITI
Ms. Mamta Chander, Director
Village Badah, PO Mohal
District Kullu-175126
Tel.: 0190-2226537 Fax: 92184-74832
Email: info@jagritikullu.org
Website: www.jagritikullu.org
National Co-ordinator
GEF UNDP Small Grant Programe
CEE Delhi,
C-40 South Extension-II,
New Delhi-49 Ph.: 011-26262878-80
E-mail: sgpdelhi@ceeindia.org
www.sgpindia.org
www.ceeindia.org
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