One third of the people on earth who are described as living in absolute poverty are found today in India. “These people,” says Mr B K Satpathy, “are caught in a poverty trap’.” “Poverty trap?” we ask. “These are creative weavers; their cloth has a distinctive style, but those who supply their thread also take away and sell the cloth, paying just a small labor cost for each saree. If they are skilled and work hard this amounts to only 25-30 rupees (60-70 US cents) per day.” Under this arrangement, weaving does not provide enough to live on, and people are seeking ways to escape their entrapment in poverty. (Pdf contains 6 pages)

Behera, D.

Haylor, G.

Satpathy, B.K.

Tripathi, S.D.

English

Aquatic Commons

The Kandhkelgaon Story 
 
A bold bid by women in Kandhkelgaon Village, Saintala Block, Bolangir District, 
to break out of their poverty trap 
 
Written by Graham Haylor, S D Tripathi, B K Satpathy and Dipti Behera 
 
One third of the people on earth who are described as living in absolute poverty are found 
today in India. Of all the states and districts of this huge nation, the districts of Kalahandi, 
Bolangir and Nuapara in western Orissa State are among the poorest. If you travel south 
from Bolangir town on route 201 the tarmac stretches just the width of one vehicle so that 
each encounter with an on-coming truck or car involves one or both pulling off the road. 
After 30 km a small track turns off to the left – a few kilometers down that track lies a 
village with over 600 households. The mud brick houses belong to people of scheduled 
castes, scheduled tribes and also those classified as “Other Backward Classes”. In houses 
and bamboo shacks throughout the village are wooden looms where men and women sit 
for many hours weaving sarees. Cloth and large spidery bobbins of threads clutter 
passage ways and walls along many of the narrow streets. 
 
Poverty trap 
 
“These people,” says Mr B K Satpathy, “are caught in a poverty trap’.” Mr Satpathy 
works with the NGO Sahabhagi Vikash Abhiyan (SVA), which means mission to share 
development. For almost a year he has been helping to instigate a development project 
based around a watershed. SVA is one of the agencies implementing the Western Orissa 
Rural Livelihoods Project (WORLP) of the state government, which is supported by the 
UK Government’s Department for International Development. Water is a scarce 
commodity in western Orissa and a watershed represents a useful geographic unit which 
shares rain that falls in a 
locality. India bases a lot of 
development effort around 
watersheds, supporting soil 
and water conservation 
measures – so-called water 
harvesting – in tanks and 
ponds, and other measures to 
support the livelihoods of 
local people. 
 
“Poverty trap?” we ask. 
“These are creative weavers; 
their cloth has a distinctive 
style, but those who supply 
their thread also take away 
and sell the cloth, paying just 
a small labor cost for each Weaving in Kandhkelgaon 
19 May 2005 1
 
saree. If they are skilled and work hard this amounts to only 25-30 rupees (60-70 US 
cents) per day.” Under this arrangement, weaving does not provide enough to live on, and 
people are seeking ways to escape their entrapment in poverty. 
 
Light of life 
 
A few years back, women weavers from neighboring houses in one part of the village 
began meeting together to discuss their plight and came to form a Self-Help Group 
(SHG), which they call Jeeban Jyoti (The Light of Life). 
 
Surjali Kattah, Kandhkelgaon 
For more than 100 years, 
Kandhkelgaon, like most 
villages locally, has 
harvested rain water in a 
tank. At least a 1,000 
people bathe each day in 
the 9-ha Surjali Kattah. 
Cattle, goats and sheep 
graze around its edges 
and buffalo wallow year 
round in its stored waters, 
which villagers use to 
irrigate rice paddies 
below its dyke. The 
women of Jeeban Jyoti 
knew that the tank could 
be leased out for fish 
culture but they also were 
aware that the annual 
lease basis was too short to guarantee that enough of the fish fingerlings stocked could be 
grown and captured to make such a venture worthwhile.  
 
A new lease of life 
 
Then in 2003, acting on a directive from policy-makers in Delhi – one that had been 
guided by recommendations from farmers and fishers across eastern India – the Orissa 
government, in a circular to the District Collector, increased the lease period from one to 
five years. The fifteen members of Jeeban Jyoti came to know of the change from Mr 
Mukund Nayak, the local Fisheries Supervisor. They also understood its significance and 
the new options it could open up for their livelihoods. Ms Subhasini Meher (Jeeban Jyoti 
President), Ms Saudamini Meher (Secretary) and the other group members agreed 
unanimously that they would do everything they could to seize this chance; a new lease 
period provided a new lease of life. The group contacted the President of the Watershed 
Committee, Mr Premanand Bhoi, and requested to take up the lease on Surjali Kattah. 
After discussions, the District Collector agreed to settle the lease in favor of the women’s 
Self-Help Group. 
19 May 2005 2
 
The struggle for entitlements 
 
This was not a small undertaking 
for the weavers: the five-year 
lease would amount to Rs 176, 
922 (US$ 4,212) and the first 
installment to secure the lease 
was 50% of the total. Because 
Jeeban Jyoti comprised women 
from a Scheduled Tribe and 
Other Backward Classes, they 
were entitled to both a grant and 
a loan at a preferential rate to 
support their venture. However, 
as people who are poor know 
well, an entitlement is one thing; 
securing it is another. 
Ms Saudamini Mehr (center), Ms Subhasini Mehr (left) and 
members of Jeeban Jyoti 
 
Success for Jeeban Jyoti 
Although the lease had been settled for five years 
there was a problem about the classification of 
Surjali Kattah. The tank was recorded as a 
Medium Irrigation Project (MIP) which, as per 
prevailing rules, could not be leased for five 
years. While the grant and loan could not be 
sanctioned until the classification was agreed, 
without the payment of the first installment the 
women could lose the lease to another party. 
They went to the Bolangir Anchalik Gramin 
Bank (BAGB) to ask for a loan. The bank could 
provide the group with a loan of Rs 25, 000 at an 
interest rate of 10.50% per annum. Their only 
option now was to borrow the shortfall of Rs 
65,000 from a local moneylender at an interest 
rate of 5% per month. The group discussed the 
matter. Mr Nayak assured them of the technical 
feasibility of aquaculture in the tank. Faced with 
the unsure classification of the tank and the hefty 
interest charges, five of the women felt unable to 
take the risk and left the SHG. The remaining 
members of Jeeban Jyoti pursued their claim for a 
further year and after three visits to the District Collector it was clarified that it was not 
an MIP but a Panchayat tank. The lease orders were issued by the Collector’s Office. 
Fortune (this time) had favored the brave; the women had their tank. 
 
To repay their debts as quickly as possible and to minimize interest charges, the group 
harvested and sold fish from the kattah which had a ready market in rural western Orissa. 
19 May 2005 3
 
The women sold their crop on the pond side as they harvested, to people in 
Kandhkelgaon and to fish traders who came on cycles from elsewhere. The women 
repaid their loan to the moneylender and to the bank after three months. Now they could 
think of stocking their tank for the following year. 
 
Finding fingerlings 
 
Fish seed is not so readily available in 
western Orissa. Finding out where fish 
hatcheries are, what and how to buy, was 
again a challenge for the weaver women of 
Kandhkelgaon. The WORLP Capacity 
Building Team tried to help, together with 
the Fisheries Department. The group 
brought 200,000 carp fry from the remote 
Binika hatchery in August 2004. Fry are 
too small to stock in such a tank, where 
predators would rapidly reduce their 
number. So on the advice of Mr Nayak, 
Jeeban Jyoti leased two smaller Panchayat 
ponds near to Kandhkelgaon which would 
serve as more secure nurseries for the fish 
fry. In October 2004, having reared the fry 
to fingerling size (70-100 mm), they 
stocked about 50,000 fingerlings in Surjali 
Kattah, transporting them in aluminum 
hundies carted by a cycle rickshaw from 
the nursery. 
 
on
w
as
fi
w
be
ha
al
be
w
th
la
vi
45
19
 Aluminum hundies for transporting fingerlings 
In the first year of culturing fish in the 
tank the group lost about 500 kg, weighing 
 average 300 g, to land owners 
hose private fields become flooded 
 the tank expands with the rains (the 
sh move into the fields with the 
ater). Stocking, they learned, had to 
 done only after the monsoon floods 
d receded. In spite of the loss, they 
so harvested 3,181 kg of quality fish 
tween February and May 2005, 
orth Rs 127, 241 (US$ 3,030). All 
e fish were sold at the makeshift 
nding center where traders and 
llagers come to buy fish at Rs 40-
/kg. 
Makeshift landing center at Surjali Kattah 
 May 2005 4
Ideas and change 
 
The group now has the confidence of those who have struggled yet ultimately won 
through. They already have many ideas for improving the way they operate. They would 
like to install fences across the nalas which feed the tank to constrain the fish from 
migrating into farm lands upstream. They are also considering nursing fry in pens in the 
tank, so they will not have to transport them by rickshaw as fingerlings. The group will 
build a shed to keep nets and other equipment and also for sheltering those doing the 
watch and ward duty. 
 
During the May morning we 
spent with Subhasini Meher and 
her group, the women sold over 
50 kg of carp to traders, while a 
constant stream of villagers 
came to purchase one or two fish 
each. 
 
Jeeban Jyoti currently use small 
weighing pans, which can hold 
only 2 kg at a time. As they 
always let the scales come down 
on the side of the fish rather than 
the 2-kg weight in the other pan, 
with each pan they provide a 
good deal extra for buyers. 
Investing in a larger scale for 
their transactions with traders 
will enable them to still be 
generous but without giving 
away such a large proportion of 
their catch in the process. 
 
Jeeban Jyoti weighing and selling their catch to traders 
In the short space of two years – 
through a bold bid to break out 
of their poverty trap and the 
opportunity which aquaculture 
provides – the livelihoods of 
Jeeban Jyoti members have improved. Not only do they now have funds, they also have 
options. The Bolangir Anchalik Gramin Bank (BAGB) has now sanctioned the loan of Rs 
150,000 (US$ 3,571) and the grant of Rs 100,000 (US$ 2,381) to which Jeeban Jyoti are 
entitled. The groups’ bank balance and their cash flow are healthy, providing a firm 
foundation for operating a small to medium-sized enterprise. It is expensive to be poor, 
when funds, even for emergencies like medical treatment, come at an interest rate of 5% 
per month. Yet, being a large village, Kadhkelgaon has its own branch of BAGB and a 
range of useful financial products, and these too are now available to Subhasini Meher, 
19 May 2005 5
 
Saudamini Meher and the other group members. They now have individual savings of Rs 
5,000 in a scheme called Sambleswari Yojana which provides an interest of 7% per 
annum, besides providing life insurance cover of Rs 50,000 (US$ 2,762). 
Jeeban Jyoti – their sarees and their fish 
As we chat in the shade, between fish sales, these 
women describe fish culture as the best business 
venture currently open to them. The eldest of the 
group, her gray hair glistening in the sun, suddenly 
stands up; the temperature in now well over 40 0C. 
“Take one more photo,” she says, and in the saree she 
has woven, she wades into the tank, takes a carp from 
the sales hapa, turns to the camera and smiles 
mischievously. The others do the same. 
 
With 18 other local Self-Help Groups, all keen to 
emulate the fine example of Jeeban Jyoti, and many 
large and small tanks within a 5-km radius, Mr 
Satpathy suggested that Saintala Block was an ideal 
place for establishing a One-stop Aqua Shop to 
provide services to Self-Help Groups starting 
aquaculture. On our way back through the village the 
women take us to the proposed building. We all agree 
there is no better place.  A One-stop Aqua Shop for Kandhkelgaon 
 
For more information about the Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project, please contact 
www.worlp.com. For more information on participatory aquaculture research and 
development in eastern India, contact DFID Natural Resources Systems Program or the 
NACA-STREAM Initiative. This story can be downloaded from 
www.streaminitiative.org. 
19 May 2005 6
 


The Kandhkelgaon Story: a bold bid by women in Kandhkelgaon Village, Saintala Block, Bolangir District,

to break out of their poverty trap

http://aquaticcommons.org/2465/2/Haylor-KandhkelgaonStory_opt.pdf

The Kandhkelgaon Story: a bold bid by women in Kandhkelgaon Village, Saintala Block, Bolangir District, to break out of their poverty trap

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Aquatic Commons