In an unyielding terrain where farming is unsustainable and when migrating to cities is not lucrative, promoting rural enterprises is helping tribal youth become successful micro-entrepreneurs.
Along with colleagues from Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India, I waited at around 4 pm in the dusty weekly haat (village market) of Vadpada village in Umarpada tehsil of Surat district. Umarpada is at the eastern fringe of the district.
The villages we visited are riparian to Tapti and its minor tributaries. Small hillocks, numerous spinneys and sights of undulating land mass which has witnessed gully erosion are vivid in my memory. A rather dismal looking very dusty reserve forest of Mandvi range had to be crossed as we travelled from Umarpada.
We were at the haat to see some of the rural enterprises in action.
We stood near a shiny steel cart locally called larry belonging to Ashish Vasava. I saw Ashish pushing a somewhat rusted cart laden with many packets, some pans, etc. He came along with a small boy. He greeted us, but pointing at several young ladies who quickly rushed to his larry, he said he would attend to his customers first.
Very quickly he arranged huge plastic carry bags containing puris for making pani puri – the popular street snack. Numerous packets displayed their contents: spiced and cooked potato, a green tangy mint and spice-infused water, chopped onion, shredded cabbage and much else.
He arranged these things in a jiffy and started serving the customers. Some ate the stuff in paper plates there. Others got it packed in plastic carry bags. I waited.
Vadpada is at the start of dungar vistar (hilly tracts) in South Gujarat that have long witnessed a peculiar co-existence of deprivation in the villages in close proximity of prosperity in the sugarcane growing villages just a dozen kilometres westward.
As you move from the eastern hills of Sagbara or Ucchal towards Bardoli and Surat, you can see prosperity increasing almost every kilometre. The Vasava and Chowdhry tribal farmers in the dungar vistar typically hold sloping and rocky farm lands with thin soil cover.
Forests exist more as blocks to introducing development schemes than as a natural resource. Lands produce too little grain or other crops to support the family the way a farmer would want.
Aspirations have kept multiplying. Migration to the western parts of the districts such as Surat, Bardoli and Ankaleswar for work in irrigated farms or in industries was the only way these tribal people could support their families.
Most young persons of these communities are now studying up to higher secondary and have become acquainted with the busy commercial world in these urban industrial places, firing their aspirations.
Ashish is one such young man. He was forced to go and work in Ankaleshwar, a town that houses more chemical and agro-chemical units than any other town in India. It is known for its awful level of air and ground water pollution, a natural result of a bustling hub of the chemical industry.
“I was working in a company (the usual way rural people refer to an industrial unit) as a helper. I was paid Rs 15,000 per month. But Ankaleshwar did not suit me and I used to fall sick often. So, I came back home,” said Ashish.
Ashish was identified as a potential entrepreneur by Paul Makwana and his team in AKRSP(I), engaged in promoting rural enterprises. Ashish was “processed” through a fairly rigorous protocol that tested his willingness to work hard, his credit worthiness, family background, etc.
He was given a loan and assisted to buy the larry and was also given some initial working capital.
“We train them in at least three general abilities: using a smartphone properly, keeping and understanding daily accounts of their enterprise and ways of interacting with customers,” said Makwana.
At Makwana’s suggestion, Ashish showed us his accounts book. Ashish buys readymade puris from a large supplier in Bardoli, prepares the remaining ingredients at home in the morning and is at his cart by 4pm.
“On most other days I have a wider product range for regular as well as Jain customers. For Jain people, I use shredded cabbage in the pani puri instead of onion. But on a haat day, I make only pani puri as that has the largest number of customers,” he said.
There were many days when he sold these snack items for over Rs 2,000. It’s amazing that this level of business was possible in a small village like Vadpada. He employs the boy accompanying him for Rs 200 per day.
After paying this boy, accounting for his own Rs 300 as wage per day and deducting all his material cost, Ashish is making a handsome profit each month. He talked of buying a machine to make the puris at home by himself so that he would make some extra profit.
Makwana said that in the last one year they have promoted 220 individual rural enterprises in the dungar vistar, including Mandvi, Umarpada, Dediapada, Netrang and Sagbara tehsils as well as Ahuva in Dangs district.
These included about 40 barber shops, 30-odd ladies’ beauty parlours, 25 electricians and half a dozen food enterprises. Services sector dominates these enterprises, clearly indicating how rural areas are starved of services.
These entrepreneurs were chosen from among 1,000-odd young persons who had evinced interest. Makwana explained the elaborate process of selecting and grooming the people for these enterprises. He proudly said that their protocol has helped them achieve a high success rate.
“Of the 220 promoted enterprises, 218 have been making profit so far, after accounting for the daily wage rate of the entrepreneurs,” Makwana said.
It seems there is no reason to scoff at pakoda enterprises that the prime minister had mentioned a few years back. After all, it will take a while before underfed and weak tribal youth will create a unicorn in their neglected and remote hinterlands.
The lead image shows a plate of pani puri, a popular snack, selling which is one of the successful rural enterprises (Photo courtesy Nisha Gill, Pixabay)
Sanjiv Phansalkar is the director of VikasAnvesh Foundation, Pune. He was earlier a faculty member at the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). Phansalkar is a fellow of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad.
