I started my project conducting baselines and assisting SAATHI on their field training on Forest rights and resource management and familiarised myself with the youth leaders and active members of the Gram Sabha who wanted to contribute to the betterment of their village. One of the, Probably the most active and intelligent person was Dasharam Korram, from Madhonar village.
He would translate my words for the women SHGs and gram sabha elders when I talked about protecting their forests and using them in a proper way to earn a sustainable livelihood through collective harvesting and storage, which could grant them a negotiating power with the local dealers. I also talked about various methods of value addition to harra baheda mahua , imli etc.
When I floated the idea of harvesting Mahua through green nets, he came forward and took the responsibility of implementing this activity in his village as well as assisting neighbouring villages and other youth leaders to streamline the process, like selection of beneficiaries through their respective gram sabhas as of the most deserving and in need. He helped fix and oversee the process of net installation in their village and neighbouring Kachora. He posted the videos on the youth leader group, which helped others in figuring out how to do the installation.
He was the one who got his gram sabha to collect Harra and sell it to a narayanpur town dealer for an increased price as opposed to their weekly market near their village, 60 kms in the interiors with poor infrastructure and no uniformity. Then I asked the forest department for the purchase of deseeded Imli( Phool Imli), for which they would get 86Rs after seed removal instead of the normal 40Rs they would have gotten in their local market. He distributed the collective produce to different households and asked them to deseed it and oversaw the entire process and then contacted me for their sale. I coordinated with the forest department and they have sold around 2 quintals of deseeded imli .
Deseeding as well as selling for an increased price which was more than double the market rate has happened for the first time in their village as well as their surrounding area. This coming out of their local restraints into the bigger market , convincing their gram sabha to hold on to their produce and not sell it for immediate benefit has made him confident and knowledgeable in the domain, including organizing and leading his village and community. Leading his village for the collective sale of Harra and Imli and organizing for Mahua has led to his overall development as a skilled and knowledgeable member of the community. He is the Vice President of the Mahagramsabha formed through election by representative members of the 20 gram sabhas where Saathi was conducting awareness and knowledge sessions.
He is enthusiastic about leading the way forward in the collectivization and value addition at the cluster/Mahagramsabha level coordinating with 20 villages for major NTFPs that can be sold to market players in bulk in distant cities as per need and understanding. He has understood the business aspects of the NTFP trade and I have connected him with various NTFP social, non profit as well as for profit organizations that he’ll use to sell their produce coordinating with other gram sabhas and youth leaders, slowly transforming itself into a social enterprise.
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