Employment, income, dignity – we work to connect the dots of this area of human development and well-being
Increased and sustainable income improves the life of every household. It is our effort to support people and communities achieve this. From encouraging value additions to traditional livelihoods to spreading awareness on entitlements under government Acts such as MNREGA and National Food Security Act, our teams cover significant aspects of income generation.
We also help strengthen collectives and support communities on small livestock development and natural resource management (such as developing water harvesting structures).
Our interventions can be broadly classified into three levels: the first is that of the household, which is the first and the most fundamental unit. The second is the cluster level, which is a group of four to five Gram Panchayats or, typically, 20 villages with around 2,000 households. The third and last level is the region, or a group of clusters, district, state or the entire region.
Safety, dignity and prosperity are the three guiding principles under which our interventions can be grouped. The path to safety comprises household-level interventions such as improving access to entitlements and incomes from traditional livelihood activities. The path to dignity is about cluster-level interventions such as better market linkages, prices, access to credit through collectivisation and value addition to products. The path to prosperity is about region-level interventions such as large-scale procession/ production industry.
As in Health and Education, our work in Livelihoods, too, is geared towards the support of some of India’s most vulnerable and marginalised people. We took our first steps under Livelihoods at the country’s central tribal belt, in Raigarh and Gumla districts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand respectively.
In the area of Livelihoods, we work directly on the ground though our Field Institutes and partners.
