Jharkhand is one of the most backward states in India with a high level of illiteracy especially among women and girls, due to which they are unable to create opportunities for themselves to chart their path towards growth and development. Also, a majority of the rural population depends on agriculture. Starting their own enterprise comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Women establishing and running their own business comes with added responsibilities and obstacles. The Girl Power Project is focusing on building self-esteem and capacity among these women through counseling, skills training, and mentoring support through the entire journey of self-development and growth. This includes support in making decisions, capacity building, and work opportunities as well as overcoming barriers. The project will involve partners from within the state with innovative models and best practices to build capacities and knowledge of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) by engaging them with social enterprises focusing on women and girls. Also, it will provide skills and competencies for strengthening Self Help Groups (SHGs) and creating social enterprises for empowering women.
During the baseline survey of the Girl Power Project in selected districts of Jharkhand, it was visible that there were a lot of obstacles that existing women entrepreneurs had to face on a daily basis in operating their enterprises. The project focuses on market-led enterprise-building, which is identifying gaps in already functioning value chains so that one knows where the maximum margins can be made to benefit the informally employed poor, create quality entrepreneurs for growing the business, laying emphasis on serving a variety of market segments and women with varying levels of capacities and social constraints. Women encounter significant challenges in the marketing of goods and services. Lack of awareness of new products in the urban market, as well as technical skills in business administration are major obstructions. Not only this, but the remote location from the market has resulted in increased transportation costs. However, rural markets have been growing much faster than the urban sector, resulting in overall social development and a balanced economy. The rural market has more potential than the urban market for consumer durables and services. A series of forums under the Girl Power Project are being conducted to support and promote knowledge sharing by experienced experts of the nodal institutions on various subjects. Best Practice Dialogues of experienced invitees will create forums for sharing best practices and engage in knowledge sharing and promote diversity on various topics related to women empowerment, skill building and social entrepreneurship promotion. The purpose of the forum is to enable participants to not only share best practices but also act as a sounding board to issues and concerns faced by the state in implementation of all its activities. Participants of the forum will be smaller group of government officials, CSO representatives, experts and academicians. The presenters are being asked to give their presentation and provide feedback on the same to the women beneficiaries so that they become better entrepreneurs.
In the series of best practice dialogues conducted under Girl Power Project, the dialogue on ‘Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs for Income Generation through Production Technology & Value Addition of Lac’ received rave reviews and was much liked by the audience. The speaker Dr B K Dwivedi is a well renowned agricultural scientist who is the Director, Bioved Research Institute of Agriculture & Technology, a research wing of Bioved Research Society, Allahabad; he is also the recipient of 20 national and international awards.
What the Experts Shared about Lac cultivation Why Lac Cultivation?
Lac is a natural resinous substance of profound economic importance in India. It is the only resin from animal origin lending itself to diverse applications, for example, as a protective and decorative coating in the form of thin films, adhesives and plastics. Lac plays an important role in the economy of the country. 3-4 million tribal people who constitute the socioeconomically weakest link of Indian population earn a good subsidiary income from its cultivation.
The Lac insects thrive on the sap of certain plants called lac hosts. Host plants are Palas, Ber, Kusum, Peepal, Akaasmani, Galwang, Flemingia and Gular. Two strains of the lac insects are recognized in India, the ‘rangeeni’ and ‘kusumi’. Each strain completes its life cycle twice a year.
A good source of livelihood resource for poor farmers.
Assured source of income during drought years.
Requires meager inputs (like water, pesticides etc).
Most suitably grown on marginal and degraded land.
No competition with other horticultural, agricultural crops for land and farm operation.
Does not harm host tree health neither other flora nor fauna.
Avoids migration of rural population to urban areas.
Increases opportunities for women for better occupation and returns.
Uses of Lac
Because of its unique combination of properties, Lac finds a wide variety of application in paint, electrical, automobile, cosmetic, adhesive, leather, wood finishing and other industries. Lac has long been in use both for decorative and lacquers of various kinds and insulating varnishes. It is usually used as a first coating on wood to fill the pores and also applied to seal knots likely to exude resin and disfigure or spoil finished paint work. It is used in manufacturing of glazed paper, printing and water proofing inks, Lac bangles, dry mounting tissue paper, dental plates and optical frames. It is also used as a coat for metal ware to prevent tarnishing and for finishing various products such as playing cards, oil cloth and linoleum and for preserving archeological and zoological specimen. In electrical industry, Lac is used as coating of insulator, coating of spark plugs, cement of sockets of electrical lamp, anti-tracking insulating etc. In pharmaceutical industry, Lac is used in coating of tablets, micro-encapsulation of vitamins and coating of medicines. Lac dye is used in dying of wool and silk, soft drink formulation, pill coating, confectionary and chocolate coating. Lac wax has wide variety of uses in manufacturing shoe polishes, tailor’s chalk, lipstick, crayons (for writing in glass).
Mechanisation
There is scope of mechanisation such as small dying machines and stamping machines ranging from 10,000 to15,000. For production of marketable products, there can be equipments which ensure that the products meet the market standards.
Expected Cost Benefit Analysis
From one tree, the estimated worth of Lac produced is 4,000 to5,000. If a farmer cultivates Lac in 10 trees, then they can have an assured income in addition to other livelihood generation activities.
Key Takeaways
In the context of Jharkhand, Lac cultivating women farmers can enhance their income by turning into entrepreneurs in the following activities:
Lac Cultivation
Promoting the Lac cultivation on a larger scale by filling the knowledge gap through capacity building and exposure visits. If a producer doesn’t have host trees, they can also grow fast growing host trees.
Lac Nursery
At village level some of the women farmers can go for being nursery entrepreneurs, wherein they can supply the Lac insects for cultivation in their own village as well as nearby villages.
Lac Value Addition
Individual Entrepreneur or Entrepreneur groups can be made focusing on value addition products. Possible linkages can be made through identifying the vendors for selling the produce as well as value added products. Promotions can be done of these products through various platforms with the help of Girl Power Project for marketing purpose.