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farmers

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goat-rearing families

Economic Prosperity and Livelihoods

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Overview

Manjari Foundation works with rural underprivileged families to promote and support independent livelihood programmes for women. The objective is to help small land holders earn about INR 1.25 lac to INR 1.5 lac per annum. A number of studies show that the poor rural farmer is unable to earn enough, leading to poverty, hunger, malnutrition and many more issues. India’s rural economy has been primarily based on agriculture and animal husbandry, but due to many factors like population growth, small land holdings, lack of infrastructure and knowledge, their livelihood has been affected.

Across our project locations, distress migration is a growing problem. Youth are also forced to migrate to cities for the lack of opportunities closer to their homes.

Challenges

Economic growth in India is not inclusive, leaving a very big gap between the haves and not have nots. There are a lot of challenges in rural areas which are affecting livelihoods and earnings of small and marginal families. There is still gap in knowledge, skills and resource pooling. Most villages still do not adequate infrastructure which is hampering growth and development. Rural poor still lack institutional credits and technical know-how as well, which leads for low productivity and output.

Due to climate change, there is erratic rainfall, drought, floods and many more challenges that are affecting rural livelihoods adversely. Due to lack of quality education, the population of unskilled youth is also increasing.

Strategic Approach

To achieve the inclusive growth, we identified the various livelihood options and interventions through which we can facilitate better earnings for our farmers. We zeroed in on agriculture, goat rearing, dairy farming, poultry, mushroom cultivation and micro enterprises as we felt that these activities have tremendous potential to supplement income of rural families in the region.

Besides technical knowledge and infrastructure support, poor rural families  suffer due to lack of information about the market and poor access. Without addressing forward and backward support systems, one can’t visualise a growth that is sustainable.

Manjari has been working closely with farmers and livestock rearers to bring in new and improved technologies and processes to improve efficiency and productivity while also simultaneously supporting farmers to link up directly with markets to gain better returns.

Agriculture

The entire focus of our intervention has been on improving incomes and reducing risks and vulnerabilities. Towards this end, we are promoting sustainable and climate resilient agriculture, by bringing in new technology and know-how. We are also promoting the formation of  producer organisations to facilitate better aggregation and market linkages for better price realisation.

Livestock

Our livestock program mainly focuses on dairy, goat rearing and backyard poultry.  We are building farmer capacities by increasing awareness on better-quality breeds, training  women in feeding and animal husbandry practices, veterinary care, immunisation and linkages with the market system.

Integrated Natural Resource Management ( INRM)

Our INRM interventions are aligned with #SDG13 Climate Action and seeks to improve the carrying capacities of natural resources. Our INRM approach is participatory and led by Pani Panchayats ( community institutions). The whole planning, implementation, monitoring and participatory evaluation is done by the community themselves. We trained communities on water budgeting and efficient use of water and climate change adaptation.

Renewable and Clean Energy

Our renewable energy interventions are aligned with #SDG7- Affordable and Clean Energy wherein our main focus is on building knowledge of farmers around how to harness  renewable energy sources. Our major interventions are facilitating solar-based irrigation pumps and solar lights to help kids and families during night hours and also street lights in remote villages.

Impact Stories

What People Say

  • Nusrat Pathan
    We are happy to collaborate with Manjari Foundation under Social Initiative Parivartan. Parivartan and Manjari share a common goal of bringing about a comprehensive and sustainable development at the grassroots. The partnership has brought about a positive change through several thematic interventions including micro-enterprise development, capacity building, health, and education. As a result of this initiative, we have seen effective community engagement and empowerment and the resident of Dholpur district (Rajasthan) continue to get benefitted. We will continue to work on similar projects to improve the lives of the less privileged through our Holistic Rural Development Programme.
    Ms Nusrat Pathan, Head Corporate Social Responsibility, HDFC Bank
  • ‘Sakhi’ means a friend in Hindi, someone who stands by in trying times and during jubilations too. 26500+ women from across 2212 SHG’s and 6 Federation have come together to be the same for each other by making Micro Finance work for them. Sakhi is a platform of rural women which aims at economic well-being, reduction in poverty, self-dependence, and development of personal and social standing in the society through establishing Micro Finance and Micro Enterprises. Hindustan Zinc Limited together with its partners Saheli Sameti and Manjari Foundation are working towards unlocking their potential and empowering them to lead as Enablers.
    Mrs. Anupama Nidhi, CSR HEAD HZL
  • Manjari Foundation is IPE Global’s implementation partner in Dholpur, Rajasthan under the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), UK supported Project Udaan that aims at reducing teenage pregnancies. They have been instrumental in successfully piloting interventions for improving the knowledge of adolescents around sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Bari block of Dholpur. Their efforts in organizing a team to take up the issue of adolescent SRH and facilitating its implementation with great sensitivity across the block has not only been recognized by the district administration, but has also paved way for attempting a scale-up across the district. Their coordination with the community-level institutions, local government bodies and the target group has been noteworthy and exemplary.
    Mr. Ashish Banerjee, IPE Global
  • Without larger vision and dedication of the team of MF and its leadership, both vertical and horizontal growth would have never been possible to pick up at this level in this short history of its evolution. Since I have been associated with the Sakhi project of MF funded by Hindustan Zinc for the last 2 years, the happiness and confidence seen in their faces of hundreds of women in the villages proves its vitality. I have also witnessed the UN-women funded second chance education project (SCE) being implemented in 3 districts under the guidance of PRADAN is a much worthy to reach out to those young women in the age group of 16-35 who have been deprived in their childhood with the education, skills and employment are now happily enrolled and trained to overcome these deprivations with much positive outcome. While writing all these statements, I recall each visit to the project area to witness the change processes that were taking place within those women who had never dreamed of being so empowered and self-reliant so soon in their lifetimes.
    Binod Raj Dahal, Integrator- PRADAN
  • Our collaboration with Manjari has allowed us to better understand the approach of solidarity groups and concretely towards the empowerment of women in the commune of Logo.The participation of Indian PRCs has been beneficial because the women have appropriated easily by seeing that they are rural women Indian women who share their experiences with them. The Camide team was formed by the professionals of Manjari with enthusiasm and professionalism and is able to reproduce most of the activities. This period of collaboration opens up prospects for our two structures to replicate the model in Mali and Africa. We again thank Manjari for all the efforts made for Camide and particularly the Director Sanjay Kumar. We were able to reach more than 2,500 women and more than 180 million CFA francs of credit granted four test henhouses substantial support for the winter and market gardening campaign in terms of results thank you.
    Mr. Aou Keita, Director Camide, Kayes, Mali, West Africa
  • Development of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC), the social internship program of SPJIMR has been collaborating with Manjari Foundation since 2015. This has been fruitful relationship for us. I want to emphasise the four following themes. First the internships give our students a different idea of leadership which also gives them a sense of requirements for the future and adds to the ethics of sociological content. The participants acquire a notion of innovation- both social and technical which gives them a systemic view of the society. Such an empirical location gives them both a sense of limits and possibilities of what they can do. Environmental consciousness and gender sensitivity constitute two critical parts of social responsibility as we define it today. The participants of the internship understand what these key concepts mean in everyday sense. Internship at Manjari adds to their imagination in this direction. We value this relationship.
    Dr. Chandrika Parmar, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research

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