In October 2020, a women’s self-help group was started in Shambhupipar with the involvement of Shimla – one of Samerth’s field staff.
Members of the SHGs in Shambhupipar meet to collectively learn about sustainable harvesting, the best ways of processing forest produce, and how to regenerate their forest landscapes. They work as a self-governed group to pool money and save and find ways of adapting their traditional knowledge with new information coming from outside their villages. Deepak, one of the Samerth staff who works with SHG members, says, “the SHG members are raring to take up more challenging work. They are highly inspired to succeed”.
Learning and doing as a group is empowering. By saving and making money together, the members can collectively think about the long-term – and can afford to store their forest produce or sell it at higher market prices. Building collective knowledge, women strengthen community ties while creating steady and sustainable income streams. They can also choose to develop their SHG as a cooperative when selling to traders to ensure that the community receives a fair price for their products. This impact can be scaled by connecting with self-help groups in other villagers. Thus, creating strong market linkages while restoring their forest landscape.
Thanks to Deepak Bagri, Mradul Choubey, Palash Agrawal, Shravan Verma, Shekhar Kolipaka, Harma Rademaker and others for providing the insights that made this story possible.
