Livelihood Opportunities

Livelihood opportunities are limited to agriculture and labour in the area for a majority of deprived people. Agriculture suffers from dry climatic conditions prevailing and labour opportunities are available for all practical purposes only in stone quarrying. Since agriculture is rain-fed and primitive, the yield is not sufficient to take care of the entire year and most of the farmers are able to manage a semblance of food security for a maximum of six months. Extensive deforestation has only compounded the problem.

In view of this rather grim scenario, families are forced to migrate. The women are the worst sufferers as they have to shoulder major responsibilities, in spite of being economically and socially vulnerable. They have to bear the livelihood requirements of the entire family like food, fodder, fuel, potable water and other domestic errands.

To provide better livelihood options to the villagers in the area, an initiative called LEEP (Livelihood and Economic Enhancement of Poor) has been launched. LEEP is centred around three themes:

• Food security to ensure food for families for the entire year
• Micro credit to provide access to credit for emergency
• Income generation to ensure an annual income of Rs 18,000 per family

Quite a few micro enterprises have been taken up by the organisation to increase the levels of income of the target group and bring about improvement in their quality of life.