Dhriiti's Initiative with Low Income Group

Congratulations! for initiating this platform. I would like to take the privileged of sharing Dhriiti’s initiative with low income group in India at this platform.

Dhriiti had initiated its first micro enterprise development project in Assam, the North-Eastern state of India in November 2004.

Dhriit after identifying the potential of the arecanut leaf plate industry in the North East in 2004, started off with its own pilot production unit at Barpeta in February 2005. The pilot unit was used by Dhriiti to learn about the whole process of producing and marketing arecanut leaf plates by direct practical experience before spreading the concept among rural producers. We built up a knowledge base on various aspects like raw material collection, production process, machinery, financial feasibility, market demand and existing dynamics of this region.

In 2005-06, the team concentrated mainly on research and development to provide solutions for all the production related problems. During this process Dhriiti changed the production technique to suit the North Eastern conditions and designed gas based machines with the help of Sandhya Engineering Concern in Howrah, so that even producers located in interior areas could manufacture the plates and benefit from the project. Along with R&D activities Dhriiti also generated awareness for this product not only amongst rural communities but also with other stakeholders like local NGOs, government departments, banks etc.

Arecanut Leaf Plate Production Machine

In 2006-07, Dhriiti established 18 units in Barpeta and Baksa districts of Assam and 1 in Tura, Meghalaya. Most of these units were financed by State Bank of India (SBI) and Assam Gramin Vikas Bank (AGVB) under Khadi Village Industries Commission’s (KVIC) Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP), which provides a 30% back end subsidy to the entrepreneurs. The pilot initiative was supported by Friends of Woman’s Word Banking (FWWB) under the USAID Innovation Fund.

One of the Arecanut Leaf Plate Production Unit

In 2007-08 Dhriiti further streamlined the production process in coordination with the existing producers and reduced the production risks by 90%. During this financial year “Tambul Plates Marketing Company” (TPMC) was also established with support from Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust (SDTT), to provide marketing support to the producers. During this year only 2 new units were promoted and more focus was laid on marketing and streamlining the production and procurement processes at the field level. Dhriiti also developed a standard training package so that it can reach out to maximum number of producers. In the last quarter of this financial year 50 new entrepreneurs were trained to set up new units. The arecanut initiative was also selected as a Rural Business Hub (RBH) by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). NABARD also supported the initiative during this year through various training programmes and Rural Innovation Fund Scheme.

Packaging & Godown Unit for Arecanut Leaf Plates

In 2008-09, another 23 units were promoted. A complete review of the arecanut programme was done during this year and a standardized process through a cluster based approach is being developed for large scale expansion of the programme.