Prayatna is actively working in the field of livelihood generation program by investing in the skill set of the locally available talent, and utilising the skillset of reverse migrants through the support of our esteemed corporate partner The Bank of Nova Scotia. Our project is going on in the Shikhar block of Mirzapur district to develop a sustainable enterprise model. For this we undertook a survey to identify the people engaged in the different vocations in the Shikhar block. Wherein we identified the vocations like grain processing and packaging, goat rearing, broom making, embroidery and mattress sewing centre, spice processing, seeds processing unit etc. which were in demand. Our approach was very specific to solve the systematic challenges like lack of availability of capital, lack of technical enterprise related knowledge, lack of data in terms of demand and supply of enterprises etc.

As a part of our enterprise development project in district Mirzapur of state Uttar Pradesh, we are supporting the interested individuals and firms to set up their enterprise model based on the demand and supply gap analysis of the enterprise. The essence of this program is the involvement and empowerment of women at each and every step during the project. Some of the best practices which are being followed are as follows:

• Grants are sanctioned after discussion and approval from the Grant Committee Meeting.
• Grants which are sanctioned for setting up the enterprises are mostly for women.
• To promote digital India, emphasis is given to digital transactions so there will not be any cash transfer in the entire program.
• In terms of expenses made for setting the office and the basic infrastructure is done based on the quotations received from the 3 vendors.
• A Register is maintained to track all the minute details and proceedings i.e. MOM (Minutes of Meeting) register, repayment register, enterprise inspection register, etc.
• Along with the data-keeping, monitoring will be done by tracking the enterprise on the weekly basis based on their key performance indicators specified initially.

A number of migrant workers have returned to these villages and will need to engage in economic activity soon else they will go down under debt very soon. Prayatna is in touch with more than 50 SHGs which have been mobilised across 677 households of which about a third are from the SC category. In addition, we now also have 100 migrant labourers whose skills have been mapped and paired with different groups. These groups have been engaged in producing Jhadu, Pooja Samgree, Pickles, Dona Pattal, and seed grading  and packaging. Some of the succes stories under the project are:

• Enterprise related to Broom Making: Jeet Lal was working in the broom making factory in Gujarat before the lockdown, but he returned to his village like all other migrants did during the lockdown. He had the skill but lack of opportunity made him to sit idle in the village setting, but when he encountered with our team during the survey he showed his interest to establish an enterprise related to broom making in the village itself. So, he approached us for financial assistance, and to get help in enterprise setup wherein he got the VEF (Village Entrepreneur Fund) on the name of her wife Manju Devi. So, he started a group enterprise which consists of 4-5 women. Jeet Lal himself makes brooms and trains other women at the same time so that they can expand their business with the time. Though they are at an early stage of their career but looking at the demand and their skill set they can already see their future bright.
• Enterprise related to Carpentry: This is a story about Raju who was working in Malad in Mumbai as a carpenter before lockdown. Similar to the story of Jeet, we also encountered Raju during the survey. Now Raju along with his wife has set up an enterprise in the vocation of carpentry in his village only through the financial support, and initial hand holding support from us
• Enterprise related to Salon: Reena Devi has set up a salon in her village along with her husband named Ashok who earlier had his salon in Varanasi but due to the pandemic he had no other option but to shut down his salon. But now in their village where the shop rent is very less as compared to Varanasi they are able to make good amount of profit to sustain themselves and their enterprise.
• Enterprise related to Goat Rearing: This is a story about Bhudhna Devi who have recently started enterprise related to goat rearing through the support of Prayatna. Bhudhna’s husband is running this business along with her and he is a reverse migrant who was earlier working as contract labour in Lucknow but had returned home post lockdown.