For the tribes residing in Rampachodavaram agency area, collecting Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) in the forest there and selling them at the weekly shandy is one of the main occupations. Gum karaya, karakkaya, amla, kumkudu, honey, tippateega and many more such forest treasures can be found there. The process of collection of each of the NTFPs is unique to the product; while some are tough to collect, others are quite easy. Collection of Vistarakulu (leaf plates), for instance, falls into the easily-collectable category. That’s the reason many of the old women in the villages that I visited said that they collect and sell Vistarakulu for a living.
These women collect the leaves from the forest and sew them together to make plates. Then, they give it to youngsters to sell in the weekly shandy. Though the income earned from this work is meagre; given the little strength the old women possess, this is the best work they can do.
I got an opportunity to talk to these women and asked them lots of questions ranging from: How many leaves can you collect in a day? How do you sew them? How much income do you get from selling them? Through whom do you sell them? All of which they answered with patience.
After my conversation with them, I spotted a board saying Vistarakula Making Centre on a room with a lock while roaming around their village. Upon enquiring what it was and who works there, I got to know that nobody worked there and that the room was always locked. Similar was the state of a tamarind block-making machine in the village, which had rusted due to years of disuse.
“You have such good machines. If you use them you can make a lot more leaf plates in less time, why are you not using them?” I asked some villagers. They told me that while the young and able-bodied women collect NTFP, which guarantees more income, leaf-plate making is done mostly by old women who cannot use the machine as it runs by pedaling; a huge task for elderly. So, these machines have become redundant.
Glancing at those machines, I thought wistfully to myself, “Why couldn’t government departments consult with the stakeholders and ask them what they really need before taking up initiatives that were meant for them”.
@Bharathi Kode