Buniyaad - Reeling stories of development

Story:

Fakirpur post in Anandapur is a small village in the Keonjhar district of Odisha. This village is home to a community of workers who have migrated from Bardhman district of West Bengal.

These people reside in Bengali Sahi in Fakirpur.  Tasar Silk Reeling is the main occupation in the village, practiced by 300-400 families. Traditionally, this is done by the women by rolling the silk on their bare thigh.

This, ‘thigh reeling’ is a gruesome practice for the women. It leads to cuts in the hands and thigh, skin infections and joint pains. A full day’s work yields around 70 grams of silk yarn, resulting in income of about Rs. 70. The women manage to earn about Rs. 2,500 to 3,000 per month, including money for the silk waste generated.

As the income is quite low, these women lack their own capital to buy expensive silk cocoons and depend on the Mahajans for the working capital. These Mahajans are often exploitative, charging very high returns.

The women of the village have been doing this work as their families depend on it and they have no other income options. However, the younger, educated women of the village find this work to be too laborious and degrading and don’t want anything to do with it.

Finally, a technology breakthrough in the neighboring state of Chattisgarh, by the son of a thigh reeler, just like the ones in Fakirpur, promises redemption for these women.

Ramesh Devangan was born in Champa, Chattisgarh. He had closely seen thigh reeling, practiced by his mother and sister, since childhood. He always found this ghastly and strenuous work to be repulsive. This pushed him to find ways to eliminate this practice, not just from his home, but from all villages in India. He made this the mission of his life and use all of the limited resources he had. Finally, he managed to design a machine that could reel silk conveniently and produce the quality of yarn that not just matched but exceeded the quality of thigh reeled yarn. He named the machine ‘Buniyaad’ meaning ‘foundation’ in Hindi.

This machine promises to be the foundation of a change for the silk reeling communities that rely solely on this activity for a livelihood. Thus, the name truly resonates with the cause for which it stands for.

So, what are we doing for this? How are we doing it? And mainly, Why are we doing this.

Why:

We have the opportunity to completely eradicate the hazardous thigh reeling. This will not just improve the productivity and income of the people of the village, but also change lives for the better for all future generations.

How:

Provide Buniyaad Silk reeling machine and Solar power system to run the machine to eliminate thigh reeling.

The Buniyaad Reeling machine :

Ramesh Devangan designed the original ‘Buniyaad’ machine with his limited resources. (picture below). This was a working prototype but needed to be further refined to make it user-friendly. Ministry of Textiles of the Government of India has a department called the Central Silk Board (CSB), to promote silk production in the country. They spotted Ramesh’s creation and saw its potential. Resham Sutra is an organization engaged in improving rural silk production techniques and machines. All three joined hands to fine tune the Buniyaad machine and develop a model that could be mass produced and used in the villages.

Thus, the Buniyaad Machine finally came to life!
A rare achievement of joint work of rural innovator, Government support and private participation.

The Hon. Minister of Textiles, Smt. Smriti Irani personally recognized the importance of the Buniyaad machine for the rural silk producers. She felicitated Mr. Ramesh Devangan at a function at the Red Fort in New Delhi. (refer image below)

The use of Buniyaad machine promises to revolutionize the lives of rural silk producers in a big way. They no longer need to go through the mortification and pain of reeling silk on their thighs and suffer the diseases associated with it. The increased family income helps them to afford better education for the children and a better life for the whole family.

The Buniyaad machine is also helping turn the tide of migration from villages to cities in search of a better economic situation. The new generation, that was giving up Silk reeling altogether, is attracted back to this work. Thus the ancient craft is saved from a slow death.

The Buniyaad machine is designed to easily run on solar power. The electricity supply in Fakirpur village is still very erratic with frequent blackouts and fluctuations. Once the women are used higher income these interruptions become an irritant. They are forced to go back to thigh reeling during the hours of power outage. Availability of solar power can help to get over this problem and make the shift to Buniyaad permanent.
With the use of the Buniyaad machines, the income of the women rises to almost two-fold to over Rs. 5,000 a month. Use of Solar power will further boost this income by over Rs. 1,000 a month.
With the better income and more confidence about the future, the women are able to start stocking silk cocoons for months, thus they are able to get free from the exploitation of the mahajans.
Local youth of the villages are also finding new opportunities in maintaining the machines and solar power systems.

Impact, so far:

112 Buniyaad machines are already installed in Bengali Sahi, in Fakirpur. In the three-month period since the machines have been installed, a considerable increase has been seen in both productivity of silk yarn and the income generated by the reelers.

The chart below shows the actual impact on the income of some of these women:

Impact of sample Solar power system installed in the village is as below:

Ecological impact:

Buniyaad is an extremely energy efficient machine, having a very low carbon footprint. Running the Buniyaad machines on Solar power will further help to have a positive ecological impact. This results in about 14,000 Kg  CO2 offset annually.

Testimonials:

What are the funds for:

70 % to solar power systems for all 300 machines (including 112 existing machines).

30 % to buy new machines for 188 women.

Your contribution of Rs. 10000 can provide 1 machine to 1 woman.

Your contribution of Rs. 4000 can provide 1 solar power system to run 1 machine.

When will the machines reach the reelers:

We will start the delivery by 10-04-2019 and complete by 15-05-2019

About Reshamsutra:

Reshamsutra has been working in the area of rural silk production to address the unattended issues since 2015. We assess the needs and provide solutions to various communities working in the sector by designing and installing machines that can improve their livelihoods. Since inception, Reshamsutra has been driven to uplift the marginalized communities to establish a better work environment and livelihoods. Our aim is to provide solutions that enable better product quality and higher productivity while increasing convenience and ease.

Buniyaad machine resonates well with the cause as it addresses the needs of a community where the existing income levels are extremely low.

We hope that our efforts can contribute to change the lives of these families and we can bring smiles on the faces that deserve it the most!

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