Members of the Pungro-based Mutual Vendor SHG engaged in making jewelry. The group has 2 male members. (Photo Courtesy: Grassroots Aspirations)
Veroli Zhimo
Dimapur | September 10
When she chose to drop out of school because of financial burdens in 2014, Yangzila Sangtam was sure the future would not be easy. Hailing from Yangsekiu village in Kiphire district, Yangzila knew she would have to depend on agriculture to make a living.
Similarly, 20-year old Longstala dropped out of school, leaving behind her aspirations to help her parents who are farmers in Kiphire town.
Yangzila and Longtsala’s lives intertwined when they took part in a ‘Jewelry Training’ in Kiphire town in early 2021. The training was organised by the Kiphire District Administration and Kiphire DLCW-Mahila Shakti Kendra in collaboration with an organisation called Grassroots Aspirations.
The training itself was quite simple— a resource person from Runway Nagaland taught the participants the basics about jewelry making. However, it is what transpired after the training that gave the girls a new-found confidence and determination to improve their situation.
The beginning
According to its founder, Sumiho Aye, Grassroots Aspirations was conceptualised to capture the aspirations of people in the rural areas who do not have access to facilities like skilling and training, funding, handholding support and market linkage for enhancing livelihood opportunities.
Born in Kiphire town, Sumiho’s family had migrated to Dimapur when she was young and she got the opportunity to go back to Kiphire with Tata Steel CSR fellowship for community development in the beginning of 2019.
“It was during the process of assimilating back into the community that I was able to see development or the lack thereof, from the eyes of a villager,” she told The Morung Express. Later in mid of 2019, she conducted a skill data survey for Kiphire district administration covering 100 villages and 6 towns of Kiphire district. “This helped me grasp the overwhelming reality of youth unemployment and school drop outs and helped me recognize the importance of skilling and training, funding, handholding support and market linkage for enhancing livelihood opportunities the rural sector,” she explained.
The training programme in Kiphire town that Yangzila and Longtsala attended was one of the first initiatives that Grassroots Aspirations proposed to the district administration under the then Deputy Commissioner Sarita Yadav. “DC Yadav agreed to fund the training under Mahila Shakti Kendra, due to which we were able to train more than 200 women in jewellery training Kiphire town, Sitimi town and Pungro town between March and June 2021,” Sumiho said.
After the first training, the best trainees were further provided handholding support through Grassroot Aspirations, and they went on to train women in Sitimi town and Pungro town, she added.
During the training in Pungro, Sumiho said the Additional Deputy Commissioner Abhinav Shivam and his wife further encouraged the training by providing funds from their personal means to scale up the trainings. With this help, Grassroots Aspirations was able to train three more Self-Help Groups from Pungro, she said, while adding that the aim is to identify and train more people, create SHGs, and form collectives of artisans from rural blocks.
Along with the support from district administration, Grassroots Aspirations also received funding from the Dhriiti: The Courage Within Her&Now Seeding Grampreneur Seeders Fellowship to help procure training materials during the pandemic period. Besides conducting training programmes, the organisation provides ‘handholding support’ in the form of raw materials, market-linkage for finished products, and assists interested groups in forming and registering their own SHGs.
Ecosystem of opportunities
For Akhen, a 23-year-old person with disabilities from Pokhpur village, the opportunity to train under Grassroots Aspirations was an exciting prospect. Having to give up education due to financial constraints after her father passed away when she was in Class 4, Akhen who makes a living selling second-hand clothing and knitting, shared that only one out of the six children in her family is currently studying. With the newly acquired skills, she hopes to provide for and sustain the needs of her siblings as well.
While Grassroots Aspirations, at present, is focused on ‘jewelry training’ for women, Pungro-based Mutual Vendor SHG which was formed with the help of the organisation, also has two men in their fold, according to the group’s President Akiu Sheyamki.
The SHG went on to open a stall during the Independence Day celebration on August 15, selling their jewelry and other handicraft items. We hope and believe that this SHG will influence other people and encourage them to grab any opportunity to create a livelihood source for themselves, Sheyamki said.
Another group, Women of Faith SHG which comprises of dropout girls in Sitimi village, have also gone on to create a change in mindset among their peer groups as well as older women in their area. “After the training, we began making and selling jewelry and over time, we also started expanding into making snacks from local products,” group member Piholi shared. Seeing our enthusiasm and success, other women have also started approaching us for ideas and forming their own SHGs, she added.
In this regard, Sumiho also informed that Sitimi Area Jewelry Group which is a collective of 16 women from Sitimi, Yangsekyu, Kiyezhe and Honito villages was formed in April this year.
The impact of Grassroots Aspirations can be seen through the experience of Agnes Thonglarü—fondly referred to as the ‘second-in-command’ of the organisation. Joining the organisation as a trainee, Agnes now manages training programmes and describes the work as “an empowering experience.”
Similarly, Longtsala said that it was empowering to be able to teach others what she had learned. “I feel confident today and I want to encourage school dropouts and tell them that they can also do something in life,” she added.
Underscoring that Grassroots Aspirations is “about creating an ecosystem of opportunities for rural folk,” Sumiho hoped that with more opportunities in the district itself, there will be a movement of reverse migration.
