The earthquake has badly damaged the local salt manufacturing units, their building got damaged, their machinery got damaged hence rendered these poor workers un -employed. The local community salt makers are known as Agariyas. The villages, adjoining the desert like Sadla, Savda, Aichvan, Airval, Bajana and mulada are badly affected. The survey was conducted from the said villages and families were identified, who could be helped in getting the employment by producing the processed salt powder, which is used for cooking and chemical industrial purposes. The raw salt can be processed into powder salt by crushing the salt cubes in the crusher machine. The identified community member can form the group of 10 members from the identified families and each group could be provided the crushing Machine unit attached with diesel-fuelled generator, to run the machine for crushing the raw salt. The group will require the raw salts, which is abundantly available in Patdi at cheap rates. The group members can work together in co-operative and divide the responsibilities like crushing the raw salt, filling the polythene bags and packaging beside loading. So member has to work to finish the task and sell the packed salt.
The marketing avenues are also available locally, where traders from local market buy processed salt from the small salt producers.
The following is the cost of providing the unit to 50 groups.
| Item | Cost per unit | Total cost |
|---|---|---|
| Machine | Rs.20,000 | Rs.10,00,000 |
| Raw salt | Rs.2,000 | Rs.1,00,000 |
| Packing of processed material | Rs.50,000 | |
| Total | Rs.11,50,000 |
Thus envisaged project can provide employment to 500 members of affected families from above villages. This activity is also like small scale and can be done at house. After the selling the processed salt the member can earn around Rs.75/- day. The beneficiaries will contribute 10% of unit cost.