The proposal broadly falls under three major areas of alternatives:
- Community Health and education
- Alternative Economic Development Program and
- Land and Water Development Program
1. Community Education is proposed through the setting up of community learning centres, called Chilipili Bala Karmikara Shale (Chilipili Child Labourers School) in the villages. In addition Community Learning Centres will be set up in the village to provide basic literacy classes for women as well as training unemployed local youngsters as teachers for the CLCs. Alternatives in community health are based on indigenous health systems which are easily accessible to people and which are in the
control of the local community. The women also will be provided basic training on health aspects, first aid, the role of medical officers, Auxiliary Midwife and Nurse (ANM), schedule of nutrition and iron tablets for pregnant women, schedule of vaccination for new born
babies, etc. It is also proposed to network with the traditional health practitioners and to promote advocacy to make the public health system accountable and accessible to people.
2. The area of Alternative Economic Development includes three activities - a soap making unit, a neem processing unit and a terracota jewellery making unit.
A feasibility study has shown that production and marketing of quality soaps is sustainable and practical for women to earn a supplementary income. One of the team members has undergone an intensive training on soap making conducted by Integrated Rural
Technology Centre (IRTC), Kerala. A basic unit of neem expeller is proposed to be set up which will be
run by a women’s Sangha who will collect the seeds from the community, clean, sort, process, store the neem seeds and extract oil. The neem cake and oil can be sold to farmers for use as pesticides. It is proposed that senior children of the Chilipili school, as an
alternative to child labour, be taken through a process of terracotta jewellery making. This looks feasible, given the demand for such products, the indigenous skill available and the available of raw material (clay) free of cost.
3. The intervention in livelihood issues related to Land and Water Development is proposed for two villages where agricultural lands, which have degraded into wastelands, now are to be developed through
a series of interventions based on the principles of community watershed development program.
A pilot project has been started in two villages on the land belonging to the dalit community, which had been developed into wasteland covered with thorny bushes. The intervention is based on the strategy of micro wasteland/watershed development. This is
proposed to be done in 3 phases, the first of which has been supported by the Hyderabad Karnataka Development Board.
