Bhiloda has the highest percentage of severely malnourished children. There is also a dearth of health facilities in Bhiloda block. Aravalli is one of those few districts in Gujarat where household industries are highly underdeveloped. Bhiloda taluka has the highest share of workers in the household industry as the opportunities for formal employment are very limited. Overall, as it is seen from the figure above, Bhiloda taluka shows gaps in the provision of basic amenities, and irrigation development and performs poorly in poverty amelioration.
This social impact investment Program with IEEE-ISV outlines our engage, educate, and empowerment model. The program is built on several specific projects under a broad strategic focus on Generating Livelihoods for the Women Entrepreneurs.
Empowering rural women in Aravalli through small-scale decentralized rural industries is the aim of this project. The project proposes to enrich indigenous resources, protect the environment, support the organic farming movement, reach out to vulnerable and economically weaker rural women, artisans, and farmers, develop their skills, and build a sustainable economy.
This ISV project is to train local SHGs in various processing and production technologies to convert the existing local resources into value-added marketable products. Facilitate these SHGs to set up commercial enterprises run on solar energy. These rural enterprises will provide sustainable livelihood to 350 women and farmers.
The project will be benefiting the tribal community of 7 Gram Panchayats of Bhiloda taluka ( Shamalpur, Bhavanpur, Waghpur, Devni Mori, Dhandhasan, Shamalaji and Od). In the first phase of the project the 8 rural enterprises established under the project will directly benefit 50 tribal women and indirectly benefit 350 tribals.
Magan Sangrahalaya Samiti (MSS), Wardha, Maharashtra (India) is the lead NGO partner on the ground for execution. MSS has established 1200 Women Self Groups in 50 villages of Wardha District and credit-linked them with 18 banks. The organization has set up 30 rural enterprises for rural women and farmers that are providing livelihood to 500 rural people and economically benefitting 500 organic farmers.
The project will assist in providing sustainable livelihood to 50 tribal women and honey collectors by setting up eight enterprises based on locally available farm and forest produce. These enterprises will produce 20 products that are in high demand in the region and state.