Guwahati, April 26: A Guwahati-based NGO has come up with an ambitious scheme to employ school dropouts to sell farm-fresh vegetables on carts in residential areas.
Two beneficiaries were allotted carts today as Sanghata Gram Unnayan Parishad launched the scheme with support from Employment Generation Mission (EGM), Assam, and Punjab National Bank.
Altogether 40 beneficiaries will get vegetable vending carts (called Anjaybee Green Carts), equipped with a solar panel, lights and a weighing machine, in the first phase.
The carts, which are being designed and developed by the Centre for Rural Development, Assam, can accommodate about 120-130kg of vegetables that can be neatly sorted into sections.
The cost of the scheme in the first phase is pegged at Rs 16 lakh. The cost per cart is Rs 40,000, of which the bank will bear Rs 28,000 as a loan component, while EGM will provide Rs 12,000 as subsidy.
“We are targeting unemployed youths, particularly school dropouts (above Class VII), as beneficiaries in a bid to provide them meaningful employment. Two such youths were given carts today. We plan to launch 40 carts by the second week of June and our target is to select 200 beneficiaries in five phases,” Nayanjyoti Bhattacharyya, an official of the NGO, said here today.
The initiative is based on “backward integration” or “marketing first”. “We believe in assessing the market and promoting the concept before reaching out to farmers. Based on the requirements, we advise them on what crop is to be cultivated and how. We are yet to adhere to organic farming but there is a plan in the long run. Our mission is to cultivate cash crops on 6,000 bighas of land. Till now, we have associated with farmers in Boko and Mangaldoi,” Bhattacharyya said.
The NGO had introduced three such carts here on an experimental basis in 2010.
“Forms can be obtained at our Hatigaon office. We will give preference to those who have studied till Class VII and who are from a financially weak background. The beneficiaries get a working capital of Rs 5,000 each,” he added.
On the feasibility of the scheme, he said, “To start with, we will target apartment complexes where a beneficiary can sell his products to several families at one go. An average family requires Rs 1,500 worth of vegetables every month. So, even if a beneficiary earns Rs 400 per day, he can earn at least Rs 12,000 monthly.”
A.K. Absar Hazarika, project director (EGM), said, “Through this initiative, we seek to not only provide a forward linkage to farmers but also gainful employment to school dropouts, who would have otherwise gone astray.”
