Kannamangala village program
Village name - Kannamangala, About 22kms from Yelahanka, Bangalore
There are about 18 physically challenged people here, below the poverty line. Earning additional income has been difficult for them, in addition to being neglected in the village. They also have a self-help group of their own. In order to empower this group through the vision of the Udyama program, we devised an accessible and sustainable activity for them. The village is an arecanut growing area. We brought in the equipment and modified the technology to suite their needs. Now they are able to create eco-friendly plates from arecanut leaves, which are marketed through developed channels. The programme not only gave them income, also gave them selfesteem, the courage within, to grow, & go ahead like any normal people in life. It made them feel they were not incapable. It has brought them not only joy, but also, a new lease of vigour & enthusiasm to work.
After the villagers were educated about rights of physically challenged people, as part of this program, they have gone ahead and requested the panchayat in their village to give them a separate workplace of their own. This initiatvie can further be scaled up to add more programmes in this category, and turn it into a small scale industry, train them how to run it, leave it to them completely.