RSVY project for Establishing Micro Enterprises in the Bamboo Sector

Uravu is presently implementing a major project under the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) programme of the Government of India. Under the project, 500 rural people would be trained in making various bamboo products. At least 300 persons (60 per cent of the total) of the trainees would be from tribal communities and, of the total, at least 50 per cent would be women.
People trained under the programme would be organized into 25 Self-Help Groups. The groups would be provided technical and managerial assistance to set up 25 Micro Enterprises Uravu would ensure backward and forward linkages to the Micro Enterprises.
Apart from direct employment for 500 rural people, the RSVY project is expected to create 5,000 additional man-days of labour annually in harvesting and transporting raw materials.
The Indigenous People of the district would be the major beneficiaries of the programme.
Five Micro Enterprises have been established by now in various panchayat (local self-government) areas in the district – Thoolika, Peeli, Darshanam, Swaraj and Niravu bamboo craft centres. These groups have been trained to make different products including the Script-O range of bamboo pens.

Bamboo Mission Training programme BMT-2005

BMT 2005 Uravu is an ambitious project of the Government of Kerala, coordinated by the Kerala State Bamboo Mission. The project aims to build the awareness levels of the traditional bamboo artisans spread across the state and provide a new orientation on products and processes. The trainings under the project are expected to provide an opportunity for assessing the skill levels and the potential for improvement in the sector and thus to set the ground for implementing a comprehensive development plan for the bamboo sector in the sector.
Nearly 5000 artisans, a majority of them being women, would be covered in the 250 training programmes under the first phase of BMT 2005. By now, 14 training programmes have been completed in the districts of Kollam, Pathanmthitta and Alapuzha districts in southern Kerala.

Ambedkar Hast shilp Vikas Yojna (AHVY) project for establishing bamboo craft cluster in Thrikkaipetta village

Under the AHVY programme, Uravu proposed to organize members of 20 tribal families, 15 Scheduled Caste families and 40 general community households into nine Self-Help Groups (SHGs) under the Thrikkaipetta Bamboo Cluster. The main objective of the programme was to provide integrated development inputs to the members of the craft cluster and to evolve them into self-sustaining cooperatives/ entrepreneurial groups. Enriching the entrepreneurial capabilities of the cluster actors, improving production systems and volumes as well as product quality and design were envisaged as the aims of the AHVY programme.

In the course of time, however, the guidelines of the programme underwent major revisions and bureaucratic delays forced Uravu to scale down the scope of activities and coverage of artisans under the programme. The artisans have been regrouped into six SHGs. Two design workshops were conducted under the programme.

NABARD assisted Project for Establishment of Mother Unit and Satellite Units for Development of Bamboo Craft and Products in Wayanad district, Kerala.

CAPART assisted project