GLIDE

DETAILS OF GLIDERS TOT Workshop: 

• Workshop DURATION: 3 full DAYS (7 hours each day) physically at the Host's location. 

• Participants: Max 30-35 with a gender balance.

• Workshop TYPE: Preferably residential / non-residential, as decided by the host organisation.

• Playful approach: Completely participative, hands on approach, with soft skill development.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: SHIBANI GHOSH, OASiS Social Innovations Lab 

Picture this: Founded over two decades back on the belief that small producers deserve the opportunity to prosper and lead resilient, dignified lives, VRUTTI Livelihood Impact Partners (an offshoot of Catalyst Management Services), has tried strengthening the economic ecosystems of farmers, fishers, nano-entrepreneurs, and artisans through tested, data-backed models that blend digital innovation with deep field engagement. Envisioning climate-resilient communities where producers thrive as entrepreneurs within inclusive and regenerative systems, they have tried to link enterprise, capital, and communities in ways that unlock markets, build capabilities, and enable large-scale transformation. Guided by this purpose, a recent Wallmart project has encouraged them to pursue an ambitious goal: Building 15,000 Resilient and Wealthy Small Farmers, through 11 FPOs, in 8 Districts of Karnataka.

FIELD VISIT:
Village DHARMAPUR with a Population of 2,000 in 350 Households, and an average landholding of 4 acres, grows Pulses (mainly red gram), wheat, vegetables and flowers. Water table is good at  150ft. Mostly farming, the village also has about 2% landless, 30% owning buffaloes, and 30% having goats and sheep. Agri yield has improved, but because of rising input costs, profits have reduced. A Private Dairy collects milk regularly. However migration is increasing. 70% households have one or two Youth migrated to other cities of karnataka, working in factories. 30% families have already migrated.
Reason: Falling prices of  Crops and uncertainty in agriculture due to climate change.

At Village AZADPUR visited a progressive experimental young farmer, doing multi-cropping with Pulses, floriculture, horticulture, fodder, and using all organic ways to maintain his soil fertility. He has been able to demonstrate that by doing a good market and demand analysis, it is possible to have a round the year income, without depending on market forces.

At Village PETSHARUR visited a Farmer Producer Organisation, processing Pulses converting red gram into Dal, and selling it to the wholesale market.

CHALLENGES: Market linkage, FPO operational sustainability, balance between inputs selling and output selling.

After knowing about GLIDE and its ability to help create a circular rural economy without dependence on outside markets, Vrutti Livelihoods for Impact organised a GLIDE workshop at Kalaburagi district. For a start, they chose 7 existing FPOs, and brought 30 participants (FPO Staff - CEOs, Coordinators, Activators), and some Vrutti Coordinators, on 7-9 May 2026, to see how new local livelihoods can be created easily, without any dependency on outside sources.

WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS: The Workshop started with a discussion on the challenges being faced by the FPO Staff, in meeting their targets and objectives. Initially the participants felt that they had met 40% of their objectives, and the rest 60% could be achieved in 2-3 years. But after listing down 27 challenges, they realised that the further they are striving towards ther goal, the goal is slipping away. Further deliberations helped them to understand that chasing a remote economy is making the farmers more susceptible to fast changing demand-supply situations, and vulnerable to competition among themselves, both leading to falling prices of crops and rural produce.

This led to the GLIDE Facilitators asking them that what would make them less susceptible and vulnerable. The participants wished that if they had control over the markets, they could fetch better prices for their crops. With that the discussion moved on to realising that FPOs should not look at themselves as Producers only, but as Consumers too, and that local livelihoods should be designed to cater to local markets, not remote ones.

Starting their GLIDE journey, 30 Participants sat together to list 27 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the most essential elements were Skills, Raw materials, Money and Markets, which they felt they severely lacked.

As the GLIDE journey moved ahead, it helped them to first look at what they had. And in the process, the Participants could not believe what they saw.

• Together they listed 65 SKILLS within themselves, out of which 46 Skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• Next they sat in Block wise groups to search RAW MATERIAL, and found 86 uncultivated and 111 cultivated = 197 types of Raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find MONEY. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 4 acre of land cultivating 1 crop a year, with one migrating family member, 

  • was earning a maximum net income of Rs 2,63,000/- per annum.

• But as they tried to add up their household and family expenses, they found that the household 

  • was spending a minimum of Rs 38,000/- per month, totalling to Rs 4,56,000/- each year.

• And together, their Village of 300 households 

  • was spending a whopping Rs 13,68,00,000/- (Rs 13.68 crores) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 348 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals produce, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 13.68 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 1,93,000/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The FPOs found that a huge MARKET of 348 goods, worth Rs 13,68,00,000/- (Rs 13.68 crore), was available within their own Village.

• With that came the real shock, when the villagers discovered, that their Village

  • was paying Rs 2,12,40,000/- (Rs 2.12 crore) every year, as GST.

  • The FPOs realised that the Govt was not giving the villages any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the FPO Members. Terribly upset by the exploitation, but feeling empowered with the skills, resources and markets, the FPOs decided to convert their loss into opportunities for their Members' livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 152 products (out of 348 FMCG products), themselves.

ACTION TAKEN:
Following the GLIDE approach, the FPOs formed 9 groups, and for a start, identified 9 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, in and around their own villages.

• Together they could replace 9 already selling packaged goods, with a total market potential of Rs 1,68,51,000/- (Rs 1.68 crores) p.a within just 300 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the Groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the Vrutti FPOs realise that their hidden strength lay in their farmers base. With each FPO having 750 farmer members each, they had a cumulative consumer base of over 5250 farmer families. The FPOs realised that by encouraging and grouping farmer families to produce 152 FMCG goods, they could ensure them a customer base of 5250 families. The FPOs need not search for outside markets now, as they had a huge market within, and could sell both the produce of the farmers and the products made by the livelihood groups, to meet the demand of 5250 families. The FPOs had the potential to become a Wallmart themselves.

GLIDE helped the FPOs think, about how they can help their Farmers and their Villages walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: SHIBANI GHOSH, OASiS Social Innovations Lab 

Picture this: Founded 17 years back, on a belief that Entrepreneurship has the potential to transform individuals, communities, and entire nations, Jagriti Enterprise Centre Purvanchal has worked persistently to spark a movement of Entrepreneurs, in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Incubating over 400 Enterprises, impacting 26000 livelihoods, and creating over 2000 jobs, Jagriti has become the biggest small town Incubator in Uttar Pradesh. With their Bioregional centre focussing on 7 Districts, Jagriti is working in 1000 Villages in its home district Deoria itself. 

Deoria district is densely populated, with a poor average land holding, has a high water table, grows Wheat, paddy, sugarcane, vegetables, potatoes, onions, etc, and suffers huge migration.

FIELD VISIT:
A Field visit to two villages in Deoria district, showed us two different faces of village development.
Village BADHYA BUZURG with a Population of 10,000 in 2000 Households, generally grows wheat, paddy and vegetables. Yield has improved, but because of rising input costs, profits have reduced. Some families do Goatery, and Cattle rearing. A Private Dairy collects milk regularly. Nearby industries engage some village women in factories making Kurkure, etc. However migration is increasing. Almost every family has one or two Youth migrated to other states, working in factories. 25 families have already migrated.
Challenges: Despite Jagriti's efforts and success in incubating and establishing 400+ Startups, Mentors were facing difficulties in retaining youth in the villages, and also making the startups sustainable.

Village KHORARAM with a Population lesser than Badhya Buzurg, and situated on the highway, has more businesses. But because of easy infrastructre and access, migration has also increased rapidly. Migrated youth are living in difficult circumstances, working as daily labour, getting into bad company and habits.
No active SHGs.
Challenges: Despite the number of startups and increased production capacities, market linkage is a challenge.

After knowing about GLIDE and its ability to help create a circular rural economy without dependence on outside markets, Jagriti Enterprise Centre Purvanchal (JECP) organised a GLIDE workshop at village Badhya Buzurg. For a start, they chose 5 Tolas of Badhya Buzurg, and brought 30 participants (both men and women), and some Mentors, on 20-22 April 2026, to see how new local livelihoods can be created easily, without any dependency on outside sources.

WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS: The Workshop started with a discussion on the reasons behind Parents forcing their children to migrate and seek jobs outside. The Participants said that they knew that their migrated family members were suffering and getting into bad habits, but were dependent on their incomes. They said that although it was hard to bring the migrated youth back because of their changed lifestyle, but if respectable and sustainable livelihoods could be created locally, then they would love to retain their adolescent children in the village.

This led to the GLIDE Facilitators asking them that what all would they require to start a livelihood locally. Starting their GLIDE journey, 30 Participants sat together to list 25 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the most essential elements were Skills, Raw materials, Money and Markets, which they felt they severely lacked.

As the GLIDE journey moved ahead, it helped them to first look at what they had. And in the process, the villagers could not believe what they saw.

• Together they listed 68 SKILLS within themselves, out of which 53 Skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• Next they sat in Tola wise groups to search RAW MATERIAL, they found 127 uncultivated and 65 cultivated = 192 types of Raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find MONEY. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 0.5 acre of land cultivating 2 crops a year, with one migrating family member, 

  • was earning a maximum net income of Rs 1,95,000/- per annum.

• But as they tried to add up their household and family expenses, they found that the household 

  • was spending a minimum of Rs 41,500/- per month, totalling to Rs 4,98,000/- each year.

• And together, their Village of 2000 households 

  • was spending a whopping Rs 99,60,00,000/- (Rs 99.60 crores) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 206 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals produce, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 99.60 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 3,03,000/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge MARKET of 206 goods, worth Rs 99,60,00,000/- (Rs 99.60 crore), was available within their own Village.

• With that came the real shock, when the villagers discovered, that their Village

  • was paying Rs 9,96,00,000/- (Rs 9.96 crore) every year, as GST.

  • The villagers realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the villagers. Terribly upset by the exploitation, but feeling empowered with the skills, resources and markets, the villagers decided to convert their loss into opportunities for livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 98 products (out of 206 products), themselves.

ACTION TAKEN:
Following the GLIDE approach, the villagers formed 7 groups, and for a start, identified 7 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, in and around their own village.

• Together they could replace 7 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 4,87,20,000/- (Rs 4.87 crores) p.a within just 2000 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the Groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the Jagriti Mentors and the Village Youth realise their hidden strengths and resources, and learn how to use them, to design sustainable livelihoods for themselves, by producing goods for their own local markets, and recycle the economic drain back into their own village. 

GLIDE helped the Villagers think, about how they can help their Village, Block and District walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: SHIBANI GHOSH, OASiS Social Innovations Lab 

Picture this: The main objective of the Deendayal Gram Swavalamban Yojana (DDGSY) in Jharkhand is to make villages self-reliant and ideal. This scheme provides skill development, horticulture, and employment opportunities to villagers, especially women, under MNREGA. It was launched in Khunti district. Its goal is to strengthen the Gram Sabha and provide ideological awareness to villagers about employment. 

Launched in the financial year 2018-19 by the Rural Development Department, under the leadership of then MNREGA Commissioner Siddharth Tripathi, the Pilot Project started from Khunti district, targeting 760 villages, with emphasis on rural development and water conservation. Major Activities: Promotion of horticulture, Birsa Green Village Scheme, and other self-employment activities under MNREGA, making Gram Sabha regular and effective, and provide skills to villagers for self-employment, helping in arresting migration from rural areas and ensuring participation of women.

FIELD VISIT:
A Field visit to two villages in Khunti district, showed us two different faces of village development.
Village CHHOTA URIKEL in Karra Block, with a Population of 300 in 73 Households, with all Tribals, generally grows paddy and vegetables. 28 farmers have been operating drip irrigation systems, while 19 farmers have migrated to Amrit Krishi (organic farming). Sone cutting is a major livelihood for most families and youth. Some families do Goatery, Piggery, Poultry and some Cattle (not for milk, but for  farming). Being a land of hills, only 30% of land is cultivable. Irrigation facilities are only thrpugh wells. Swavalamban's water conservation efforts have increased the water table in the region. Adoption of drip irrigation has further reduced water wastage, increasing cultivable land to 80% and crops round the year. However despite all efforts, migration is increasing. 10 families have already migrated.
Challenges: Although farming capacities have increased significantly, but Prime Movers (Field workers) and Mentors were facing difficulties in enabling additional livelihoods and incomes for the villagers, to hold them from migrating.

Village RORO in Torpa Block, with a Population of 450 in 100 Households generally grows paddy and vegetables. Great interventions have happened in horticulture, Sal plantations and Lac production. Group based livelihoods include livestock, vermicompost, cow urine based bio-fertilisers, and honey extraction.
All SHGs are financially active and aware.
Migration with families is increasing,
Challenges: Despite increased production capacities, maker linkage becomes extremely challenging.

After knowing about GLIDE and its ability to help create a circular rural economy without dependence on outside markets, DDGSY organised a GLIDE workshop at the Forest Training Centre in Ranchi, Jharkhand. For a start, they chose 2 Blocks Torpa and Karra in Khunti District, and brought 25 participants (both men and women) including their Lok Preraks (Field Staff), and some Mentors, and 17 Youth and active SHG women from Ara and Keram Villages in Ormanjhi Block of Ranchi District, on 19-21 March 2026, to understand, how to design high potential new livelihoods without migrating, and without any dependency on outside sources.

WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS: The Workshop started with a discussion on the increasing rate of migration in the region, and the challenges being faced by the Gram Swavalamban team, in addressing them. Primary reasons were attributed to lack of non-farming livelihood opportunities in the region, and majorly to lack of market linkages for farm produce and non-farming products. The Participants said that the communities would love to stay back in their villages, if they get a respectable and sustainable livelihood locally, without migrating. 

This led to the GLIDE Facilitators asking them that what all would they require to start a livelihood locally. Starting their GLIDE journey, 43 Participants sat together to list 22 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the most essential elements were skills, raw materials, money and markets, which they felt they severely lacked.

As the GLIDE journey moved ahead, it helped them to first look at what they had. And in the process, the villagers could not believe what they saw.

• Together they listed 127 skills within themselves, out of which 94 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• Next they sat in District wise groups (Khunti and Ormanjhi) to search raw material, and found 148 uncultivated and 155 cultivated = 303 types of raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 2 acre of land cultivating 1 crop a year, with one migrating family member, 

  • in Khunti, was earning a maximum net income of Rs 1,12,000/- per annum. 

  • in Ormanjhi, was earning a maximum net income of Rs 2,54,000/- per annum.

• But as they tried to add up their household and family expenses, they found that the household 

  • in Khunti was spending a minimum of Rs 47,800/- per month, totalling to Rs 5,73,600/- each year. 

  • in Ormanjhi was spending a minimum of Rs 25,400/- per month, totalling to Rs 3,04,800/- each year.

• And together, their Cluster 

  • of 500 households in a Cluster of Villages in Khunti, was spending a whopping Rs 28,68,00,000/- (Rs 28.68 crore) each year.

  • of 500 households in a Cluster of Villages in Ormanjhi, was spending a whopping Rs 15,24,00,000/- (Rs 15.24 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 297 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals produce, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 15.24 - 28.68 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 50,800/- to Rs 4,61,600/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 297 goods, worth Rs 28,68,00,000/- (Rs 28.68 crore), available within their own Village Cluster.

• With that came the real shock, when the villagers discovered, that 

  • A Village Cluster in Khunti was paying Rs 2,86,80,000/- (Rs 2.86 crore) per annum, as GST.

  • A Village Cluster in Ormanjhi was paying Rs 1,52,40,000/- (Rs 1.52 crore) per annum, as GST.

•  The vilagers realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the villagers. Terribly angered by the exploitation, but feeling empowered with the skills, resources and markets, the villagers decided to convert their loss into opportunities for livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 119 products (out of 297 products), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the villagers formed 14 groups, and for a start, identified 14 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, in and around their own village.

• Together they could replace 14 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 2,10,70,000/- (Rs 2.10 crores) p.a in just 500 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the Lok Preraks (Field Workers) and Village Youth realise their hidden strengths and resources, and learn how to use them, to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves, to produce goods for their own local markets, and plug the drain of their money to traders and companies. 

GLIDE helped the Villagers think, about how they can help their Village, Block and District walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Grameen Foundation India has been actively working in 6 Districts of Uttar Pradesh, empowering Farmers by creating FPOs (Farmer Producer Organisations). In the past 3 years, they have created 31 FPOs with 18,000 farmers in these 6 Districts. While most FPOs are currently involved in Trading Agri Inputs and Produce, some have even started value addition, producing edible products from agri produce.

FIELD VISIT:
A Field visit to two villages in Shahjahanpur district, showed us the sharp contrast between two extremes.
Village UDERNA in Ningohi Block, with a Population of 4000 in 800 Households, with 70% Thakurs and 30%SC, generally grows Wheat, paddy, sugarcane, mustard, and vegetables. Some families do Goatery, and some Dairy (Buffaloes and Cows), avg 2 cattle per Household giving 12 ltr milk per day (4 ltr for self consumption, 8 ltr for sale). Jaggery making, Tailoring, knitting for local markets.
There are about 20 women SHGs making Masalas, Papad, Pickle, etc, selling through Stalls in exhibitions in cities. 3 SC SHGs have started making Chappals, with raw material being bought from Kanpur, with a buy back arrangement.
ODOP: Zari Zardozi, but sale is very difficult.
All Products are facing Challenges of marketing, sourcing raw material, etc.
Govt schemes: Only Pension. MNREGA: 10 days per family per annum.
Migration: About 12.5% (100 families) migrated with families to cities. 

Village RATH in Kuttar Block, with a Population of 2000 in 500 Households generally grows Wheat, paddy, sugarcane, mustard, vegetables, potato, peas, etc. There are no secondary livelihoods. Only few houses have cattle only for self consumption.
There are only 7 SHGs doing lending.
Migration is almost 70%. About 15% have migrated with families. Mostly working in automobile factories in Haryana, etc.
No Govt schemes or pension. Absolute hopelessness among villagers.

After knowing about GLIDE and its ability to help create a circular rural economy without dependence on outside markets, Grameen Foundation organised a GLIDE workshop at Lucknow. For a start, they chose the 2 Blocks Ningohi and Kuttar in Shahjahanpur District, and brought 20 participants (both men and women) including their Field Staff, some FPO Representatives, and some active SHG women from the Community, on 14-17 Feb 2026, to understand, how to design livelihoods for their region, without any dependency on outside sources.

Workshop  proceedings: The Workshop started by dividing the Participants into 3 groups: Community, GFI Field Staff assigned with creating FPOs, and GFI Management, giving them a common question: "Challenges encountered in their work towards enabling rural livelihoods". All of them expressed freely. The exercise was not to debate, criticise, or find solutions, but to find the common connection. The perspective that emerged out of this exercise, clearly showed that rural livelihoods were being viewed and designed, to access only urban markets and demands. But when asked, if this has been able to arrest migration, the unified response was negative. A perspective change was badly required.

The Participants said that the communities would love to stay back in their villages, if they get a respectable and sustainable livelihood locally, without migrating. This led to the GLIDE Facilitators asking them that what all would they require to start a livelihood locally. Starting their GLIDE journey, 20 Participants sat together to list 20 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the elements they felt essential and severely lacking among villagers were skills, raw materials, money and markets.

As the GLIDE journey moved ahead, it helped them to first look at what they had. And in the process, the Participants could not believe what they saw.

• Together they listed 65 skills in their villages, out of which 57 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• Next they sat in groups to search raw material, and found 82 uncultivated and 135 cultivated = 217 types of raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 2 acre of land cultivating 2 crops a year, with one migrating family member, was earning a maximum net income of Rs 1,46,000/- per annum. 

• But as they tried to add up its household and family expenses, they found that the household was spending a minimum of Rs 39,200/- per month, totalling to Rs 4,70,400/- each year. 

• And together, a Village of 500 households, was spending a whopping Rs 23,52,00,000/- (Rs 23.52 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 350 factory made packaged goods that the villagers were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for the crops and animals produce of the villages, the villagers had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 23.5 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 3,24,400/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The Participants found a huge market of 350 goods, worth Rs 23,52,00,000/- (Rs 23.52 crore), available within their own villages.

• With that came the real shock, when the Participants discovered, that a Village was paying Rs 2,35,20,000/- (Rs 2.4 lakhs) per annum, as GST.

• The Participants realised that the Govt was not giving the villagers any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Terribly angered by the exploitation, but feeling empowered with the skills, resources and markets the villages had, the GFI Field Staff decided to convert the loss of the villages, into opportunities for livelihoods for the villagers, by helping them start to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that the villagers already had skills to produce 85 products (out of 350).

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the Participants formed 4 groups, and for a start, identified 4 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, in and around their own village.

• Together they could replace 4 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 63,00,000/- (Rs 63 lakhs) p.a in just 500 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the GFI Field Staff realise the hidden strengths and resources of the Community, and see the community not as a producer only, but also as a huge Market. They learnt how to use the community's strengths and resources, to create sustainable livelihoods for them, to produce goods for their own local markets, and re-route the drain of their money to FMCG companies, back as their own livelihoods. 

GLIDE helped the Participants think, about how they can help their villages walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitators: Lekha J (Buzz Women India), Srinidhi Gurunath (Socrates)

Picture this: Rainmatter Foundation has been actively trying to create a Consortium of CSO Partners working towards creating a Circular Green Rural Economy. The consortium called GramEEE comprising of 10 Partner CSOs and growing, and supported by DASRA, has been trying to create a handbook for all CSOs that can help them design rural livelihood interventions around Local Production for Local Consumption.
One of the Consortium members, Buzz Women India has been active in many regions of Karnataka, helping rural women start their own livelihoods without migrating. They have recently partnered with Puttannaih Foundation, based out of Melukote district, to help rural women in the region with home based livelihoods.

A field visit to Chandagalu and Hongenahalli Panchayats, revealed the contrast between rainfed and irrigated regions. While the rainfed zone grew the traditional crops, the irrigated zone was quickly transitioning to sugarcane. Cattle rearing being common, other livelihoods were also being explored. But the scariest situation was that of migration. While 50% families had one member migrating to the cities for working in factories, around 25-30% had migrated with families.

Supported by Rainmatter Foundation, Buzz Women and Puttanaih Foundation organised a GLIDE workshop for their Field Staff at Melukote in Karnataka, to help them get a different perspective and direction. 36 participants (both men and women) from both organisations, came for a GLIDE workshop, on 09-12 Feb 2026, to understand, how to design livelihoods for their region, without any dependency on outside sources. For the first time 19 Representatives of 12 CSO joined as Observers, to understand the GLIDE Concept and approach, and see its relevance to their context.

Workshop proceedings: The Workshop started with a discussion on the high rate of migration in the region, and the challenges being faced by the organisations, in addressing them. The participants listed the following reasons:
  * Project based approach, short timelines
  * Tough to enable uptake of livelihood if immediate financial viability is not understood (Social norms are prominent)
  * Lack of latest/emerging knowledge on crops/livelihoods
  * Lack of employment opportunity & industries + business challenges (Market linkages)
  * Actionable guidance is missing
  * Natural farming methods are labor intensive & less profitable
  * Fear of failure among CSOs
  * Money & people going out of villages
  * Lack of proper utilization of finance / missing fin literacy
  * Lack of quality & efficient facilitation for positive change
  * Lack of convergence & enabling/accessible ecosystem (services)
  * Livelihood uncertainty in Rural India
  * High expectation from NGOs
  * Low community ownership
  * Lack of trust within community & with CSOs | Lack of sustainable business models
  * Natural resources are degrading

The Participants said that the communities would love to stay back in their villages, if they get a respectable and sustainable livelihood locally, without migrating. This led to the GLIDE Facilitators asking them that what all would they require to start a livelihood locally. Starting their GLIDE journey, 36 Participants sat together to list 25 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the elements they felt essential and severely lacking were skills, raw materials, money and markets.

As the GLIDE journey moved ahead, it helped them to first look at what they had. And in the process, the villagers could not believe what they saw.

• Together they listed 110 skills within themselves, out of which 91 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• Next they sat in groups to search raw material, and found 139 uncultivated and 169 cultivated = 308 types of raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 4 members owning 1 acre of land cultivating 2 crops a year, with one migrating family member, 

  • in Melukote, was earning a maximum net income of Rs 70,000/- per annum. 

  • in Mandya, was earning a maximum net income of Rs 1,11,000/- per annum.

• But as they tried to add up their household and family expenses, they found that the household 

  • in Melukote was spending a minimum of Rs 22,300/- per month, totalling to Rs 2,67,600/- each year. 

  • in Mandya was spending a minimum of Rs 24,400/- per month, totalling to Rs 2,92,800/- each year.

• And together, their Village 

  • of 250 households in Melukote, was spending a whopping Rs 6,69,00,000/- (Rs 6.69 crore) each year.

  • of 250 households in Mandya, was spending a whopping Rs 7,32,00,000/- (Rs 7.32 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 325 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals produce, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 6.7 - 7.3 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 1,81,800/- to Rs 1,97,600/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 325 goods, worth Rs 7,32,00,000/- (Rs 7.32 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the villagers discovered, that 

  • Village Melukote was paying Rs 66,90,000/- (Rs 66.9 lakhs) per annum, as GST.

  • Village Mandya was paying Rs 73,20,000/- (Rs 73.20 lakhs) per annum, as GST.

•  The vilagers realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the villagers. Terribly angered by the exploitation, but feeling empowered with the skills, resources and markets, the villagers decided to convert their loss into opportunities for livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 139 products (out of 325), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the villagers formed 11 groups, and for a start, identified 11 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, in and around their own village.

• Together they could replace 11 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 1,82,91,000/- (Rs 1.83 crores) p.a in just 250 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the Villagers realise their hidden strengths and resources, and learn how to use them, to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves, to produce goods for their own local markets, and plug the drain of their money to traders and companies. 

GLIDE helped the Villagers think, about how they can help their village walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Shibani Ghosh, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) - AKRSP(I) is a programme of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) which works in over 30 countries around the world. AKRSP(India) has been working as a catalyst for the betterment of rural communities by providing direct support to local communities, in over 3255 villages of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra, impacting lives of over 3.5 million people from marginalised sections of society. Over 80% of the households impacted by AKRSP(I)'s work belong to tribals, dalits, and minorities, with over 60% of beneficiaries being women.

Dang is primarily a Tribal District in Gujarat, with a majority Bhil population. While 54% of its land is covered by forests, only 34% of its land is arable, rest 12% being barren. Out of 34% arable land, only 13% land is irrigated, rest are rainfed. So while 4% of the total land can produce 2 crops, 30% of the total land produces only 1 crop in a year. Because of continuous land erosion during rains, Top soil depth is only 1.5 - 2.0 inches. This reduces the agri yield to only 40% of the national average, per acre.

The migration scenario is extremely threatening. 65% of the district population migrates to Maharashtra, Surat, etc as Agri labour. Families migrate for 4-6 months in a year. Every day Trucks line up on the highways to take agri labours. The region has a unique form of money lending. Mukaddams (Money lenders) double up as Labour Contractors. Loans are paid back through bonded labour. The Mukaddams prefer giving loans to couples, and not singles, as they get 2 bonded labours for the same loan. This has sparked a rise in childhood marriages and teenage pregnancies.

Dang was declared an Organic district 5 years back, stopping all chemical inputs, but without any support or subsidies on organic inputs. AKRSP started operations in Dang in 2009, and has been focussing on watershed development, irrigation, and enhancing agriculture and vegetable farming.

To experience the GLIDE concept and approach, AKRSP chose 2 villages Jakhana and Wangan from two different Panchayats in Dang district. While Jakhana was considered a progressive village, Wangan was an impoverished one. AKRSP wanted to see if the GLIDE concept worked for both situations, and therefore brought 15 participants (both men and women) from each village, for a GLIDE workshop, on 25-27 Jan 2026. The 30 participants accompanied by representatives from other verticals of AKRSP(I) came to understand, how to design livelihoods for their region, without any dependency on outside sources.

Workshop proceedings: The Workshop started with a discussion on the high rate of migration in the region, and its reasons. The participants mentioned that the region did not offer much opportunities, and farming was not enough to meet expenses. Inconsistent climate variations also posed livelihood and financial insecurity. Forced migration was way higher than aspirational migration, and given a chance, they would love to have a respectable and sustainable livelihood locally, without migrating.

On knowing this, the the Facilitators asked them what all would they require to start a livelihood locally, starting their GLIDE journey.  30 Participants sat together to list 20 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the elements they felt essential and severely lacking were skills, raw materials, money and markets.

The participants said that the first thing required is skill training.  But when the Facilitators asked them which skill training they would require, they got confused. As the GLIDE journey moved ahead, it helped them to first look at what they had, before asking for what they did not have. And in the process, the villagers could not believe what they saw with their own eyes.

• Together they listed 82 skills within themselves, out of which 74 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• Next they sat in groups to search raw material, and found 300 uncultivated and 156 cultivated = 456 types of raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 1 acre of land cultivating 1 crop a year, with one migrating family member, 

  • in Jakhana, was earning a maximum net income of Rs 1,01,900/- per annum. 

  • in Wangan, was earning a maximum net income of Rs 66,500/- per annum.

• But as they tried to add up their household and family expenses, they found that the household 

  • in Jakhana was spending a minimum of Rs 30,900/- per month, totalling to Rs 3,70,800/- each year. 

  • in Wangan was spending a minimum of Rs 11,500/- per month, totalling to Rs 1,38,000/- each year.

• And together, their Village 

  • of 300 households in Jakhana, was spending a whopping Rs 11,12,40,000/- (Rs 11.12 crore) each year.

  • of 150 households in Wangan, was spending a whopping Rs 2,07,00,000/- (Rs 2.07 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 442 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals produce, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 2 - 11 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 71,500/- to Rs 2,68,900/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 442 goods, worth Rs 11,12,40,000/- (Rs 11.12 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the villagers discovered, that 

  • Village Jakhana was paying Rs 1,65,24,000/- (Rs 1.65 crore) per annum, as GST.

  • Village Wangan was paying Rs 28,80,000/- (Rs 28.80 lakhs) per annum, as GST.

•  The vilagers realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the villagers. Terribly angered by the exploitation, but feeling empowered with the skills, resources and markets, the villagers decided to convert their loss into opportunities for livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 43 products (out of 442), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the villagers formed 10 groups, and for a start, identified 10 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, in and around their own village.

• Together they could replace 10 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 44,44,000/- (Rs 44.44 lakhs) p.a in just 200 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the Villagers realise their hidden strengths and resources, and learn how to use them, to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves, to produce goods for their own local markets, and plug the drain of their money to traders and companies. 

GLIDE helped the Villagers think, about how they can help their village walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Shibani Ghosh, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Started as a student voluntary mission by Madras University students in 1971, Gram Vikas established in 1979, has been one of the pioneering organisations in Odisha. With almost Five decades of social work, Gram Vikas has reached over Six lakh people in 1700 villages of Odisha through its work in Water management, Sanitation and Health, Habitat and Technology, Village Institutions, Education and Youth, Livelihoods and Disaster response. 

Rudhapadar Block in Ganjam District has its population spread around the Hills. Many Hamlets spread over the Hills make a Village. Over a 5km radius, there are about 120 households. Gram Vikas has been operating in this region since 1988, on green energy, water conservation, improved agriculture and sanitation. They have distributed scores of Coconut, Cashew and Banana saplings, to all villages in the region, to improve their nutrition. However, their work on livelihoods had started only 5 years back. During our field visit, we saw Mushroom cultivation, Grain dehusking, and Nursery cultivation by SHGs, with Gram Vikas being the prime buyer for Nursery. But the real hurdles lie in access to finance, as the Villagers are not too keen on returning the loans, and Gram Vikas as a Guarantor has to fill the gaps. Migration is increasing from the District, and is considered respectable, as migrated youth are considered more eligible for marriage.

Since the Rudhapadar region was not yet taken for the Gram Vikas Sathi Fellowship approach, it was ideal for Gram Vikas to test the GLIDE approach there, and compare the results. To help their rural folks start their entrepreneurial journeys, without any skill training, financial support or market linkage, Gram Vikas decided to bring their 25 people from 6 Gram Panchayats, and few Mentors and Trainers, for a GLIDE workshop, on 15-17 Jan 2026 in their Rudhapadar FCO. The participants came to understand, how to start a business with little investment, but high assured returns, and without any dependency on outside sources.

Workshop proceedings: The Workshop started with a discussion on increasing migration, and its reasons. The participants confessed that farming has become a high risk and loss making profession. Inconsistent climate variations also posed livelihood and financial insecurity. The aspirations of youth, also drive them towards migration. However forced migration was way higher than aspirational migration. Given a chance, they would love to have a respectable and sustainable livelihood locally, without migrating.

As the Facilitators initiated their GLIDE journey, by asking them what all would they require to start a livelihood locally, all 25 Participants sat together to list 18 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the elements they felt essential and severely lacking were skills, raw materials, money and markets.

As the GLIDE journey moved ahead, it helped them to first look at what they had, before asking for what they did not have. And in the process, the villagers could not believe what they were seeing.

• They found within themselves 78 skills, out of which 64 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Panchayat groups searching for raw material, they found 102 uncultivated and 136 cultivated = 238 types of raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 2 acres of land cultivating 2 crops a year, with one member migrated to city, was earning a net income of Rs 1,96,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their household and family expenses, they found that the household was spending a minimum of Rs 31,700/- per month, totalling to Rs 3,80,400/- each year. And together, their Cluster of 120 households was spending a whopping Rs 4,56,48,000/- (Rs 4.56 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 310 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals produce, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 4.56 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 1,84,400/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 310 goods, worth Rs 4,56,48,000/- (Rs 4.56 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the villagers discovered, that each Cluster of 120 households was paying Rs 60,76,800/- (Rs 60.76 lakh) as GST (average Rs 50,640/- per household), each year. The vilagers realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the villagers. Heavily depressed by the exploitation, but feeling empowered with the skills, resources and markets, the villagers got highly motivated to convert their exploitation into opportunities for livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 86 products (out of 310), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the villagers formed 5 groups, and for a start, identified 5 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, and cultivated raw material available in their own village.

• Together they could replace 5 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 20,23,200/- (Rs 20.23 lakhs) p.a in just 120 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the Villagers realise their hidden strengths and resources, and understand how to use these for creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves, catering to local markets instead of outside traders and companies. 

GLIDE helped the Villagers think, about how they can help their village walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Shibani Ghosh, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Community Action for Rural Development Society (CARD), founded by a group of agriculture scientists with rural background in 1995, has been working on Natural Resource management, Women Empowerment, Agri based Livelihoods with Market Linkages, and Institutional Capacity Building of Farmer Groups and SHGs, in the West Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Over the years, they have worked with over 10,000 Farmer families in 70 Villages.

Hearing about GLIDE from various sources, they thought of trying it in one village with an active Farmers Group, and chose Adgaon Khurd village (Population 2000 in 400 households) in Akot Block of Akola District, for the same on 21-23 Dec 2025. Led by the Farmers Group (Laxmi Mata Society), 30 Participants including men and Women came for the workshop. A field visit on 20th Dec helped understand various local rural livelihoods like farming, dairy, tailoring, grocery shop, flour mill, etc. Interestingly some farmers were found switching from wheat and soyabean to growing Sweet Sorghum, for Ethanol production, as it gets them a good price through contract farming.

Workshop proceedings: The Workshop started with the aspirations, benefits and challenges with livelihoods. While everyone said that owning some land is prime, as all livelihoods are connected with it, they also confessed that farming has become a high risk and loss making profession. Inconsistent climate variations also posed livelihood and financial insecurity. The need for additional local respectable livelihoods was immensely felt, and they were ready for it.

All 30 Participants sat together to list 19 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the elements they felt lacking were skills, raw materials, money and market.

After grouping them in 6 groups, we started the reverse, by trying to help them search for these elements, within themselves. And in the process, the villagers started seeing their village differently.

• They found within themselves 45 skills, out of which 39 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat searching for raw material, they found 111 uncultivated and 160 cultivated = 271 types of raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 2 acres of land cultivating 2 crops a year, was earning Rs 1,86,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that the household was spending a minimum of Rs 38,000/- per month, totalling to Rs 4,56,000/- each year. And together, their village of 400 households was spending a whopping Rs 18,24,00,000/- (Rs 18.24 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 292 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while their families were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 18.24 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 2,70,000/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 292 goods, worth Rs 18,24,00,000/- (Rs 18.24 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the villagers discovered, that each village of 400 households was paying Rs 1,82,40,000/- (Rs 1.82 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 18,24,00,000/-), each year. The vilagers realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the villagers. Angered by the exploitation, but feeling empowered by resources and opportunities, the villagers got highly motivated to convert their exploitation into opportunities for livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 80 products (out of 292), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 villagers formed 7 groups, and for a start, identified 7 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, and cultivated raw material available in their own village.

• Together they could replace 7 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 4,22,06,400/- (Rs 4.22 crores) p.a in just 400 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the Villagers realise their hidden strengths and resources, and understand how to use these for creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves, catering to local markets instead of outside traders and companies. 

GLIDE helped the Villagers think, about how they can help their village walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can have economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Shibani Ghosh, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Mera Gaon Meri Dunia (MGMD) is a group of passionate individuals who are enabling change across communities, by empowering the youth to transform the ecosystem. Their aim is to build an ecosytem for youth, who are bringing sustainable social change within their community. The group has been working in Nagda and surrounding Blocks of Ujjain district of MP, since 2019 on School Education and Social Emotional development of youth. One of their leading programs called Shrinkhla, has been working with youth (age 16-22) for their career development and youth leadership. 

Although the results have been great, but the retention of leadership in rural areas has become a struggle. Realising that the struggle of youth retention in rural areas is increasing every day, MGMD started exploring local livelihood options for them. This exploration brought them to organise a GLIDE workshop for 40 selected youth of Shrinkhla project from 7 Villages, on 11-13 Dec 2025. A field visit on 10th Dec helped understand various local rural livelihoods like vegetable farming, dairy, tailoring, goatery, grocery shop, mawa making, etc.

Workshop proceedings: The Workshop started with a discussion on the struggle of retention and migration of the youth. While only 5% wanted to migrate by choice, the rest 95% expressed helplessness and migration by force. While everyone showed pride in owning some land, they confessed that it was not enough to sustain throughout the year. Inconsistent climate variations also posed livelihood and financial insecurity. The need for additional local respectable livelihoods was immensely felt, and youth were ready to prepare themselves for it right away.

All 40 Participants representing 7 Villages and and their Project Leaders, sat together to list 22 elements required for any Business. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But the elements they felt least confident were skills, raw materials, money and market.

After grouping them in 6 groups, we started the reverse, by trying to find the skills and raw materials they did not require. And in the process, the youth started seeing a different rural India.

• They found within themselves 57 skills, out of which 47 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat searching for raw material, they found 88 uncultivated and 130 cultivated = 218 types of raw material already around them.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members owning 12 bighas of land cultivating 2 crops a year, was earning Rs 4,28,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that the household was spending a minimum of Rs 49,400/- per month, totalling to Rs 5,92,800/- each year. And together, their village of 800 households was spending a whopping Rs 47,42,40,000/- (Rs 47.42 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 410 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while their families were busy searching for markets outside, for their crops and animals, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 47.42 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 1,64,800/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The youth found a huge market of 410 goods, worth Rs 47,42,40,000/- (Rs 47.42 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the youth discovered, that each village of 800 households was paying Rs 4,74,24,000/- (Rs 4.74 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 47,42,40,000/-), each year. The youth realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the youth. Angered by the exploitation, but feeling empowered by resources and opportunities, the youth got highly motivated to convert their exploitation into opportunities for livelihoods, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 110 products (out of 410), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 40 youth formed 12 groups, and for a start, identified 12 products that they knew how to make, and for which they already had uncultivated raw material available for free.

• Together they could replace 12 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 6,16,00,000/- (Rs 6.16 crores) p.a in just 800 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the MGMD Youth realise their community's hidden strengths and resources, and understand how to use these for creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves,  catering to local markets instead of outside traders and companies. 

GLIDE helped the MGMD Team think, about how they can help their rural youth walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, so that they can lead their villages towards economic security, while addressing malnutrition, ill health, impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Shibani Ghosh, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Translator: Priyanka, A F Ecology Centre

Picture this: After organising the first GLIDE workshop in August 2025 for a mix of field workers and community members, AF Ecology Centre decided to organise the GLIDE workshop for all field and program staff. Dividing them into two batches, AF Ecology Centre brought 44 field and program staff in batch 2, for a GLIDE workshop on 24-26 November 2025. The batch had a unique combination of senior level central staff, with some field staff, and had come to understand, how to think differently about rural livelihoods, that can remove their dependency on A F Ecology Centre, for skill training, financial support or market linkage, and are ecologically and economically sustainable.

Workshop proceedings: The Workshop started with a reflection by the participants on the existing livelihood approaches, and how would each one of them have done differently, given complete freedom. They realised that too much direction on HOW (Process), takes away focus from WHAT (Objective). This  set the staff thinking about what do rural communities actually expect from them, for improving their lives and livelihoods. Taking this cue, the Facilitators made the participants act and think as Villagers, by asking them to adopt different names. 

All 44 Participants representing 4 Mandals (Blocks) and Management, sat together to list 20 elements required for a self driven livelihood. While they already had some of the elements, some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that their rural communities lacked skills, raw materials, money and market, and needed support from AF Ecology Centre and Government.

But as they started their search for these themselves, guided by GLIDE, their started seeing a different rural India.

• They found within themselves 64 skills, out of which 53 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Block groups, they could find 190 uncultivated and 212 cultivated = 402 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 4 members, was earning Rs 2,50,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 38,800/- per month, totalling to Rs 4,65,600/- each year. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 13,96,80,000/- (Rs 13.96 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 423 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 13.96 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 2,15,600/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 423 goods, worth Rs 13,96,80,000/- (Rs 13.96 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 1,39,68,000/- (Rs 1.39 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 13,96,80,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already have skills to produce 206 products (out of 423), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 44 participants formed 18 groups, and for a start, identified 18 products that they knew how to make, out of which, 

• for 12 products, they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 37,12,200/-, and 

• for 6 products, raw material was already being cultivated locally, with a total market potential of Rs 90,72,000/-. 

• Together they could replace 18 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 1,27,84,200/- (Rs 1.27 crores) p.a in just 300 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the AF Ecology Centre team realise their community's hidden strengths and resources, and understand how to use these for creating sustainable livelihoods for them. It gave the FPO CEOs and their FPO Manager, a new perspective to look at existing local markets instead of outside traders and companies. 

GLIDE also helped them understand and appreciate the formation of a village committee managed Gram Swaraj Kosh (GSK), accumulating 10% of the profits earned by each livelihood group, to financially empower the Gram Sabha implement its decisions, without having to request the Panchayat for funds.

GLIDE helped the Management of A F Ecology Centre think, about how they can help their rural communities walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, that can overcome their issues of malnutrition, ill health, the impact of climate change, and migration too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Shibani Ghosh, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Translator: Priyanka, A F Ecology Centre

Picture this: Located in the second driest area of India, Anantapur district, Accion Fraterna (AF) Ecology Centre, is a sister organization of Rural Development Trust (RDT). Father Vincent Ferrer & Mrs Anne Ferrer were the founders of Rural Development Trust (in 1969) and Accion Fraterna (in 1982). RDT is a well-known NGO in the country working on multisectoral development programmes with its main focus on dalits, tribals, women, and the challenged. Accion Fraterna focuses on sustainable agriculture, watershed development, non-farm employment, ecology and environmental issues, and has now spread its work to 220 villages. Their Project 'Accelerating Value Chain Benefits for improved Income for farmers and Nutrition for Consumers' has already reached 6000 dry land farmers, through improved agricultural technologies, setting up 17 Farmer Producer Organisations, and establishing social business enterprises for processing, value addition and marketing. Sponsored by Wallmart and ICRISAT, they have federated 9 FPOs into a Farmer Producer Company, and set up a sophisticated millets, nuts, oilseeds processing facility. Their unique approach of, providing part finance support for women driven Livelihoods, has reached 3000 women directly and many more, through revolving credit.

While the small enterprises are somehow sustaining and competing with each other in the local market, the medium level enterprises are struggling with market access and pressures of loan repayments. Their dependency on the Mandal Leaders and AF's network continues, for everything.

After organising the first GLIDE workshop in August 2025 for a mix of field workers and community members, AF Ecology Centre decided to organise the GLIDE workshop for all field and program staff. Dividing them into two batches, AF Ecology Centre brought 43 field and program staff in batch 1, for a GLIDE workshop on 21-23 November 2025. The participants came to understand, how to start a business without any skill training, financial support or market linkage, but high assured returns, and without any dependency on outside sources.

Workshop proceedings: The Workshop started with a discussion on the work based challenges being faced by the Socio-Technical Organisers, FPOs and Program Coordinators, in achieving their objectives, and the expected time to overcome these challenges. This  set the staff thinking about what do rural communities actually expect from them, for improving their lives and livelihoods. Taking this cue, the Facilitators made the participants act and think as Villagers, by asking them to adopt different names. 

All 43 Participants representing 8 Mandals (Blocks), sat together to list 17 elements required to start a business, out of which they already had some, and some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that their rural communities lacked skills, raw materials, money and market, and needed support from AF Ecology Centre and Government.

But as they started their search for these with GLIDE, their eyes opened wide.

• They found within themselves 90 skills, out of which 70 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Block groups, they could find 282 uncultivated and 297 cultivated = 579 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 4 members, was earning Rs 1,83,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 38,000/- per month, totalling to Rs 4,56,000/- each year. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 13,68,00,000/- (Rs 13.68 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 574 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 13.68 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 2,73,000/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 574 goods, worth Rs 13,68,00,000/- (Rs 13.68 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 1,36,80,000/- (Rs 1.36 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 13,68,00,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already have skills to produce 131 products (out of 574), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 43 participants formed 18 groups, and for a start, identified 18 products that they knew how to make, out of which, 

• for 12 products, they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 62,88,000/-, and 

• for 6 products, raw material was already being cultivated locally, with a total market potential of Rs 47,46,000/-. 

• Together they could replace 18 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 1,10,34,400/- (Rs 1.10 crores) p.a in just 300 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the AF Ecology Centre team change their mindset, from a feeling of giving to a feeling of having, and realise their community's hidden strengths and resources. It gave the FPO CEOs, a new perspective to look at markets inside, how they can channelise the raw material collected to the Group Businesses making value added products, and channelise back the finished goods to their farmers base. It gave the STOs the confidence, to help their communities start their own businesses, without any dependency on others, by using their existing skills, leverage existing resources, starting with minimum investment, and capturing back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. 

GLIDE helped them think, about how they can help their rural communities walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

6Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Jayaprakash (Program Manager), WASSAN

Picture this: Founded by Shri B.N. Yugandhar in 1993, WASSAN has been working towards bringing prosperity with ecological security to rainfed areas, with a focus on poorer communities. In and around Vishakapatnam (in Andhra Pradesh), it has been working in 2 Districts (200 villages) directly, and through Partners in 2 more Districts (400 villages) of Eastern Ghats.
Besides improving agriculture and horticulture in rainfed areas, WASSAN has also established 200 Eco intensified Indigenous (Desi) Poultry breeding farms, in 140 villages. Each farm consists of a hatchery providing chicks each to other households engaged in Poultry, along with an array of tur dal, banana, papaya, guava, drumstick, sweet potato plantation for hens to forage, and nutrition for the family. However, replacing desi chicks after a flu attack remains a challenge.
A similar initiative, is a network of 200 Eco farm ponds, where besides fish farming, banana and coconut plantation are done on the sides of bunds, and vegetables on top of bunds and fishes in water.
Community mobile solar based irrigation systems consisting of foldable soar panels carried on a cart, with a 2 HP motorised pump, support irrigation, drawing water from community ponds to farms nearby.
6 hubs running dehusking mills for Paddy, deshelling mills for Millets, grinding mills for turmeric, red chilly, provide value addition services to farmers.
A Millet kichen centre run by 8 SHG women, produces millet based snacks and sweets, for sale to high end customers. 

This was the first GLIDE Workshop organised by WASSAN, for their key field staff in Vishakapatnam.
Always excited to explore different approaches, WASSAN brought 25 Participants including Community Resource Persons, Cluster Coordinators, Program Associates, Team Leaders, Program Officers, Livestock expert, Fisheries expert, Civil Engineer, MIS personnel, and Top Management, from 7 Gram Panchayats of Bhamini, Kotturu, Seethampeta Blocks of Vishakapatnam, Manyam, ASR Districts, for a GLIDE workshop on 12-14 November 2025.

Workshop proceedings: All 25 Participants representing 7 Gram Panchayats, sat together to list 19 elements required to start a business, out of which they already had some, and some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that their rural communities lacked skills, raw materials, money and market, and needed support from CSOs, CSRs and Govt.

But as they GLIDE(ing), to search for these elements, their eyes opened wide.

• They found within themselves 93 skills, out of which 65 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Block groups, they could find 158 uncultivated and 207 cultivated = 365 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 4 members, was earning Rs 1,87,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 28,700/- per month, totalling to Rs 3,44,400/- each year. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 10,33,20,000/- (Rs 10.33 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 452 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 10.33 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 1,57,400/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 452 goods, worth Rs 10,33,20,000/- (Rs 10.33 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 1,03,32,000/- (Rs 1.03 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 10,33,20,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already have skills to produce 163 products (out of 452), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 25 participants formed 7 groups, and for a start, identified 14 products that they knew how to make, out of which, 

• for 7 products, they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 79,58,400/-, and 

• for 7 products, raw material was already being cultivated locally, with a total market potential of Rs 79,83,000/-. 

• Together they could replace 14 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 1,59,41,400/- (Rs 1.59 crores) p.a in just 300 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped the WASSAN team change their mindset, from a feeling of giving to a feeling of having, and realise their community's hidden strengths and resources. It gave them the confidence, to help their communities start their own businesses, without any dependency on others, by using their existing skills, leverage existing resources, starting with minimum investment, and capturing back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. 

GLIDE also helped them understand and appreciate the formation of a village committee managed Gram Swaraj Kosh (GSK), accumulating 10% of the profits earned by each livelihood group, to financially empower the Gram Sabha implement its decisions, without having to request the Panchayat for funds.

GLIDE helped them think, about how they can help their rural communities walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), in a collaborative manner, and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Gangotri (PRP Coordinator), SIRDI

Picture this: With a mission to unite all single women at the village level, to resolve their family, social, economic and legal problems, Satpura Integrated Rural Development Institution (SIRDI) has been working for the past 43 years in 180 Villages of 104 Panchayats of Betul District, Madhya Pradesh. Their interventions in health, education, organic farming, herbal medicines, leveraging Govt schemes, and strengthening Panchayats, has been commendable. Although they have been working on promoting organic farming and cattle rearing as livelihoods, but their real focus on mass livelihoods has started only recently. Their Saksham project (for livelihoods) is focussed on 25 Panchayats.

This was the first GLIDE Workshop organised by IRA-SIRDI, for their entire field staff of Saksham Project, and aspirational village youth.

Located in southern Madhya Pradesh and sharing borders with Maharashtra, Betul is rich in forests, flora and fauna. It also hosts a sizeable population of Tribals. With 5 major rivers flowing across Betul, it has one of the best soils in the state. But mono-cropping and extensive use of chemicals have hardened the soil, and depleted it of all nutrients and carbon.

The field visit exposed a glaring bitter truth. Although the region had a bumper crop of Corn this year, over supply first led to rate reduction, then a lull in purchase, and now a complete stop on purchases. Even a bumper crop instead of bringing them out of poverty, dragged them further and deeper into it.

To help their field staff think beyond agriculture, IRA-SIRDI brought 46 Participants including Panchayat Members, Panchayat Resource Persons, SHG members, many rural youth (boys and girls), from 30 Gram Panchayats of Prabhatpattan, Aathner, Bhainsdehi, Chandurbazar, Betul Blocks of Betul District, for a GLIDE workshop on 02-04 November 2025.

Workshop proceedings: All 46 Participants representing 30 Gram Panchayats, sat together to list 23 elements required to start a business, out of which they already had some, and some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that they lacked skills, raw materials, money and market, and needed support from CSOs and Govt.

But as they started their journey with GLIDE, to search for these elements, their eyes opened.

• They found within themselves 127 skills, out of which 97 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Block groups, they could find 239 uncultivated and 224 cultivated = 463 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members, was earning Rs 2,40,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 42,500/- per month, totalling to Rs 5,10,000/- each year. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 10,20,00,000/- (Rs 10.20 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 480 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 10.20 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 2,70,000/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 480 goods, worth Rs 10,20,00,000/- (Rs 10.20 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 1,02,00,000/- (Rs 1.02 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 10,20,00,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already have skills to produce 204 products (out of 480), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 participants formed 8 groups, and for a start, identified 30 products that they knew how to make, out of which, 

• for 15 products, they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 66,04,800/-, and 

• for 15 products, raw material was already being cultivated locally, with a total market potential of Rs 68,44,000/-. 

• Together they could replace 30 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 1,34,48,800/- (Rs 1.34 crores) p.a in just 300 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them change their mindset from a feeling of deprivation to a feeling of abundance, realise their strengths and resources, and gave them the confidence to start their own businesses easily, without any dependency on others. They learnt how to use their existing skills, leverage existing resources, start with minimum investment, and capture back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating or committing suicide, they can together walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Pallavi Patil (Panchayat Resource Person, Helodi, Wardha), Mission Samriddhi

Picture this: Believing in the cumulative strength of Celebrate, Connect, and Catalyse, Mission Samriddhi has been empowering the rural and marginalised communities, to dream the change by enhancing their self-worth. Their interventions in health, education, child protection, organic farming, herbal medicines, leveraging Govt schemes, and strengthening Panchayats, has been commendable. Choosing farmer suicide region Vidharba in Maharastra, for direct intervention, they have been working with 54 Panchayats in Wardha District. But their real focus on mass livelihoods has started only recently.

This was the third Cluster level GLIDE Workshop organised by Mission Samriddhi, for their rural community in Selu Cluster of Wardha.

Located east of Wardha, Selu Block in Wardha District is divided into two parts. One part of Selu block, has good water supply because of Bordharan dam, and has enough horticulture. The other part of Selu is rainfed, and hence backward. Within Wardha, Selu has minimum number of suicides because of good crops. The biggest village in Selu block, called Sindi, has some industries, and MIDC, absorbing youth. Two big markets within the block: Selu and Sindi, take care of all essentials, while Wardha is only 25 kms, and Nagpur only 40 kms away.

Tribal population is less than 5%. Around 10-12% population are Scheduled Castes. Majority population is OBC. MSRLM (Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission) and Bajaj foundation work in almost all Panchayats in Selu and Wardha, but only for soil and water conservation and agriculture. Mission Samriddhi chose Selu Block for other aspects of development, and livelihoods, to build a circular rural economy, and works in 6 Panchayats in the backward part.

Entire population of Selu Block is dependent on farming. Farmers mostly grow Cotton, Tur dal and Soyabean in Kharif, and Wheat and Gram (Chana) in Rabi. But the backward part being rainfed, can do only Kharif. Besides doing Agriculture some of them also do Dairy, Goatery and Poultry at household level. Rising cost of living, has forced people to start other livelihoods like stitching, etc.
To help their communities think beyond, Mission Samriddhi brought 30 Participants including Panchayat Members, Panchayat Resource Persons, SHG members, many rural youth (boys and girls), from 6 Gram Panchayats of Selu Taluka (backward part) of Wardha District, and invited Project Coordinators from Bajaj Foundation's unit in Wardha District, and IRA-SIRDI of neighbouring Betul District, for a GLIDE workshop on 29-31 October 2025.

Workshop proceedings: All 30 Participants representing 6 Gram Panchayats, sat together to list 22 elements required to start a business, out of which they already had some, and some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that they lacked skills, raw materials, money and market, and needed support from CSOs and Govt.

But as they started their journey with GLIDE, to search for these elements, their eyes opened.

• They found within themselves 90 skills, out of which 69 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Panchayat groups, they could find 128 uncultivated and 160 cultivated = 288 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members, was earning Rs 2,68,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 58,500/- per month, totalling to Rs 7,02,000/- each year. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 21,06,00,000/- (Rs 21.06 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 480 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 21.06 crore from their village every year. And each household spent an average of Rs 4,34,000/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 480 goods, worth Rs 21,06,00,000/- (Rs 21.06 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 2,10,60,000/- (Rs 2.10 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 21,06,00,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already have skills to produce 158 products (out of 480), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 participants formed 8 groups, and for a start, identified 15 products that they knew how to make, out of which, 

• for 8 products, they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 44,82,000/-, and 

• for 7 products, raw material was already being cultivated locally, with a total market potential of Rs 50,43,000/-. 

• Together they could replace 15 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 97,11,000/- (Rs 97.11 lakhs) p.a in just 300 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them change their mindset from a feeling of deprivation to a feeling of abundance, realise their strengths and resources, and gave them the confidence to start their own businesses easily, without any dependency on others. They learnt how to use their existing skills, leverage existing resources, start with minimum investment, and capture back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating or committing suicide, they can together walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Uday Gaurkar (Cluster Coordinator GSMT Yavatmal), Mission Samriddhi

Picture this: Mission Samriddhi has been empowering rural and marginalised communities, to dream the change by enhancing their self-worth, through their interventions in health, education, child protection, organic farming, herbal medicines, leveraging Govt schemes, and strengthening Panchayats. Based on their belief in the Celebrate, Connect, and Catalyse approach, they have been working directly with 54 Panchayats in Wardha District in Maharashtra. Their focus on mass livelihoods in rural Maharashtra has started only recently.

This was the second Cluster level GLIDE Workshop organised by Mission Samriddhi, for their rural community in Hinganghat Cluster of Wardha.

Located between central and southern Maharashra, Hinganghat Block in Wardha District shares its border with Yavatmal District. Attracted by the increasing rate of farmer suicides in the past, many CSOs have done good water and soil conservation work here. Deprived of forest areas, with no tribals and backward classes, the block is far from major cities.

Farmers in Hinganghat Block mostly grow Cotton, Tur dal and Soyabean, but can do only Kharif, because of low water retention. Besides doing Agriculture and Dairy at scale, some of them also do Goatery and Poultry at household level. During rains, intermittent heavy showers followed by long dry spells, result in lack of water retention and irrigation, leading to 10% yield reduction every year.
People have started doing other livelihoods like stitching, etc and wanted to explore other livelihood opportunities left in rural areas, to help them come out of poverty.
To help their communities think beyond, Mission Samriddhi brought 30 Participants including Panchayat Members, Panchayat Resource Persons, SHG members, many rural youth (boys and girls), from 7 Gram Panchayats of Hinganghat Taluka of Wardha District, and invited 5 Cluster Coordinators from Gramin Samasya Mukti Trust (based in Yavatmal District), for a GLIDE workshop on 10-12 October 2025.

Workshop proceedings: All 30 Participants representing 7 Gram Panchayats, sat together to list 23 elements required to start a business, out of which they already had some, and some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that they needed support from CSOs and Govt, for skill training, raw material support, loans and marketing.

But as they started exploring with GLIDE, their eyes opened. For the first time they looked within, to find:

• 67 skills, out of which 60 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Panchayat groups, they could find 120 uncultivated and 153 cultivated = 237 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 4 members, was earning Rs 1,69,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 46,800/- per month, totalling to Rs 5,61,600/- each year. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 16,84,80,000/- (Rs 9.12 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 520 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 16.84 crore from their village every year. And each household spent avg Rs 3,93,600/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 520 goods, worth Rs 16,84,00,000/- (Rs 16.84 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 1,68,48,000/- (Rs 1.68 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 16,84,80,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already have skills to produce 80 products (out of 520), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 participants formed 9 groups, and for a start, identified 18 products that they knew how to make, out of which, 

• for 9 products, they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 66,15,000/-, and 

• for 9 products, raw material was already being cultivated locally, with a total market potential of Rs 75,96,000/-. 

• Together they could replace 18 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 1,42,11,000/- (Rs 1.42 crores) p.a in just 300 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them change their mindset from a feeling of deprivation to a feeling of abundance, realise their strengths and resources, and gave them the confidence to start their own businesses easily, without any dependency on others. They learnt how to use their existing skills, leverage existing resources, start with minimum investment, and capture back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating or committing suicide, they can together walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Mangesh, Atul, Rahul (Cluster Coordinators Wardha), Mission Samriddhi

Picture this: Believing in the cumulative strength of Celebrate, Connect, and Catalyse, Mission Samriddhi has been empowering the rural and marginalised communities, to dream the change by enhancing their self-worth. Their interventions in health, education, child protection, organic farming, herbal medicines, leveraging Govt schemes, and strengthening Panchayats, has been commendable. Choosing farmer suicide region Vidharba in Maharastra, for direct intervention, they have been working with 54 Panchayats in Wardha District. But their real focus on mass livelihoods has started only recently.

This was the first Cluster level GLIDE Workshop organised by Mission Samriddhi, for their rural community in Arvi Cluster of Wardha.

Farmers in Wardha District of Maharashtra, mostly grow Cotton, Tur dal and Soyabean in Kharif season, and Wheat and Gram in Rabi season. Because of lack of irrigation, they do majorly Kharif only. Besides doing Agriculture and Dairy at scale, some of them also do Goatery, Poultry, Fishery, and Floriculture at household level. During rains, intermittent heavy showers followed by long dry spells, result in lack of water retention and irrigation, leading to 10% yield reduction every year. Organic carbon is only 0.35 (min should be 0.5). Between Jan to July 2025, 139 farmers committed suicide, because of recovery pressures by Microfinance companies. Arm twisting and threatening approaches for Loan recovery, have driven up the Farmer suicide Rate.
People have started exploring other livelihood opportunities like stitching, etc and desperately wanted to know, if there are any other livelihood opportunities left in rural areas, to help them come out of debts.
To solve this puzzle, Mission Samriddhi brought 30 Participants including Panchayat Members, Panchayat Resource Persons, SHG members, and Tribal women from Kolam and Gond tribes, from 8 Gram Panchayats of Arvi Taluka of Wardha District, for a GLIDE workshop on 7-9 October 2025.

Workshop proceedings: All 30 Participants representing 8 Gram Panchayats, sat together to list 18 elements required to start a business, out of which they already had some, and some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that the primary requirements: skills, raw materials, money and markets, were missing, and had to come from outside. They said that they mostly depended on CSOs and Govt for skill training and loans, and on Traders for raw material supply and marketing of their products. 

But when GLIDE took them on a 3-day journey, looking for these 4 elements, something magical happened:

• Together 30 participants found that they already had 74 skills, out of which 54 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

• And when they sat in their Panchayat groups, they could find 160 uncultivated and 145 cultivated = 305 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

• But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members, was earning between Rs 2,45,000/- and Rs 1,01,600/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 38,000/- per month, totalling to Rs 4,56,000/- each year. And together, their village of 200 households was spending a whopping Rs 9,12,00,000/- (Rs 9.12 crore) each year.

• And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 430 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 9.12 crore from their village every year. And each household spent avg Rs 3,54,400/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 430 goods, worth Rs 9,12,00,000/- (Rs 9.12 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 200 households was paying Rs 91,20,000/- (Rs 91.20 lakh) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 9,12,00,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving them any freebies. Instead the Govt received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers for Panchayat development, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already have skills to produce 139 products (out of 430), themselves.

ACTION taken:
Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 participants formed 8 groups, and for a start, identified 16 products that they knew how to make, out of which, 

• for 8 products, they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 40,74,000/-, and 

• for 8 products, raw material was already being cultivated locally, with a total market potential of Rs 48,84,000/-. 

• Together they could replace 16 already selling packaged goods in the village, with a total market potential of Rs 89,58,000/- (Rs 89.58 lakhs) p.a in just 200 households. 

Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them change their mindset from a feeling of deprivation to a feeling of abundance, realise their strengths and resources, and gave them the confidence to start their own businesses easily, without any dependency on others. They learnt how to use their existing skills, leverage existing resources, start with minimum investment, and capture back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating or committing suicide, they can together walk the path towards financial independence (economic Swaraj), and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Sridhar Santhanam, Prabagaran M, Mission Samriddhi

Picture this: Founded in 1991, Gramium Trust has been working in eight Districts of Tamilnadu, towards improving the lives, livelihoods and living standard of people, through Children's Education, Women Empowerment, Environmental and Health programmes. Over the years, they have reached 8287 children, created 1950 SHGs and facilitated credit linkages upto Rs 73 crores.
Their recent partnership with Mission Samriddhi has helped them explore more areas of development, through their Cluster Development Programme. The partnership also helped them get exposed to the GLIDE approach of sustainable rural livelihoods. This was the second GLIDE Workshop organised by Mission Samriddhi, in Tamilnadu.
A field visit on the first day to 2 villages in Rajendram Panchayat, helped understand the various livelihoods initiated by Gramium Trust. Farmers in Karur district of Tamilnadu mostly grow Paddy and Bananas as the main cash crop. Although they cultivate two crops in a year, and yields are okay too, but Banana gives them higher revenue than Paddy, and also covers its input costs, low selling prices, and agricultural loans. Dairy, Goat rearing and Poultry add considerably to their income. But it is the other professions like masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrician, etc, that brings more revenue than all others.
Following Gandhiji's dream of a circular rural economy, Gramium Trust brought 30 Panchayat Resource Persons and SHG members from 11 Gram Panchayats of Karur District, for a GLIDE workshop on 20-22 September 2025. The participants came to remove their fear of starting any business, and understand how to start one with no loans, but high assured returns.
We also had the company of Ashoka Fellow Mr Elango Rangasamy (ex President Kuthambakkam Panchayat, TN), who after hearing about GLIDE at different forums, came out of curiosity, to understand the approach. Hear what Elango said. 

ACTION taken: All 30 Participants representing 11 Gram Panchayats, sat together to list 18 elements required to start a business, out of which they already had some, and some depended on the product they chose. But all of them felt that they lacked primary requirements: skills, raw material, money and market. They said that they mostly depended on Govt and CSOs for skill training and investment. Although they used some of their local crops as raw material, but mostly depended on Traders for market access. 

But as they started the GLIDE journey, looking for these 4 elements, something magical happened.

• Together 30 participants found that they already had 85 skills, out of which 53 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

•  And when they sat in their Cluster groups, they could find 119 uncultivated and 203 cultivated = 322 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

•  But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They proudly discovered that an average household comprising of 5 members, was earning a handsome Rs 3,52,000/- per annum. But as they tried to add up their expenses, they found that a household was spending on an average Rs 61,200/- per month, totalling to Rs 7,34,000/- each year. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 22,03,20,000/- (Rs 22.03 crore) each year.

•  And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 465 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 22.03 crore from their village every year. And each household spent Rs 3,82,400/- each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 465 goods, worth Rs 22,03,20,000/- (Rs 22.03 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 2,20,32,000/- (Rs 2.20 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 22,03,20,000/-), each year. 

• This is when Elango with his experience as Panchayat President stated, that each Panchayat of 300 households received approx Rs 60,00,000/- (Rs 60 lakhs), including MNREGA, and welfare schemes from the Govt, each year. This showed that the Govt received much more in the form of GST, from these rural areas, than what they gave to their Panchayats for development works, welfare schemes, MNREGA, and Freebies every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already had skills to produce 175 products (out of 465), themselves.
Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 participants formed 8 groups, and for a start, identified 8 products that they knew how to make, with raw material coming from uncultivated resources available for free, with a total market potential of Rs 79,20,000/- (Rs 79.2 lakhs) p.a. Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

After the workshop, one participant quoted a famous Tamil quote, saying that this is the first time I have realised,  "Nanae kelvi, nanae badhil", meaning "I am the question and I am the answer".

The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will also help them overcome ill health and malnutrition. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating, they can together walk the path, towards financial independence (an economic Swaraj).

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: SHIBANI GHOSH, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Since 1982, CYSD has been empowering the poor and marginalized communities in Odisha, especially the tribal and rural districts of Koraput, Malkanagiri, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Bolangiri, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Puri and Khurda. By working across 31 blocks in 11 districts, CYSD directly impacts 6.65 lakh people in 1,307 villages in 272 Panchayats. Operating primarily in rain-fed regions, CYSD aids landless households, agricultural labourers, and small landowners, through various practices in agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors. It also promotes entrepreneurship to boost community income, focusing on NTFP and non-farm enterprises like goat farming, duck farming, blacksmithing, vegetable vending, grocery shops, teashops, mushroom farming, incense stick making, and liquid soap preparation. CYSD’s "aggregate marketing model" helps producers realize the commercial value of their products through collective marketing, achieving scale, adding value, and engaging with markets as equal participants. It has established 10 FPOs (9934 Members) and 288 Producer Groups (18182 Members), and tied-up with Private Companies for marketing, and facilitating producers' participation in district and state-level events like “PARAB” and “Adivasi Mela” to sell their products.

CYSD had organised a GLIDE workshop for their Livelihood Facilitators from Keojhar, Mayurbhanj, Raygada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Bolangir Districts in January 2024, after which they tried to incorporate the GLIDE approach in all their livelihood interventions. But external market approach got precedence to local market approach, delaying sustainability. An exposure of the GLIDE Concept to all their Field staff during their Annual Summit in March 2025, got all of them demanding the GLIDE workshop in their Districts. So after 1.5 years of the first GLIDE workshop, CYSD decided to organise similar workshops at District/Village level.

Nurturing a dream of building a circular rural economy, CYSD brought 30 tribal men and women from 6 Villages of Koraput District, including their Producer Group champions, for a GLIDE workshop on 9-11 September 2025. The participants came to understand, how to start a business with high assured returns, without any skill training, financial support or market linkage, and without any dependency on outside sources.

ACTION taken: All 30 Participants representing 6 Villages, sat together to list 19 elements required to start a business. While they already had some, and some would depend on the product they choose, what they primarily lacked were technical and professional skills, raw material availability, investments and market access. Their dependency on outside sources for these, discourages them to start any business of their own. 

But as they started their GLIDE journey to look for these 4 elements, something magical happened.

• Together 30 participants found that they already had 70 skills, out of which 54 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

•  And when they sat in their Village groups, they could find 132 uncultivated and 153 cultivated = 285 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

•  But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. Considering an average household comprising of 6 members with 1.5 acre landholding, and cultivating only 1 crop a year, they discovered that they were earning only Rs 1,36,070/- per annum, while spending approx Rs 4,46,400/- every year, resulting in a deficit of Rs 3,10,330/- per annum. And together, their village of 70 households was spending a whopping Rs 3,12,48,000/- (Rs 3.12 crore) each year. A cluster of 4 villages (300 households) was spending a whopping Rs 13,39,20,000/- (Rs 13.39 crore) each year

•  And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 306 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 3.12 crore from their village every year. And each household spent over Rs 3.10 lakh each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge MARKET of 306 goods, worth Rs 3,12,00,000/- (Rs 3.12 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 70 households was paying Rs 31,20,000/- (Rs 31.20 lakh) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 3,12,00,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving any freebies. Instead it received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers through schemes, freebies, and MNREGA, every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already knew how to make 70 products, currently being sold to them by FMCGs.

Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 participants formed 7 groups, and for a start, identified 15 products that they knew how to make, out of which, for 8 products they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, and for 7 products raw material was already being cultivated locally. Together they could replace 15 already selling packaged goods, with a total market potential of Rs 2,20,50,000/- (Rs 2.20 crore) p.a in 300 households (4 villages). Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them change their mindset from a feeling of deprivation to a feeling of abundance, realise their strengths and resources, and gave them the confidence to start their own businesses easily, without any dependency on others. They learnt how to use their existing skills, leverage existing resources, start with minimum investment, and capture back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating, they can together walk the path towards financial independence, and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Located in the second driest area of India, Anantapur district, Accion Fraterna (AF) Ecology Centre, is a sister organization of Rural Development Trust (RDT). Father Vincent Ferrer & Mrs Anne Ferrer were the founders of Rural Development Trust (in 1969) and Accion Fraterna (in 1982). RDT is a well-known NGO in the country working on multisectoral development programmes with its main focus on dalits, tribals, women, and the challenged. Accion Fraterna focuses on sustainable agriculture, watershed development, non-farm employment, ecology and environmental issues, and has now spread its work to 220 villages. Their Project 'Accelerating Value Chain Benefits for improved Income for farmers and Nutrition for Consumers' has already reached 6000 dry land farmers, through improved agricultural technologies, setting up 17 Farmer Producer Organisations, and establishing social business enterprises for processing, value addition and marketing. Sponsored by Wallmart and ICRISAT, they have federated 9 FPOs into a Farmer Producer Company, and set up a sophisticated millets, nuts, oilseeds processing facility. Their unique approach of, providing part finance support for women driven Livelihoods, has reached 3000 women directly and many more, through revolving credit.

While the small enterprises are somehow sustaining and competing with each other in the local market, the medium level enterprises are struggling with market access and pressures of loan repayments. Their dependency on the Mandal Leaders and AF's network continues, for everything.

When they got to know about the GLIDE approach from the Vikalp Sangam network, they got curious to know how it can help their community folks, start sustainable livelihoods from the start. Nurturing a dream of building a circular rural economy, AF Ecology Centre brought 44 men and women from 5 Mandals, including their Mandal leaders and Trainers, for GLIDE workshop on 20-22 August 2025. The participants came to understand, how to start a business without any skill training, financial support or market linkage, but high assured returns, and without any dependency on outside sources.

ACTION taken: All 44 Participants representing 5 Mandals, sat together to list 20 elements required to start a business. While they already had some, and some would depend on the product they choose, what they primarily lacked were technical and professional skills, raw material availability, investments and market access. Their dependency on outside sources for these, discourages them to start any business of their own. 

But as they started their GLIDE journey to look for these 4 elements, something magical happened.

• Together 44 participants found that they already had 70 skills, out of which 64 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

•  And when they sat in their Mandal groups, they could find 141 uncultivated and 168 cultivated = 309 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

•  But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. Considering an average household comprising of 4 members with 2 acre landholding, and cultivating only 1 crop a year, they discovered that they were earning only Rs 1,70,000/- per annum, while spending approx Rs 4,14,000/- every year, resulting in a deficit of Rs 2,44,000/- per annum. And together, their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 12,42,00,000/- (Rs 12.42 crore) each year.

•  And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 686 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 12.42 crore from their village every year. And each household spent over Rs 2.44 lakh each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge MARKET of 686 goods, worth Rs 12,42,00,000/- (Rs 12.42 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 300 households was paying Rs 1,24,20,000/- (Rs 1.24 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 12,42,00,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving any freebies. Instead it received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers through schemes, freebies, and MNREGA, every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already knew how to make 146 products, currently being sold to them by FMCGs.

Following the GLIDE approach, the 44 participants formed 11 groups, and for a start, identified 11 products that they knew how to make, and had uncultivated raw material available for free. Together they could replace 11 already selling packaged goods, with a total market potential of Rs 43,14,000/- (Rs 43.14 lakh) p.a. Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them change their mindset from a feeling of deprivation to a feeling of abundance, realise their strengths and resources, and gave them the confidence to start their own businesses easily, without any dependency on others. They learnt how to use their existing skills, leverage existing resources, start with minimum investment, and capture back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and nature friendly way. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating, they can together walk the path towards financial independence, and overcome ill health, malnutrition, and the impact of climate change too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Started as a student voluntary mission by Madras University students in 1971, Gram Vikas established in 1979, has been one of the pioneering organisations in Odisha. With almost Five decades of social work, Gram Vikas has reached over Six lakh people in 1700 villages of Odisha through its work in Water management, Sanitation and Health, Habitat and Technology, Village Institutions, Education and Youth, Livelihoods and Disaster response. 

The Gram Vikas Saathi Fellowship was started in October 2023, under their Rural Enterprise Development initiative, in which selected Gram Udyog Mitras (GUMs) were trained on facilitating rural enterprise development for village youth. They were supported and monitored by more experienced rural entrepreneurs recruited as Mentors and Trainers. 30 GUMs have been trained since the Fellowship was rolled out, out of which 18 GUMs are working supporting 976 local enterprises  across the three districts. GUMs help rural entrepreneurs build the technical skills and entrepreneurial judgement necessary to start and sustain a business.

While the numbers speak for themselves, but the dependency of rural entrepreneurs on the Gram Vikas Saathis continues, making their independent sustainability a far fetched dream. Traditional mindsets and resistance to change hinder efforts. Access to capital and markets remain the most significant hurdles for rural entrepreneurs. Limited financial literacy often prevents them from securing loans.

Hearing that the GLIDE approach helps rural folks start their entrepreneurial journeys, without any skill training, financial support or market linkage, Gram Vikas decided to bring their livelihood team, 15 Gram Udyog Mitras, and 5 Mentors and Trainers, for a GLIDE workshop, to see how it can add value to their work. The participants came to understand, how to start a business with little investment, but high assured returns, and without any dependency on outside sources.

ACTION taken: All 25 Participants representing 3 Districts, sat together to list 16 elements required to start a business. While they already had some, some would depend on the product they choose. But they felt that they lacked skills, raw material, money and market access, and had to depend on some organisation that would give them skill training, raw material and money to produce goods, and buy them back, giving them the labour cost. 

But as they started their GLIDE journey to look for these 4 elements, something magical happened.

• Together 25 participants found that they already had 70 skills, out of which 51 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

•  And when they sat in their District groups, they could find 93 uncultivated and 87 cultivated = 180 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

•  But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. Considering an average household comprising of 5 members with 1 acre landholding, and cultivating only 1 crop a year, they discovered that they were earning only Rs 87,000/- per annum, while spending approx Rs 3,00,000/- every year, resulting in a deficit of Rs 2,13,000/- per annum. And together, their village of 250 households was spending a whopping Rs 7,50,00,000/- (Rs 7.50 crore) each year.

•  And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 325 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 7.50 crore from their village every year. And each household spent over Rs 2.13 lakh each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 325 goods, worth Rs 7,50,00,000/- (Rs 7.50 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 250 households was paying Rs 75,00,000/- (Rs 75 lakh) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 7,50,00,000/-), each year. The participants realised that the Govt was not giving any freebies. Instead it received more in the form of GST, from the villages, than what they gave back to the villagers through schemes, freebies, and MNREGA, every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. And to their surprise, they found that they already knew how to make 89 products, currently being sold to them by FMCGs.

Following the GLIDE approach, the 25 participants formed 7 groups, and for a start, identified 13 products that they knew how to make, out of which, for 7 products they already had uncultivated raw material available for free, and for 6 products raw material was already being cultivated locally. Together they could replace 13 already selling packaged goods, with a total market potential of Rs 70,66,500/- (Rs 70.66 lakh) p.a. Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them look at entrepreneurship differently, how to identify existing strengths, leverage existing resources, start with minimum investment, and capture back lost markets, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating, they can together walk the path towards financial independence, and overcome ill health and malnutrition too.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: Sridhar Santhanam, Mission Samriddhi

Picture this: Mission Samriddhi has been empowering rural and marginalised communities, to dream the change by enhancing their self-worth, through their interventions in health, education, child protection, organic farming, herbal medicines, leveraging Govt schemes, and strengthening Panchayats. Based on their belief in the Celebrate, Connect, and Catalyse approach, they have been working directly with 5 Panchayats in Kancheepuram District in Tamilnadu. Their focus on mass livelihoods in rural Tamilnadu has started only recently. A tailoring unit has been started recently, engaging 5 women, after getting orders for uniforms from the local Govt schools.

This was the second GLIDE Workshop organised by Mission Samriddhi, this time for their Panchayat Resource Persons and entire team in Kancheepuram District.
Farmers in Tamilnadu mostly grow Paddy as the main cash crop. Although they cultivate two crops in a year, and yields are okay too, but rising input costs, low selling prices, and agricultural loans leave them with a profit of hardly Rs 10,000/- per acre per crop. Dairy adds considerably to their income, with more returns than agri. Goat rearing and Poultry have also been picked up by many, but competition is killing returns. People have started exploring other opportunities like stitching, trading, etc. The participants came to understand, how to start a business with little investment, but high assured returns.

ACTION taken: All 30 Participants representing 5 Gram Panchayats, sat together to list 19 elements required to start a business. While they already had some, and some would depend on the product they choose, they lacked primary requirements: skills, raw material, money and market. They had the notion, that someone would give them skill training, raw material and money to produce goods, and buy back, giving them the labour cost. 

• But as we started the journey to look for these 4 elements, a magic wand appeared.
  Together 30 participants found that they already had 112 skills, out of which 87 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating.

•  And when they sat in their Panchayat groups, they could find 126 uncultivated and 156 cultivated = 282 resources already around them, that can be used as raw material.

•  But the real surprise came when they tried to find money. They discovered that while an average household comprising of 5 members, was earning only Rs 1,37,000/- per annum, it was spending approx Rs 5,50,000/- every year. And together, their village of 500 households was spending a whopping Rs 27,50,00,000/- (Rs 27.50 crore) each year.

•  And when they tried to find where the money was going, they listed down 570 factory made packaged goods that they were buying with this money. They never realised that while they were busy searching for markets outside, for their products, they had themselves become a huge market for FMCG Companies, that siphoned Rs 27.50 crore from their village every year. And each household spent over Rs 4 lakh each year, over their earnings, meeting the deficit through revolving credits, loans and generational debts. 

• The villagers found a huge market of 570 goods, worth Rs 27,50,00,000/- (Rs 27.50 crore), available within their own village.

• With that came the real shock, when the participants discovered, that each village of 500 households was paying Rs 2,75,00,000/- (Rs 2.75 crore) as GST (average 10% of their annual expenditure of Rs 27,50,00,000/-), each year. The Panchayat Presidents admitted that each Panchayat of 500 households received Rs 1,30,00,000/- (Rs 1.3 crore), including MNREGA, from the Govt each year. This showed that the Govt received more in the form of GST, from these rural areas, than what they gave to their Panchayats for schemes, freebies, and MNREGA, every year.

This revelation and realisation changed the entire perspective of the participants. Armed with the shocking and surprising data, they got highly motivated to stop this exploitation, by starting to produce these packaged goods themselves. Following the GLIDE approach, the 30 participants formed 8 groups, and for a start, identified 15 products that they knew how to make, out of which, for 8 products they already had uncultivated resources available for free, and for 7 products raw material was already being cultivated locally. Together they could replace 15 already selling packaged goods, with a total market potential of Rs 2,30,00,000/- (Rs 2.3 crore) p.a. Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will help them overcome ill health and malnutrition too. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating, they can together walk the path, towards financial independence.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: VIJAY BHARATIYA, Yuva Mitra

Picture this: Believing in the cumulative strength of Celebrate, Connect, and Catalyse, Mission Samriddhi has been empowering the rural and marginalised communities, to dream the change by enhancing their self-worth. Their interventions in health, education, child protection, organic farming, herbal medicines, leveraging Govt schemes, and strengthening Panchayats, has been commendable. Choosing farmer suicide region Vidharba in Maharastra, for direct intervention, they have been working with 54 Panchayats in Wardha District. But their real focus on mass livelihoods has started only recently.

This was the first GLIDE Workshop organised by Mission Samriddhi, for all their Panchayat Resource Persons and entire team in Wardha.
Farmers in Wardha District mostly grow Cotton as the main cash crop. Yields are high, but rising input costs, low selling prices, and increasing loans have been depleting all profits that the farmers make. Generational debt is forcing the farmers to either migrate or leave farming. Cattle rearing has picked up as an additional livelihood for many, but competition is killing returns. People have started exploring other opportunities like stitching, trading, etc. The participants came to understand, if there are any business opportunities left in rural areas, and if at all, how to make them profitable.

ACTION taken: All 64 Participants representing 49 Gram Panchayats, sat together to first identify what all are required to start a business. Among all the requirements, they felt that they lacked skills, raw material, money and market. But as they started searching for them, magic happened.

Together 64 participants found that they had 103 skills, out of which 77 skills can be used to earn a livelihood in villages, without migrating. And when they sat cluster wise, they could find 120 uncultivated and 111 cultivated = 231 resources around them, that can be used as raw material. Shyly attempting to find money, they discovered that their village of 300 households was spending a whopping Rs 7,20,00,000/- (Rs 7.20 crore) every year. And when they tried to find a market, they realised that they had themselves become a market for FMCG Companies, that sold 535 factory made and packaged goods. They never realised that while they were busy searching outside markets for their products, they had a market for 535 products worth Rs 7,20,00,000/- (Rs 7.20 crore), available within their own village.

The participants started seeing a different perspective, while learning the new livelihood approach in detail,. The 64 participants formed 14 groups, and for a start, identified 14 products that they knew how to make, for which they already had uncultivated resources available for free, and that could replace 14 already easy selling packaged goods, with a total market potential of Rs 1,05,84,000/- (Rs 1.06 crore). Following the GLIDE approach step by step, the groups ultimately created Business Plans and marketing strategies for their products. 

The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will help them overcome ill health and malnutrition too. GLIDE helped them think, about how instead of migrating, they can together walk the path, towards financial independence.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Established in 1975 and registered in 1982 Prayog Samaj Sevi Sanstha is renowned for its strength in the rural leadership development. The organization works throughout India to build up grassroots activism, focusing mainly on Central India, and Chhattisgarh. It has developed a ‘Gandhian Activism School’ for the rural youth and women, focusing on those that come from the tribal and other marginalized communities. More than 2,500 activists have been trained in the grassroots activism and are now working all over India. The focus of PRAYOG’s work is to assist the local communities so that they gain access and control over the natural livelihood resources, especially land, water and forests (zamin, jal aur jungle). Prayog Samiti has started community livelihoods on Goat Rearing and Fish farming, with few adivasi communities. But their real focus on mass livelihoods based on land, water, forest has started only recently.

This was the third GLIDE Workshop organised by Prayog Seva Samiti, for their Villages in Dhamtari, Koriya and Jashpur Districts. The objective was A) To enhance the economic status of rural women through agriculture and forestry based livelihoods; B) To promote entrepreneurship and self confidence among women; and C) To develop microplans for setting up small scale industries, using local resources.
The Districts mostly have rain-fed farming, enabling farmers to grow only one crop in a year. Yields are not high, because of loose soil, with less water retention abilities. Migration happens mostly within the District, and people live on subsistence farming and some micro trading activities. The participants realised that these livelihoods may not continue for long, and therefore wanted to explore other opportunities.

ACTION taken: All 45 Participants representing 3 Districts, sat together to first identify their existing skills, the abundant uncultivated natural resources around them, and list down everything that is cultivated by them (either for selling or for consumption). They then evaluated the amount of money flowing out of their village through consumption of packaged goods, and listed the goods as well.
Learning the new livelihood approach in detail, step by step, the participants started seeing a different perspective, that exposed them to the huge opportunity by leveraging the abundant resources for livelihoods, catering to the needs of the village, and replacing the packaged goods. 45 Participants worked in groups, to design their own Group Livelihoods and ended up creating Business Plans and marketing strategies for the same. The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will help them overcome ill health and malnutrition too. The best part was that the women stayed glued to the process, working together for 10 hours each day. GLIDE helped them think, about how they can together walk the path, towards financial independence.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: VIJAY BHARATIYA, Yuva Mitra

Picture this: Can a beautiful rural landscape with green fields and ponds filled with water, with milch cattle in every household, and a mix of mud and brick houses, be called poor and deprived? Surprisingly they are, as they are heavily dependent on Government doles, rations, subsidies and support of CSOs. AATAPI Foundation supporting livelihoods in about 75 Gujarat villages, chose 3 active SHG Members (all women) each, from 6 Villages of Jambusar block of Bharuch district, for a GLIDE workshop. The Field Staff of Aatapi Seva Foundation from Jambusar, Ankleshwar and Dahej, also joined them, to understand the process and flow of the GLIDE workshop. For the Field staff, this was their second complete training on the GLIDE approach. 

An initial chat with the participants, helped in understanding their expectations, that was largely centred around having some home based livelihoods, for earning an extra penny to meet the growing expenses of the family. But the persisting mindset of deprivation and helplessness, and the fear of a huge investment (approx Rs 50,000/-) kept them away from it. They wanted support for skill training, raw material support, loans and marketing support from the CSO.

ACTION taken: As the participants started Gliding, they did not realise where they were going to land. When they were asked to list down every skill they had, 12 village women listed 85 skills, out of which they could earn from 73 skills, without moving out of their village. Pleasantly surprised by the finding, they went a step further to list 126 uncultivated (naturally available) materials, and 91 cultivated ones, as raw material. But the magic had just begun. As they worked in groups to understand the reason behind their poverty, they discovered that their village with 250 households, each having 5 members, and with an average land holding of 2 acres per family, spent a whopping Rs 6 crore each year on their regular family needs. And when they tried to find out where all the money went, they listed down 250 company made products that they regularly bought. For eg: a Potato Chips packet costing Rs 5/- which each family bought every day, totalled to about Rs 22,50,000/- p.a (5 packets per day per family x 250 households x 30 days x 12 months x Rs 5/-). Where else could they find such a market?

As the feeling of deprivation turned into abundance, the participants got excited to use this abundance to design their livelihoods. The workshop took them step by step, to help them design their own Group Livelihoods, and ended up creating Business Plans for the same. And the best part, the initial investment was at max Rs 5,000/-, for which they did not require any funds from anyone, nor any marketing support from anywhere. The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will not only make the women financially independent, but also help them retain a huge component of Rs 6 crore within the village, and circulate it among the Groups ensuring their livelihoods forever, without ill health, malnutrition and migration.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: VIJAY BHARATIYA, Yuva Mitra

Picture this: Two Villages with an average population of 250 households, where women have been primarily engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, and agriculture labour, represented by their SHG women, along with the entire Field Staff of Aatapi Seva Foundation from Jambusar, Ankleshwar and Dahej, came for a livelihood based training (GLIDE workshop). For the Field staff, this was their first complete training on the GLIDE approach. An initial chat with them brought out the problems of failing agriculture, increasing pollution, health problems, labour exploitation, and failed expectations of migrated population. Everyone preferred an independent livelihood, and not a dependent job. But the persisting mindset of deprivation, and the fear of a huge investment kept them away from it.

ACTION taken: As the GLIDE workshop took off, and started unfolding its wings, the participants could not believe, how their feeling of deprivation, turned into a feeling of abundance. The GLIDE workshop made them realise their own skills, and what they could do with it. The limitation of material resources, suddenly turned into an abundance of unexplored natural resources. And poverty suddenly got a new lens that showed them the wealth in their village. Lack of market (that often is the bottleneck for rural livelihoods), suddenly had a new perspective, exposing the participants to the hidden potential of local markets. 

Aware of the abundance, all 28 Participants including the Field staff of Aatapi Seva Foundation wove magic, as they worked in groups, to design their own Group Livelihoods and ended up creating Business Plans for the same. The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will not only make the women financially independent, but also encourage their men to return back to their villages, and start similar livelihoods that will help them earn more than the present, without ill health and malnutrition.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab

Picture this: Established in 1975 and registered in 1982 Prayog Samaj Sevi Sanstha is renowned for its strength in the rural leadership development. The organization works throughout India to build up grassroots activism, focusing mainly on Central India, and Chhattisgarh. It has developed a ‘Gandhian Activism School’ for the rural youth and women, focusing on those that come from the tribal and other marginalized communities. More than 2,500 activists have been trained in the grassroots activism and are now working all over India. The focus of PRAYOG’s work is to assist the local communities so that they gain access and control over the natural livelihood resources, especially land, water and forests (zamin, jal aur jungle). Prayog Samiti has started community livelihoods on Goat Rearing and Fish farming, with few adivasi communities. But their real focus on mass livelihoods based on land, water, forest has started only recently.

This was the second GLIDE Workshop organised by Prayog Seva Samiti, for their Villages in Surajpur District. The District is an arid region, with rain-fed farming, enabling farmers to grow only two crops (instead of 3) in a year. Yields are not high, because of loose soil, with less water retention abilities. Migration happens mostly within the District, and people live on subsistence farming and some micro trading activities. The participants realised that these livelihoods may not continue for long, and therefore wanted to explore other opportunities.

ACTION taken: All 40 Participants representing 10 villages, learnt the new approach in detail, step by step. Initially they were clueless about what was going to happen. But as the GLIDE workshop advanced each step, the participants started seeing a different perspective, that exposed them to the abundance around them, and how they can leverage this abundance for livelihoods. 15 Participants worked in groups, to design their own Group Livelihoods and ended up creating Business Plans for the same. They then helped the other groups to make their Business Plans, using the approach they had learnt. The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will help them overcome ill health and malnutrition too. The best part was the increasing number of men participants, as the word spread in their villages. GLIDE helped them think, about how they can together walk the path, towards financial independence.

Click here to see workshop photographs.

Facilitator: PRADEEP GHOSH, Ashoka Fellow, OASiS Social Innovations Lab
Co-Facilitator: SHIBANI GHOSH, OASiS

Picture this: Purulia District situated on the border of West Bengal state, has a great influence of neighbouring Jharkhand. Located among the mountains and forests, it is home to many Tribes, primarily Santhals. Over generations, foraging from the forests has given way to farming as livelihood. But monocropping and water intensive crops have led to a fast depleting water level, and heavy dependency on chemical inputs. Crop yields around the region have gone down considerably, forcing villagers to either migrate, or become contract labour.  Most men migrate for work, while women are engaged in cattle rearing and agricultural labour. Educated youth seek for work in urban areas, and migrate to other states, for menial jobs.
MGGSS Foundation has been striving to provide some livelihood to the Tribals and OBCs of Tukya Village (with a population of 1200 people in 200 households), through sustainable fashion, teaching them weaving on handlooms, for the past 3 years. They have trained about 16 women as Weavers, and are now involving others in Indigo farming and dyeing. MGGSS has realised that introducing a new profession and a new crop to a new population is not easy, as it takes time to gain their acceptance. In order to provide every family with a gainful livelihood, they invited women from both OBC and Santhal communities for a GLIDE workshop. An initial chat with them brought out problems like increasing deforestation, health problems, failing agriculture, labour exploitation, and failed expectations of migrated population.

ACTION taken: Initially the participants had no clue about what was going to happen. They were lost in a gloom of hopelessness, and saw migration as the only way out of misery. But as the GLIDE workshop proceeded, and started unboxing its magic box, the participants saw one element after another popping out, that turned their feeling of deprivation, into a feeling of abundance. The GLIDE workshop made them realise their potential, and what they could do with it, with the huge basket of natural resources around. All 30 Participants wove magic, as they worked in groups, to design their own Group Livelihoods and ended up creating Business Plans for the same. The GLIDE approach helped them redesign their livelihoods, in a financially sustainable, and environmentally friendly way, that will not only make the women financially independent, but also encourage their men to migrate back to their villages, and start similar livelihoods that will help them earn more than the present, without ill health and malnutrition. GLIDE helped them rethink about their lives differently.

Click here to see workshop photographs.