Arpan’s Interventions

The Rural Non-Farm Sector (RNFS) encompasses all non-agriculture activities: mining and quarrying, household and non-household manufacturing, processing, etc. This has been the main source of supply of non-agricultural goods and services to rural households. Arpan Seva Sansthan has generated livelihood in RNFS in following interventions:

Employment in construction activities:

We have constructed more than 350 water harvesting structures as well developed pastureland in more than 150 hectares, we have treated more than 35000 hectare area in Rajasthan for Soil & Water Conservation and have generated more than 2 lakh man days in recent years. These mandays not only provided the community with work, it also ensured their active participation in project activities.

Skill Development along with bank and market linkages:

Facilitated skill development of youth and women in electrician, plumbing, mason, sewing – tailoring, value addition in agro-produce (Papad, mungori, pickle, jams etc) and marketing with more than 50,000 beneficiaries. These activities are generally executed through a community based organization (SHG, JLG, VDC etc) to facilitate smooth operation and learning by example. Usually the fund is provided as a soft loan with negligible or no interest and the returned amount is kept as revolving fund for future beneficiaries.

Income Generation Activities:

Especially for very poor as well as landless families, we have designed and facilitated initiation of various income generation activities like aata chakki, dal mills, kirana stores, puncture shops, beauty parlours etc. These activities are generally executed through a community based organization (SHG, JLG, VDC etc) to facilitate smooth operation and learning by example. Usually the fund is provided as a soft loan with negligible or no interest and the returned amount is kept as revolving fund for future beneficiaries.

Cluster Development:

We have developed two clusters in pindwara and siyava in Rajasthan on Terracotta and stone artifacts wherein we formed community based organizations, provided them with skill development training for product improvement as well as connected these CBOs with market players by organizing seller buyer meets (fairs) etc.