Creating Sustainable Livelihood Opportunities for Vulnerable Leatherworker Migrants in Rajasthan

Summary

Have you ever thought why do majority of laborers migrate every year to urban cities and what could be the impact of Covid pandemic on the lives of these migrant workers in the State of Rajasthan?

Every year approximately 80-85% rural laborers of Rajasthan migrate to urban cities, living away from their native land and leaving behind their families in search of better income and employment opportunities. This is largely because of the imbalance in development landscape of Rajasthan. It is important that the basic amenities like education, health care and livelihood opportunities must be provided in the rural areas so that this will reduce the rate of migration.

Due to Covid pandemic across the country, resulting in the slowdown of economy the migration rate has massively dropped. This has hit the laborers only source of income which is based on daily wage jobs. In an ideal scenario migration should not have been the only means of survival for the rural labourers. However, now that even migration is not an option anymore, creating sustainable income for them within the village economy is essential. In Rajasthan’s Ajmer District there are many such labourer migrants who are mostly working as leatherworkers and are living in small remote village communities. Due to shortage in local demand of leather product and poor marketing supply chains, they are now going through sudden unemployment resulting in poverty across their community.

INDIAdonates and its partner Manthan Santha Kotri is implementing a project that would build livelihood capacity of 100 such leatherworkers in remote villages of Kotri, Nosal, Kardala, Bhadoon and Paladi. These leatherworkers include individuals between the age group of 18-50 years, most of whom have more than 10 years of traditional experience in making leather products such as chappals, furniture, purses. The project intends to regularly conduct hands on training and workshops to enhance their traditional knowledge and thus shift to modern way of designing and marketing leather products which can be sold on different ecommerce platforms.

With your support we can take care of the basic needs of these leatherworkers to sustain their livelihood and increase their income. By donating an amount of Rs 1000 or more, you can help these leatherworkers to live a life of dignity. Please don’t let them go through the same ordeal once again. Please donate!