Barmer Unnati: Uplifting Livelihoods, Increasing Incomes

Approximately 38,000 villagers including 6,000 farmers are reaping the benefits of Cairn's Barmer Unnati project that is developing livelihood models and implementing value chain interventions since its inception in 2013.

Harsh terrains, parched land and scanty rainfall are the norm in the desert region of Barmer in Rajasthan. The families there that rely on farming and agriculture live in despair as their traditional methods of subsistence are under constant threat. We as an organization deeply care about the communities we work among, and we are passionately committed to conduct our businesses in a socially responsible manner, aligned with the needs of our communities to improve their overall wellbeing and quality of life.

I have had the fortune to lead one such project - Barmer Unnati project. A most rewarding project in the Barmer and Jalore districts of Rajasthan, where we have undertaken the holistic socio-economic development of the local communities through interventions in health, education, skills, capacity-building training and by creating sustainable livelihood opportunities in partnership with the government. For instance, the new crops and technologies that we introduced to help promote agricultural productivity and natural resource management all year round has doubled farmers' incomes and made the communities more resilient to the effects of climate change in a sustainable manner.

It is also immensely gratifying when a local dairy farmer like Laxman Ram Choudhry from Gandhav Khurd village in Barmer told us: “All I can see is how much my family and I have developed due to my association with Cairn's Dairy Development Project”. Laxman was trained by Cairn on how to improve milk production and today he is the proud owner of a pucca house, a Bolero Camper, increased cattle stock, and an even proud father of two sons who completed school instead of dropping out to help him in the dairy farm. And this is just one example of our many initiatives in Barmer that are slowly but surely benefitting the local communities and transforming their fortunes.

Apart from agriculture and dairy farming, our core focus areas also include horticulture and small ruminants rearing which are the main sources of income for the community in Barmer. However, we also went beyond increasing earnings to provide facilities like clean drinking water and two interventions under our 'Green Barmer and Clean Barmer' campaign that not only created health and hygiene awareness but also provided medical specialists who were visited by lakhs of people at the local hospitals. At Cairn, we're extremely aware that to create a real change in communities we need to empower the women and children as well, so we help to make quality education accessible through projects like the Nand Ghar, of which we have set up 49 till date in Barmer. Because we strongly believe that it is only through education that underprivileged children can receive the equal opportunities for a better life as others.

As the CSR Head for Cairn, the Barmer Unnati project is one I'm tremendously proud of, not just because the project created an entire generation of young entrepreneurial farmers that bridged the skill gap required for agriculture and related occupations in Barmer, but also because it is quite possibly one of the largest and most successful CSR projects of its kind in a drought affected region. A success that is in large part due to the unprecedented level of involvement, ownership and collective action by the community who enabled us to create a sustainable and positive impact on their lives.

I'd like to leave you with a story that touched my heart. It is about a young man named Goga Ram from the Mokhab village of Barmer. Unsatisfied with working as a masonry labourer like his father, he enrolled in a vocational course for upskilling at the Cairn Enterprise Centre as part of the Electrical batch. The industry exposure, soft skill classes, basic computer skills and English-speaking lessons combined with hands-on experience over three months of training at the centre had a life-changing impact on him. Today he earns Rs. 20,000 per month at a leading corporate company and is a role model among the youth in his village. It is such extraordinary transformations in the livelihoods of people like Goga Ram, Laxman Ram, and millions of other beneficiaries of Vedanta's CSR initiatives, not just under the Barmer Unnati project but across the country, that keep us zealously motivated towards uplifting and empowering the communities we work among.