AMIC Book - SIRDI (Nagpur, India)

07011387 - Entrance to SIRDI (Satpura Integrated Rural Development Institution) which is a non-government non-profit organisation working in the remote tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra for strengthening rural society. (Registered in 1978 under the M.P. Societies Registration Act). Bahiram Karanja, Tahsil-Chandur Bazar, Distt- Amravati, Maharashtra, India. Phone: 07227-25236/07227-25420 http://www.sirdi.org/

07012348 - Entrance to SIRDI project site. Bahiram Karanja, Tahsil-Chandur Bazar, Distt- Amravati, Maharashtra, India. Phone: 07227-25236/07227-25420 http://www.sirdi.org/

07011812 - Meeting with about 50 women which are linked with SIRDI and organized under the self-help scheme.

07011805 - SIRDI organized a meeting with women connected to the project. Got a chance to talk to the women about the ICT project. Of the 50 women, none can read or write. Only 7 or 8 have access to a radio and only 2 or 3 to a TV. Lots of issues came out.

07011808 - Talking and interacting with the women that came from their villages for this meeting. Some had to travel over 3 hours to get there!

07011816 - Discussion with the women from the villages. Almost all of them are from "below the poverty line" and depend significantly on agriculture.

07010906 - Produce from SIRDI women : Honey, pickles, spices etc.

07010923 - Near the SIRDI office is a temple setup by a "Baba" (Holy man). Once a year for a month there is a "Mela" (Fair) that is organized. People come from far off to take part. They came in the surrounding areas and live, cook and bath there. Here this lady is washing the vessles in the open area near the place where they are camping.

07010929 - Woman from the village who came with her family to attend a "Mela" (Fair) is seen washing the vessles in the open area near the place where they are camping.

07010946 - Typical Muslim lady who came to the "Mela" (Fair) with her family.

07010999 - Women cook in the open and sell the food to the people who have come to see the "Mela" (Fair),

07011053 - Women walking towards the Temple.

07011054 - This woman was heading toward the local temple.

07011398 - Cow shed in the SIRDI project site office.

07011427 - Typical village scene. The men sit outside the house and chat. The lady typically sit a distance away (here at the entrance to the house) while the children play around. The two girls are dressed in the school uniform and probably ready to go to school.

07011609 - "Tana Bana" is the name of the centre. SIRDI started this centre for the women to come from the near by villages to make thread and to do spinning. The cloths hanging in the foreground have been produced at this facility.

07011621 - Women from the village come and weave cloth.

07011644 - The facility inside Tana Bana

07011645 - Cloth produced at the Tana Bana facility. Mostly natural dyes are used for colours.

07011647 - Threads at the Tana Bana facility. Mostly natural colours and dyes are used.

07011706 - A bicycle wheel and chains are used to make a threading machine "Charkha".

07011746 - The "Charkha" or spinning machine is made of bicyle parts and is very easy to service. Spare parts are easy to find.

07011773 - Block printing being done by the village women.

07011817 - Women had gathered at this local school building for the meeting. Near by was a "Haat" which is like a weekly market.

07011821 - One of the SIRDI office located on the main road and just close to where the weekly market is held.

07011844 - Typical village scene

07012084 - Upma of SIRDI sitting in once of the villages while a really old lady approaches.

07012128 - Another village centre.

07012313 - Children from the neighbourhood near the centre.

07012459 - Visited a number of villages to meet and talk with the women on ICT and issues faced by them. Some of these villages are really hard to reach.

07012462 - Upma explaining things to the women of the village.

07012329 - Pit where different types of manure is made in a natural way.

07012433 - Upma and Suchit on their visit to the rurual villages to talk to the people and understand their living conditions and needs as well as to hear what the issues faced by them.

07012459 - Discussion with the women of the village.

07012462 - Upma explaining things to the women of the village.

07012527 - This man is stripping the nylon strings out of the bag and will use it to make ropes.

07012536 - Children of the village around Suchit while he was walking through the village to see the houses and the living conditions.

07012537 - Children surround Suchit in the village that he visited.