Youth provide employment in Tripura through bamboo workshop

A group of unemployed youth launched Bamboo Enterprises United (BENU), a handicraft workshop and community facility centre in Katlamara village in 2004 has been providing employment to many people in the village.

The aim was to be self employed by utilising the locally available Kanakaich variety of bamboo.

The village was once a hotbed for militants and lacked proper employment and business opportunities for the youth.

These young entrepreneurs provided training to rural artisans to create various bamboo items, including furniture.

"From 1995 to 2002, the village was severely affected by militancy and the villagers migrated to safer places along with their families. After 2002, peace gradually returned and we came back. Then, we again started our traditional business of bamboo plantation and making fishing rods," said Manna Roy, President, BENU.

More than 100 people are currently engaged with the project and supply bamboo products in the country and abroad.

The Kanakaich variety of bamboo was earlier used only for making police batons. The furniture made of it is quite popular now.

"Earlier there was militancy problem but now the situation is peaceful and with it our work has also increased. I also go out of the state to teach and we to Goa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Kolkata and many other places. We are now happy now," said artisan Gagan Debbaberma.

The Northeast has huge reserves of bamboo, known as "Green Gold".

Realizing the huge potential of bamboo, Tripura also set up a first-of-its-kind bamboo park.

The Japan Bank for International Co-operation also recently invested Rs.346 crores for promoting bamboo cultivation and production of bamboo craft in Tripura to make it a major commercial power in the sector.

"When Tripura Bamboo mission started, the turnover of the bamboo sector estimated at that time was only around Rs. 27 crores. Now it is more than Rs.116 crores. And by 2017, we are expecting to reach around Rs. 200 crores turnover for the organized sector," said Dr. RN Pandey, bamboo scientist.

The success of small organizations like BENU is a motivation for youth to take up self-employment and change their lives with the help of locally available natural resources.