Women groups making bricks in Chhattisgarh emerge as mini-entrepreneurs

Once considered a male-dominated business, women's brick-making groups in Chhattisgarh are turning into mini-entrepreneurs.

The Chhattisgarh government is encouraging rural women belonging to self-help groups (SHGs) to set up brick-making units. A group of 10 women from the village of Kanpa in the Mahasamund district formed Durga Self-Help Group.

The SHG has become self-reliant and confident through their association with the Rural Industrial Park (RIPA), a flagship scheme of the Bhupesh Baghel government in Chhattisgarh.

Although technical and laborious work is usually considered difficult for women, the members have excelled in making fly ash bricks.  In just three months, they have earned more than Rs 1 lakh by manufacturing around 67,000 bricks and selling 40,000 of them to the panchayat. The group has also sold vermicompost worth Rs 1.30 lakh and conducted internal transactions worth Rs 1.25 lakh.

Kalyani Dubey, the group’s secretary, said women could now make bricks easily after receiving training. The district administration has provided necessary machines and resources to use in RIPA.

The group’s president Ahilya Sahu said that they sold the bricks at a rate of about Rs 2.50 per piece. Other members of the group are excited about being able to operate the machines themselves, Sahu said. The excellent demand for brickmaking has created a wave of confidence among the women who are enthusiastically engaged in the work of brick manufacturing, she added. The Chhattisgarh government’s RIPA scheme has built strong infrastructure in rural areas to promote small-scale industries.