Keonjhar
Soft toys now seem to have turned into a soft berth for 50 tribal women in two villages — Purujoda and Patrapali — under Telkoi block of Keonjhar district, Odisha. Financed by the State Department of Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare, and trained by the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Keonjhar, these women — mostly from the Bhuyan and Munda communities — now make soft toys to earn additional income and keep their hearths burning during the off-season after Kharif.
The families of these tribal women depend largely on paddy cultivation. However, when the Kharif season ends and farming activity ceases, the women — who are mostly housewives — either remain bogged down in household chores or venture into nearby forests to collect minor forest produce (MFP). Some families supplement their income by cultivating vegetables.
When the Rabi season (post-monsoon) sets in, the spouses of most women work as daily wagers or migrate temporarily for labour, while income from vegetable cultivation often remains inadequate. Motivated by ITDA, Keonjhar, the beneficiaries opted for soft toy making to supplement their families’ earnings.
While 25 beneficiaries in Purujoda belong mostly to the Bhuyan community, the 25 in Patrapali are primarily Bhuyans and Mundas. A major section of the Bhuyan population resides in Keonjhar district, with some also living in Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Angul. A Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), the Bhuyans derive their name from bhumi (earth) and speak Odia.
The Mundas call themselves Horo-hon or Hodoko (meaning ‘human’ in their Mundari dialect). The term ‘Munda’, believed to have originated from Sanskrit, means ‘headman’. Mundas constitute a major Scheduled Tribe group in Odisha, predominantly found in Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Sambalpur.
To enhance livelihoods particularly during the post-monsoon period, the state roped in ITDA to impart soft toy–making training in two phases during the 2024–25 fiscal under ‘Skill Development’, a sub-component of the Odisha Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme (OTELP) Plus. The first phase of training for the 25 beneficiaries of Purujoda was conducted in December, while the second phase for Patrapali’s 25 beneficiaries took place in January. Each phase continued for 45 days under trainer Gitanjali Panda, hired from Bhadrak district.
“More than five self-help groups (SHGs) showed interest in undergoing the training. But we selected those members who knew sewing with hands and machines. We then divided each batch of 25 beneficiaries into five groups and named each alphabetically: A, B, C, D and F,” said Debak Ranjan Sahoo, the programme officer (capacity building), ITDA.
“We took the venture with the financial assistance of about Rs 2.5 lakh from the department, which included food expenses for beneficiaries and the trainer. While no beneficiary received finance as remuneration, each was provided with a toolkit comprising needles, scissors, pencils, drawing sheets, strong thread and other essentials. The trainer got Rs 700 as daily remuneration,” added Sahoo.
Two Keonjhar-based non-government organisations — the Women’s Organisation for Socio-Cultural Awareness (WOSCA) and the Keonjhar Integrated Rural Development and Training Institute (KIRDTI) — were roped in to coordinate both training phases and motivate the beneficiaries under ITDA’s supervision.
Raw materials included plastic eyes and noses, fur, polyester, velboa, velvet, cotton hosiery, ribbons, polyester fibrefill and several other components. “Nearly Rs 35,000 was spent on the purchase of raw materials and tool kits from Cuttack city,” said Rajshree Soren of WOSCA, who was the team leader in Purujoda.
Equipped with tool kits and raw materials, each group in Purujoda and Patrapali produced five to seven soft toys daily during the 45-day training and sold them in local markets. They also sold their items during local fairs organised on festive occasions like Shiva Ratri.
“The tribal beneficiaries of Purujoda earned nearly Rs 40,000 from the sale of the products they made during the training period. Similarly, the beneficiaries of Patrapali earned Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000,” Devendra Rout, programme officer (Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation) under OTELP-Plus in ITDA, Keonjhar, told the The Indian Tribal.
However, the groups have now stopped making soft toys because they are unable to find buyers beyond the brisk sales during the training phase. “We still keep our earnings intact. As soon as we find marketing opportunities to enhance our income, we will spend it to procure raw materials,” said Saudamini, a tribal beneficiary of Purujoda.
The Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department and ITDA, according to sources, must strive to create market opportunities inside and outside the state, as local markets are too limited to sustain sales in the long term. “The soft toy industry is an unorganised sector, and its market is volatile. Besides, several individual families and persons are engaged in this field, making it competitive and complex. Continuous efforts must be made to create market opportunities under OTELP-Plus for the trained tribal beneficiaries,” sources said.
“We are now planning meticulously to create continuous market opportunities for our female beneficiaries. Our preliminary priority is to focus on fairs like Palli Shree Mela, Adivasi Mela and Toshali Crafts Mela that are organised in temple city Bhubaneswar,” said programme officer Devendra.
