Bajigama village comes under the Hassa panchayat in Murhu Block of Khunti district. Bajigama is having Burju road in east, Murhu Block in west, Pokla in north, and Ganaloya in south. Bajigama is being blessed with beauty of nature with a small river and ‘Sakhua forest “spread in 25 acres of land. There are all together 130 families in the village. There are a large number of Tamarind trees around the village.

LEADS has been working in this village for three years supported by MKSP project. The SHG members of this village are quite active in business activities as they have been doing small income generating activities since last two years.

When MKSP team arrived to this village with JSLPS-LEADS convergence programme and shared about the Tamarind value chain programme in the Gram Sabha. To which 3 SHGs by the name Lili Mahila Mandal, Tara Mahila Mandal and Roshni Mahila Mandal showed interest in involving with the business proposition. After that a seeder machine and one brick making machine was established in the Bajigama village. About 34 SHG members were involved in this programme.

Two trainers had come from Andhra Pradesh and a 4 days training was provided to the SHG members on storing, sorting, de seeding with the machine, brick making, packaging, marketing and also about business planning.

SHG members invested 5000 each from 3 SHGs that is 15000/- for buying raw tamarind. They bought 850 kg raw tamarind at 15 to 24 rupees from the villages and collected it at one place. Then the raw tamarinds were distributed equally among the SHG members for de seeding. A core committee was responsible for taking care of the programme in village. The process included:

• The SHG members who sold raw Tamarind to groups get direct benefit of around 15-24 rupees per kilogram.
• The same members are also in de seeding group gets 5 rupees per kilogram.
• They are also in brick making and packaging group earning 2 rupees per kilogram.
• They are also profit share holder of the business; so, in a sense the business is owned by each and every SHG members. They bought 850 kg raw tamarind and after de seeding and packaging it resulted to 510 kg tamarind bricks which were sold at different prices.
• 80kg was sold @100 Rs per kg =                8000/-
• 120kg was sold @80 Rs per kg =                9600/-
• 310kg was sold @60 Rs per kg =              18600/-

They invested 15000/- for purchasing raw tamarind, labour cost was 2550/-, packaging cost was 500/-, transportation cost was 1500/- and other expenses was 1000/-, therefore, their total investment in the process was 20550/-and they made a total earning of 36200/. The net profit was 15650/-. The SHG members were very happy with their 1^st round of 2 months value chain business. They wanted to take up this business in a large scale next year. It was a pilot phase learning for them this year which provided them with lot of experiences. They were quite satisfied with their performance. As now Reyaren Aajeevika Mahila Sang (Federation Murhu) is looking after whole business.