Sabal-Swavalamban: Tata Steel Foundation rolls out project to help leprosy patients

Jamshedpur: Tata Steel Foundation initiated an integrated socio-economic development programme for persons with leprosy in the East Singhbhum district.

The project, christened Sabal-Swavalamban, would be implemented through the non-government organisation, Sasakawa-India Leprosy Foundation (S-ILF).

The programme was formally inaugurated at the Jamshedpur centre of SABAL in the presence of Chanakya Chaudhary, director, Tata Steel Foundation and Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, last evening.

Addressing the gathering, Chanakya Chaudhary said: “SABAL-Swavalamban is our endeavour to reach Persons with Leprosy and their families across East Singhbhum district through socio-economic development programmes. This stems from our philosophy of being inclusive, ensuring dignity and creating empathetic relations.”

The project will focus on leprosy colonies in the East Singhbhum district. Based on a demand-driven concept, it will respond to the aspirations of the people affected by leprosy and their families who are willing to set up small businesses for their economic sustainability and therefore lead to a dignified life.

The project will undertake a baseline survey and mobilization and orientation training to establish a benchmark for measuring the impact of the project at a later stage.

During the course of the project tenure, a series of orientation training on SHG management and practices, colony governance, gender concept and practices and health, hygiene and environment will be organised.

The project will look at creating self-help groups to demonstrate the community’s collective action. It will focus on capacity building of the people who engage in this, which will be followed by setting up of micro-enterprises from 100 families from the selected colonies.

In addition, group and individual enterprises will be supported in each colony wherein each group enterprise will engage a maximum of five persons in its fold.

The selected persons under SABAL-Swavalamban will receive a financial grant of Rs 50,000 per potential entrepreneur.

For effective monitoring and assistance, a Colony Development Fund (CDF) will be set up in each project intervention colony to generate a small corpus through repayment of money given to the selected persons for initiating micro enterprises into a CDF.

This fund will be managed by colony representatives and overseen by S-ILF for further use by new set of persons for livelihood purposes in the colony.

The project will provide consistent mentoring, handholding and supportive supervision to enable beneficiaries to manage their business with technical expertise and with a sense of pride. An end-line survey will be undertaken to do a comparison with the baseline for an understanding of the impact of the project.

The project will ensure financial inclusion and self-reliance for 100-people affected by leprosy and their families in leprosy colonies of East Singhbhum, livelihood generation through SHGs, enhanced capacity of beneficiaries/community groups to manage micro enterprises, developed suitable enterprise models for sustainable livelihood, promotion of skill development and self-employment training.

Over a period of three years, the project aims to enhance livelihood opportunities and enable economic security for selected persons.