Lighting up lives

This Diwali the homes of a tribal community living in Saag Pada hamlet near Nashik will shine a lot brighter, thanks to RC Nasik, RID 3030, that has provided them an income generating opportunity through the sale of colourful diyas extensively used to decorate homes during this festive season.

Earlier the club president Mugdha Lele, secretary Vijay Dinani and past president Anil Sukenkar visited the hamlet and, with Diwali round the corner, decided to train the villagers in painting earthen lamps. “Around 12 men and women were trained in the art. They were excited at the idea of making the diyas and earn some money by selling them,” says Vinayak Deodhar, club member.

The club extended a microcredit of ₹ 1 lakh to source the diyas, paints and packaging material and transport the ­finished products to markets in Nashik, Pune and Mumbai. “We also included boarding and lodging expenses for the craftsmen to stay for a week and sell their ware in the various markets.”

The club has been extending microloans for specific purposes in the last five years through its corpus of ₹ 5 lakh and “not once have we faced any default.”

Deodhar is confident that the decorative lamps will fetch a net income of at least ₹ 40,000, providing ₹ 3,500 to each villager for a week-long work.