Tessu gulal: A livelihood option for tribal farm women of Shahdol district

Abstract

Tribal Shahdol District of Madhya Pradesh has wide coverage of forest natural resource i.e. 227698 ha (41% of total geographical area). Shahdol with its wide availability of tessu flowers (Butea monosperma flower) from forest in the months of February to April has options for development of herbal gulal. Seeing the huge scope to utilize this untapped tessu flowers (Butea monosperma flower) forest resource for the production of eco -friendly herbal gulal with meager or low input cost seems to be one of the best options as seasonal livelihood for the farm women. Thus KVK Shahdol intervene the work of production of eco-friendly herbal gulal. Also, knowing the huge occasional demand of gulal in festive season there seems an already existed local hat or market for the product. On the other hand synthetic gulal, used by masses contains heavy metals, sand and soil and can cause ill effect on skin and health. The tessu gulal being skin friendly, thus is an innovative intervention undertaken by KVK Shahdol to enhance the income of farm women. Sixty farm womens were selected and trained for preparation of gulal in two of the villages-Amraha (Block-Sohagpur) and Madva (Block-Burhar). For the preparation of gulal, base material tapioca powder and simple sieves of different mesh size was required. Tessu collected from forest is sorted, separated from pollen and shade dried at home for six days to prepare dried flowers. For the preparation of tessu gulal dye extractant is mixed at different conc. to tapioca powder. The natural colour extractant obtained from filtering is then mixed tapioca powder by continuous mixing with hand followed by sieving and drying of product in shade. The wet mixture is laid on clean mat for drying. The efficiency of production was 5 Kg per day by a single farm woman. The cost of production of 5 Kg of tessu gulal was Rs 940 (including labour cost) with a gross income of Rs. 3000. The B: C ratio comes to be 3.19. Thus, the above seasonal livelihood option seems to enhance the income of farm women considerably.