Dani Handel

Sarvodaya Samiti

Debasis Pradhan

presents analyses of the management case by academicians and practitioners

DIAGNOSES

CASE ANALYSIS I

L K Vaswani Professor Institute of Rural Management, Anand e-mail: lkv@irma.ac.in

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he case presents a detailed and analytical background of Sarvodaya Samiti, Koraput, a state- level NGO and brings out a typical problem which small NGOs face during their transition to a relatively large

SARVODAYA SAMITI: OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES

The objective of Sarvodaya Samiti, a not-for-profit organization, is to ensure all-round and sustainable development of tribal and other under-privileged communities through social and economic programme interventions. Currently, the Samiti is engaged in sustainable agriculture and development of khadi and village Industries accompanied by social interventions like child and women welfare, education for scheduled tribe girls, consumer welfare, and watershed programmes. Its activities consist of production of khadi, promotion of bee-keeping, and marketing of agro-products like honey, turmeric powder, and arrowroot. The Samiti feels that promoting marketing of rural produce through a profitable enterprise can bring a change in the living standards of the poor.

IMPORTANCE OF HONEY IN SAMITI’S PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

The April – June 2004 (Vol 29 No 2) issue of Vikalpa had published a management case titled ‘Sarvodaya Samiti’ by Debasis Pradhan. This issue features three responses on the case by L K Vaswani, Debiprasad Mishra and Rajat Gera. Honey forms a small part of the local economy of Koraput district, but being a labour-intensive activity, it is an attractive business proposition for the Samiti from the viewpoint of employment generation. Secondly, honey brings additional income for the farmers with relatively little effort and only requires local training. Thirdly, plenty of forest honey is available which provides potential livelihood option to local people in the...