The people of Thar Desert are presented with a range of challenges – desertification issues, unpredictable rainfall and frequent droughts accumulating to a situation where the communities are devoid of income generation, food security with limited prospects for agriculture. Despite these hardships, the region is known for the exquisite weaving and sewing techniques which are inherent to the desert community. Urmul Trust through continuous interventions is adopting a multi pronged approach to catalyze these opportunities for ideating and developing drought proof livelihood options.
Amongst the rural communities of Thar Desert, camel herding forms the core of traditional occupation. Over the years, camels have shown resilience to the extreme temperatures and overcame the natural calamities. However, in recent times, there is a steady decline of this animal especially due to the state’s decision to ban the trade and slaughter of camels. This measure has devastated the minimal income generated by them. Towards facilitating the camel herders, Urmul Trust is launching its interventions focused around community mobilisation, capacity building and infrastructural support to build a robust value chain facilitating steady income for the camel herders. Under this intervention, the project team spearheaded efforts to upscale camel wool production, marketing and made infrastructural changes to build a 1000L Bulk milk chiller at collection unit to facilitate camel based enterprises for camel milk.
Amidst the constant battles for survival and sustenance; education, WASH facilities, child rights are often overlooked in the Thar Desert resulting to a surrounding that is vulnerable to communicable diseases, illness, illiteracy and child abuse. However, Urmul Trust holds education at the topmost layer of the priority pyramid and believes that for a society to progress it is essential to ensure delivery of quality services in the remotest rural areas. Therefore, the interventions have focused on up-skilling the teachers, building last-mile connectivity of quality education, raising consciousness about WASH facilities and protection of child rights.
The extreme climatic conditions not only affect the farm yield but also hinder opportunities for alternative livelihood options. However, the region is yet to be explored for its untapped beauty. The desert landscape presents prospectively for ecotourism as an alternative non-farm livelihood avenue. Urmul Trust through this intervention is building, enhancing capacities and developing infrastructures for an ecotourism enterprise through nature based solutions to generate a supplementary income in the households resulting in the creation of green employment opportunities in villages.
The predominant challenge of limited resources in the Thar Desert is aggravated with the onset of contemporary global problems like desertification, climate change. Apart from these hardships, issues like minimal groundwater, high salinity in the water presents grave threats around water security. As a result, people often struggle for water and travel miles to fetch water from rain-fed water reservoirs. Therefore, Urmul Trust is launching intervention to address the issue of resource depletion through spreading awareness about resource conservation and development, management of natural resources.
Medical facilities are distributed far apart from one another. It is often that one has to cover a distance of more than 50kms for adequate medical services. The problem exacerbates as the remote areas of Thar Desert is burdened with mobility challenges and communication barriers. On the other hand, private medical services are exorbitantly high. Towards a holistic vision of improving health, Urmul Trust is facilitating knowledge and technical support for improving health, menstrual hygiene, nutrition and better access to healthcare.