The objective of the present project funded by Keystone Foundation, Kotagiri was to develop alternative sustainable economic initiatives for the Raji community by conducting a series of workshops and visiting new Raji hamlets to study their socio-cultural condition while motivating them to attend the workshops. During the workshops our aim was –

• To involve Raji women in traditional jewellery making
• To involve both Raji men and women in the traditional wooden pot making

The project was started in August 2019 by organizing the first workshop at Raji hamlet named Chakarpur and in October 2019 a five-member team visited Jauljibi Pithoragarh for ten days. During this period two Jewellery making workshops were conducted – one at Jauljibi and the other one at Kimkhola. The team along with a local Raji trainers support taught the participants to make their traditional jewellery pieces. We distributed a plastic box carrying all the relevant material to make the jewellery pieces among the women of Kimkhola, Ganagaon, and Bhoktirwa hamlets.

While women were involved in this work, Vishnu Singh, Secretary, SEL tried to convince Raji male members to make wooden bowls. Only one very old person agreed to do so and made one bowl for us. Unfortunately other male members of Kimkhola, Ganagaon, Bhoktiruwa were uninterested in the activity.

The fourth workshop was conducted at Rajkiiy Ashram Paddhati School, Baluwacote with Raji children. We tried to teach them jewellery making and asked them to create stories in their language and translate a few simple stories in Hindi to their mother tongue, Raji.

The following team handled the project-