Mastering Many Trades - India

Interpersonal communication between various ageing organisations & their members started a raft of income-generating projects across India for the elderly. Community participation offers buying power for items made by India's ageing population.

Ageing, Population, Women, Economic Development

The CEWA, BMA & VRTC set out to prove that there are still many in the ageing population (especially women), who have the skills & ability to perform income-generating tasks. Some of the items manufactured (predominantly by women) were: paper bags for stall merchants made from newspapers & magazines, incense sticks, vermicili, candles, cigarettes (hand-rolled) & book-binding. The VRTC went 1 step further and set up income-generating activities such as: "The making of rope & ink, production of detergents, tailoring, light engineering & vehicle maintenance, soap & furniture making, music playing & teaching & home management". They felt it was important to provide activities which could be learned & performed by women as they are deemed "unhireable" in the workforce & are not able to secure loans to start their own business. Some of the products above could be made without the benefit of sight as many of India's ageing population suffer from eye problems; many of which are easily remedied with medical visits, now affordable with new-found profits.