Livelihood Skills Uttrakhand

"The collaborative project will enhance the income of rural households of 5 mountain blocks in 5 districts of Uttarakhand by providing sustainable livelihood skills over a period of 5 years. This will be done in close collaboration with the Uttarakhand Rural Livelihood Mission (URLM)."

Livelihoods of mountain communities in the Central Himalayan state of Uttarakhand are primarily subsistence oriented and largely dependent on surrounding natural resources. Over the years, rural inhabitants continue to deal with challenges pertaining to disaster risk, agriculture and bio resources management, environmental degradation and out migration. Rural women are the main workforce in farm based operations, however due to lack of appropriate institutions, skills, knowledge and finances to enhance livelihood options, it is difficult to generate sustained family income in mountains.

In light of rapid out migration, the changing aspirations of the people, especially the youth and the growing realization that they are entitled to livelihoods within the mountains, there is a need for an innovative, entrepreneurial and mountain specific skill development approach. Natural resource based skills and entrepreneurship has distinct advantage in Mountains. In addition, non-traditional skills practiced by mountain people to be further developed for employability within mountains. Therefore, skilling and livelihoods in Himalayas need to be taken up on unprecedented scale in order to address issues of migration and unemployment.
Under a joint skilling and livelihoods initiative in the state, the Himmotthan Society have committed to partner with the Uttarakhand Rural Livelihood Mission and enhance the income of over 12,500 rural poor households by providing sustainable livelihood skills over a period of 5 years.
This will largely involve working in rural areas and organizing women through self-help groups and local federations. Skilling programs will include on and off-farm enterprises like Agri-produce, Dairy and other Livestock, Handicrafts and Rural Marketing. Collective production, processing and marketing of produce and products will create self-employment, embedded enterprises and develop a culture of entrepreneurship in the rural areas of the state.