At the time of GDS’s formation in 1993, the Indian economy was undergoing a profound change with the initiation of policies that led to ‘liberalization’ of the economy. The impact of this new economic regime was not favourable for the vast rural, artisanal and nonfarm based economic sectors. Hence, the programmatic focus of GDS in its initial years was on providing support to the artisanal sectors, in their struggle for survival.
The key approaches adopted for this purpose included providing technical (design) and marketing (through the ATO pathways) support to artisans involved in these activities. Under this approach GDS mainly worked with the handloom weavers from Gorakhpur and surrounding areas in Eastern UP, with stone craft workers in Rath (Hamirpur District) of UP Bundelkhand, and with pottery units in Chinhat (Lucknow). For professional delivery of services to artisans GDS created a separate entity, Grameen Crafts, which was spun-off of the organization in 1997-98.
Later, beginning from the year 2000, GDS adopted the UNIDO’s Cluster Development Approach (CDA) to provide technical support and services to artisan based clusters. The CDA was undertaken in the form of a five-year project in two textile based clusters: handloom in Bargarh District, Odisha; and, powerloom in Nalgonda District, Andhra Pradesh (AP). Also, under this approach, GDS helped create a cluster of horticulture based products (rose and amla) at Pushkar, in the Ajmer District of Central Rajasthan. Through these interventions GDS was able to provide concrete benefits (especially design inputs, skills and critical infrastructural support) to over 4000 micro-entrepreneurs from these clusters. With the completion of the project cycle in 2005, GDS withdrew from the two distant clusters in Odisha and AP.
Focus on the nonfarm livelihoods promotion got further impetus in 2008-09 when GDS realized that short-duration, cyclical migration in search of gainful livelihood opportunities has increased tremendously from its programme villages, in the last fifteen years. In 2009, with support from The Tata Trusts, GDS pioneered interventions for mitigating the problems faced by inter- and intra-state migrant labour workers in UP. Working out of Lucknow as the ‘destination’ location, the project provided support to incoming migrants workers mainly from Chhatisgarh, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal, besides the neighboring districts of Sitapur and Barabanki; and worked around providing them identity and building their capacities on legal rights, social and financial inclusion. Linking the migrants with the Construction Labor Welfare Board and related benefits, regular counseling and recovery of unpaid wages were other major steps taken under the project. Health camps were also held at regular intervals for free treatment of minor ailments. At Khalilabad (Sant Kabir Nagar District), ‘source’ level interventions were carried with outgoing migrants mainly to Mumbai besides Punjab and Delhi NCR. Here, in addition to a rigorous process of issuing identity cards, counseling and remittances to families, vocational training was imparted to almost 250 aspirants in mobile repairing, driving, electrical wiring and TV and inverter repairing. The project team meticulously kept a record of registered migrants and also kept a track of them.
In 2017, the renewed phase of the Migration project was implemented in Shravasti where outgoing migrants were provided with identity and were facilitated to avail their entitlements and government schemes through “Shramik Service Centers.” From 2017, a new project targeting Indo-Gulf Migrant workers was started in Lucknow and Barabanki districts. The aim of the project was to train prospective migrants on pre-departure procedures to ensure protection against exploitation and illegal agencies. The program was supported by Verite, USA through Association for Stimulating Know How (ASK), Gurgaon