Into the wild

Women living in villages and rural areas are talented without a doubt and have the capacity to work and earn a living. However, with the increasing population, it is hard to find work opportunities that pay well. Such was the case for women in Taunsa Barrage area. Fortunately, things have turned around for them because of blind dolphins in the river Indus. prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

These dolphins are attracting tourists, who visit the place in hordes in order to see the wild sea life and that has furthermore led to a creation in the market for souvenirs.

Here is a story of one such woman who works day and night to cater to the tourist demands.

Noor Khatoon, a determined and hard-working lady in her late 40s, sits in the compound of her house in village Basti Allahwali and gets ready for work. The village is situated on the bank of River Indus in Taunsa Barrage area in South Punjab. After small intervals, she goes through a pile of multi-coloured pieces of cloth lying next to her and makes her selections. She also has small pieces of cloth cut in the shape of blind Indus dolphin. With extreme care, she selects these pieces in different colours and sews them together to make traditional 'ralli', which is a multi-coloured hand-stitched cloth.

Ralli can be used as a bed sheet, blanket or even a curtain. However, this ralli is different because it has patches of dolphin inserted in the design. It fetches a good price and sells for around Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per piece. Noor Khatoon earns Rs.1000 to Rs.1500 per rally - an amount that supplements the income that her husband earns to feed their big family.

The product is meant for the tourists who visit this area to watch the endangered blind Indus dolphins and indulge in other ecotourism activities such as bird watching, boat safari, camping along the bank of Indus and enjoying traditional music and food.

Similarly, Razzo Mai, a housewife in her early 40s, is known in the area for the high quality of hand-made baskets she makes. She belongs to Basti Sheikhan - the village located on the bank opposite to where Basti Allahwali is. Razzo collects leaves of bamboo trees and weaves them into beautiful objects that attract the attention of visitors to the region. These visitors, who are mostly tourists, show interest in buying these baskets. Razzo also knows the art of making hand fans made of date palm tree leaves which are also a popular item among the tourists.

It is not a mere coincidence that tourists have started visiting this comparatively less known area in South Punjab and that they have come to know about the availability of these souvenirs. In fact, it all happened because of an ecotourism project launched by Sustainable Tourism Foundation Pakistan (STFP) - a non-profit organisation working for promotion of eco-friendly tourism in Pakistan. The foundation is implementing this project funded under the USAID Small Grants and Ambassador's Fund Programme, which assists innovative development initiatives aimed at improving local people's lives. It also aims to support community developed self-help projects.

For the inhabitants of these villages, the presence of blind Indus dolphins known locally as 'Bulhan' is a blessing. Their existence there brings tourists who in turn bring prosperity for the locals. People come to this part to watch the dolphins and help generate an economy for the locals at a micro-level.

Aftab Rana, team leader of Indus Dolphin Ecotourism Project of STFP says, "The project team has trained 10 women from the local community in the art of producing handicrafts that tourists can buy as souvenirs."

The profit from sales goes to the respective women as well as a small share is deposited in a joint conservation fund managed by the local community. "We have linked the dolphin conservation with the livelihoods of the poor fishermen community. It is not just a matter of creating additional source of income for them from tourism activity but the project helps to create awareness at a much larger scale for the protection and conservation of blind Indus dolphin which is a unique animal and is only found in our Indus River and nowhere else in the world. The reaming number of these dolphins is so low that if they are not proactively conserved the time will come the blind Indus dolphins will be extinct forever," informs Aftab Rana.

Regarding the project, Aftab shares, "Efforts have been made to bring tourists to the place and facilitate them to have a unique nature based tourism managed by local community. To achieve this end, the locals were trained in tour management skills and given necessary equipment such as tents, cutlery, utensils etc. Under the same project, selected boats owned by locals have been decorated and equipped by lifejackets to take visitors to places where they can see dolphins taking leaps out of water. An information centre has also been set up on the spot to provide assistance to the visitors. For those who want to join groups and conduct tours, the website www.indusdolphin.org provides all the information that is required for this purpose."

Deputy Director, USAID Punjab, Maggie Schoch states, "The USAID in Pakistan integrates gender equality and women's empowerment into all of its programming, whether it is increasing access to education and health, or helping to enhance opportunities for women's participation in the work force. This project, too, aims to increase women's income by developing their skill and providing them with entrepreneurial opportunities. The project has helped train women from the communities in traditional handicrafts like ralli (patchwork), basket-weaving and embroidery, so that they can increase their incomes through product sales. The women are also trained in serving local traditional food for tourists.

"The women keep 80 per cent of the income they generate, and contribute 20 per cent to the joint fund for the enterprise centre set up at the tourist site which helps ensure project sustainability and cover operational costs."

"This project aims to protect not only the endangered River Indus Dolphins, but also strives to provide increased opportunities for eco-tourism around the Taunsa Barrage area. By creating awareness among the fishing communities about these unique dolphins and helping promote eco-tourism, we hope that this project will lead to economic uplift of these communities, while conserving Pakistan's unique wildlife," shares Maggie Scoch.

Javaid Iqbal, who looks after the Taunsa information centre, believes that the traditional local food is also an attraction that can hardly be resisted. According to him, the women of these two villages will also serve home-cooked traditional food to the tourists and the menu includes local dishes such as sarson ka saag, makai ki roti and lassi. Fish curry and rice, fish koftay, tandori roti, home-made yoghurt, desi murgh curry, gannay ke roh ki kheer, suji aur gur ka halwa, daal chawal and home-made pickle are also served. The proceeds from the sale of food will mostly be handed over to the community as its share. While women prepare all this food, it's the local men who serve it to the tourists as per the training provided to them under the project.

But to keep people coming to Taunsa for recreation, it is a must to secure around 465 blind Indus dolphins. Therefore, people of these two villages have been entrusted the task to protect dolphins and save them from any harmful incidents. STFP has also conducted a training workshop on Indus Dolphin rescue skills and formed an Indus Dolphin Rescue Team of 20 local community members. Out of the money earned through tourism-related activities, 20 per cent has been reserved to fund conversation measures for this very reason.

The products/souvenirs made by the local women are strongly recommended as they are no more amateurs. In this regard, the STFP arranged a workshop for women from 11 July 2015 to 17 July 2015. In the training 10 female participants from Basti Shaikhan and Basti Allahwali had participated.

Two professional trainers were engaged for this workshop and pick and drop facility was also provided to the participants. After sharing basic information, the trainers told the participants about marketing potential of local handicrafts in different cities and discussed the basic tools of marketing with them. During another session, the participants also shared their experiences regarding individual skills and talent.

Earlier, the men of these villages would carry these products to the visiting tourists and try to sell them there. But now due to refinement in quality of products and better marketing skills of the locals, these are displayed at the Tourist Information Centre. "Tourists who come here are more than excited to buy these souvenirs as these products are of superior quality. Hence, creating more demand of these products," concludes Javaid Iqbal with a sense of pride.

The training:

The modules for the training of women included:

1) The cutting of leaf of date-tree for making handmade fan. This was practical work. Different methods of leaf cutting for making hand-fan were taught to the participants.

2) The cutting of bamboo leaves for making of handmade decoration pieces (baskets).

3) Cutting of date-tree branch for making handles of hand-fans. In this session, participants learnt how to cut the branch of date-tree for making the handle of the fan.

4) Learning of colour matching techniques for 'Ralli'. The trainees were taught different methods and techniques of colour mixing for getting good colour combinations for the rallis.

5) There was also a lesson on forming the sequence of date-tree leaves of ‘hanging flower-pots’ and how to cut small pieces of clothes for ralli making.