PRADAN has identified the production of Tasar silk yarn as an activity that has the potential to generate a large number of livelihoods among the rural poor in the eastern and central Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh.  PRADAN has sought to separate Tasar yarn production from weaving, promoting it as an independent and viable enterprise for women.

Tasar yarn production has traditionally been a low-paying activity carried out by rural poor women in their spare time.  Yet it plays a critical role in the Tasar fabric industry by supplying the raw material.  Despite this key role and its income-generating potential, Tasar yarn production has not flourished independently, always being seen as a mere component of the entire weaving enterprise, to be done solely by the women in the weaver families.

PRADAN’s intervention in Tasar yarn production equips rural poor women with skills and provides them with infrastructure, inputs, and marketing support for yarn production as an independent enterprise.  This helps ensure for them a steady and sustainable income.

The basic strategy has been to organise the rural women into ‘reeler’ or ‘spinner’ groups.  These groups are then encouraged to establish links with other organisations and institutions to expand and improve the Tasar yarn production business.

The Central Silk Board (CSB) has developed technology and machinery to produce reeled (fine) and spun (coarse) yarn.  It also provides trainings.  PRADAN helps to market the yarn both as an intermediate product as well as the final woven products.

In 2009 , PRADAN’s Tasar yarn production activities impacted on 2,468 families.

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