Early Interventions in Tasar : Down Memory Lane/ Dumbledore’s Memories

M Y TIME IN PRADAN (1986–91) is linked to the early years of PRADAN’s intervention in tasar. The eastern regions of India— Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and, at that time, the not-yet-created Jharkhand—that PRADAN was working were the field areas where I was very deeply involved. We first began exploring tasar as an intervention to help tribal populations of the Chota- Nagpur plateau increase their options of livelihood.

After some initial explorations, some of us (Deep, Vijay, Ravi, on behalf of the Ford Foundation, and me) took this grand trip in a tempo traveller across the whole region. We visited all the important locations where tasar played a role, starting from Ranchi and eventually reaching Gaya, after travelling through Chaibasa, Bhagalpur, Deogarh and other smaller destinations. We also met Mithilesh Jha, who was then working with the Central Tasar Research Institute, under the Central Silk Board, in Ranchi.

Thirty years ago, a tempo traveller was definitely not the right vehicle to take such a trip in, through the region, and I remember every day we would plan for a six-hour travel time but it would always extend to ten. Our youth, all the lively discussions about ‘rural development’ and the motivation of creating new vistas for PRADAN carried us through. The report that\ we generated after our trip was that PRADAN should start a development project by directly intervening in the tasar sector in the region (circa 1987).