Pot making activity

Presentation




The client here is Puthalabai Suresh Kumbar, a 45 year old woman living in the Gaarlagunji village.

She has been doing this activity for 40 years with the help of her husband and her son, among 800 other families in this village.       


Production steps        


It starts by putting the mud on the wheel, that someone actionnates on the other side to make it turn. Using their hands, they shape the mud to create different pots. The next step is to even the surface by tapping on it and to heat it to get the final product. Sometimes they decorate them with paint afterwards. 

(video)

The production time varies according to the person using the wheel and which pot they make. They work from 7 to 10 in the morning, and 5 to 8 in the evening, every day of every months. 



They store their pots in a shed and sell them at various places (Goa, Kollapur, Nippaw, Belgaum…).




Economics of the activity   

 

Monthly, they use:             

- 3 tractors of mud, at 3000/4000 rs the tractor            

- 3000-4000 rupees of firewood       

- 2000 to 3000 rupees of colour shade           

- 800 of electricity 

- Around 21 000 rs of labour (they use 2 to 3 workers, and pay them 300 rs per day).       
- 50 000 rupees of shed to store the pots       
- Thousands on transportation costs, varying where they sell their products (7000 to Goa, 5000 for Nippaw, etc).      
- Each wheel costs 15 000 rs, and their replacement takes place every 3 years. They have 3 wheels but they don’t use all of them every day, it depends on the number of workers.      

After taking all those costs into account, they make a profit above 15000 off season, and around 20000-25000 rupees during Deepavali, Sanrranti and the Ganesh festival. Which makes around 200 000 roupies per year for the household, which is their only revenue. 


The Chaitanya loan was taken on March 2015 to purchase raw materials.


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