The Hindu : Front Page : New, improved rat traps at work

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Friday, Nov 30, 2007
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New, improved rat traps at work

Houston: Better rat traps seem to have improved the lives of people in the tribal areas of India, bringing them money, access to health care and schools, and social status.

This is what a researcher from the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University found when she worked on a case study on the Irula tribe whose main source of sustenance is catching rats in the fields.

The case study, titled ‘Building a Better Rat Trap: Technological Innovation, Human Capital and the Irulas,’ by Siri Terjesen of TCU in Fort Worth, will appear in the November 2007 issue of the academic journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

“It’s hard to believe there’s a whole group of people that still catches rats for a living,” says Ms. Terjesen, whose expertise is in entrepreneurship, strategy, and international business.

“Until I visited the project, I was sceptical such a dramatic change in people’s lives could be achieved. Irulas are a great example of how bringing technology to the rural poor can help them improve their lives one step at a time.”

Sethu Sethunarayanan, founder and director of the Centre for the Development of Disadvantaged People , an organisation dedicated to aiding Irulas, enlisted the help of a mechanical engineer to make a rat trap that is effective 95 per cent of the time compared to the old method which was successful 40 per cent of the time.

The results: Irulas using the new traps doubled or tripled their incomes, greater numbers of Irula children are going to school, and more Irulas are receiving health care. The tribe may be enhancing its social status, as others see the success they are reaping from improved technology.

The Irulas were barely managing to survive . Some Irulas have starved to death over the years. But now assistance in the form of a more efficient rat trap is helping some of them to help themselves. — PTI

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