Women’s Day: These rural women refuse to give up
From picking up digital know-hows to contacting agriculture and livestock experts, and even securing business capital, here are three women who have made an impact on their families and villages.
Palirani Shahoo is a well-respected guide and mentor on vegetable farming and entrepreneurship in her small West Bengal village. She is the focal point when it comes to making digital information accessible for the women there or resolving queries on WhatsApp groups through the help of experts.
But it wasn’t an easy beginning.
Shahoo, who is fondly addressed as Pallidi by the villagers, a resident of Binodpur village at Kultali block of South 24 Parganas district, belongs to a family of six that owns around three bighas of land. Of this, one bigha is used as a kitchen garden for vegetable cultivation. Since the produce was just enough to feed everyone, Pallidi was keen on learning ways to enhance the yield.
New avenues
Her life – and those of several people around her – took a turn when she came to know about the Reliance Foundation’s Information Service (RFIS) platform in April 2019. She enrolled for the virtual training sessions that the foundation organised.
The sessions were on kitchen garden and commercial vegetable farming, and involved interactions with experts, including how to reclaim the land from salinity in the cyclone-battered Kultali and adopt organic agricultural practices.
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Pallidi could also connect with Ramakrishna Ashram Krishi Vigyan Kendra and State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) where she learnt the advanced skills required for running kitchen gardens and practising vegetable farming on a commercial scale. Since then she has been regularly seeking advice through the RFIS toll-free helpline number 1800-419-8800 and its multi-location audio conference programme.
Money matters
Pallidi is now also associated with the SRLM as a community trainer which fetches her Rs 1,000 per day. And like the other people around her, she is also bouncing back from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, she started cultivating vegetables using organic methods. The step turned out to be a fructuous one.
Pallidi earned a net profit of around Rs 16,000 compared to the Rs 11,000 she made earlier from marketing her agri-produce. Her farm stands as a shining example in the locality.
Handholding other women
For about two years now, she has also been facilitating training for around 200 women farmers in the nearby villages. The work is immensely satisfying since it involves handholding the women during the process, and she herself earns Rs 8,000-10,000 for the job that stretches for 8-10 days.
Taking guidance and encouragement from Palli di, women in groups of 3-4 have created kitchen gardens in their backyards where they produce enough vegetables for their family members in a completely organic manner. In the last one year from the training received, women have also taken up vermi-compost preparation, which they use in their own fields. She is regularly connected with the community through physical, virtual, exposure visits organized by Reliance Foundation.
The experience has got more enriched in the last one year, after RFIS launched the Digital Farm School (DFS) initiative, wherein farmers get in touch with experts, attend programmes and interact with other farmers about various agriculture-related issues. Pallidi has been leading the DFS activities in Kultali.
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“The virtual training provided by Reliance Foundation has really enhanced my skills as a community trainer. It also boosts my confidence, because I know that RFIS is with me if I face any problem,” Pallidi said.
Taking stock of animal treasure
Stepping nimbly over small piles of hay, Basanti Pradhan steals a proud glance at the cows in her backyard. It has taken her a few weeks to nurse Goria and Dhabli to good health but now they are happier and healthier.
It was just a few months back that Goria and Dhabli were struggling with disease and poor nutrition despite Pradhan’s best efforts. While the attention of her husband and the other family members was on preparing their two-acre land for the next crop, Pradhan was worried about the cattle – an extension of her five-member family.
Expert advice was however not easily available at her Gaisima village, which falls in the Bargarh district in Odisha. The region is blessed with adequate irrigation, thanks to the canal linked with the Mahanadi river, which supports paddy as the major crop. While women’s land ownership has remained low in the area, they constitute a major part of the workforce involved in the livestock sector.
Women at the forefront of livestock sector
The livestock sector is rapidly growing in India and accounted for about 5 percent of the national income and 28 percent of the agricultural GDP in 2018-19, growing nearly four times faster than crop farming over recent years.
Over 5.4 million Indian women, at the forefront of India’s milk revolution, have got economic empowerment and a definition of independence through this. They after all constitute about 69 percent of the workforce engaged in livestock sector, with the participation going up to 90 percent in tribal populated states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
It’s no wonder then that Pradhan was looking at all means to ensure better health for her cattle.
Timely diagnosis and treatment
That’s when she got timely advice through the Baba Balunkeswar Co-operative Women Milk Society, named after the Shiva temple in the village.
Pradhan attended an audio conference organised by the Reliance Foundation Information Services through members of the society. She heard about the nuances of animal health, need for timely vaccination and the cow hoof disease that had affected her own cattle. She learnt how she could manage them much better.
Three months later, she participated in a livestock treatment camp organised by the Foundation, where she got free medication, vaccination and tonics for her two cows and a calf.
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And soon enough, the smile was back on her face. As was the spring in the steps of Goria and Dhabli.
Stitching a better future
When Mandira Gope, 21, from Khatra CT of Bankura district in West Bengal started her tailoring unit, she not only stitched clothes but also weaved together a life of opportunities to make her dreams come true. She could turn a new leaf in her life through the SHG Bank Linkage Programme.
Gope’s family was dependent only on the income of her father, who was a private tutor. Though she was good at academics, she could not study beyond graduation due to financial constraints.
They do not have any agriculture land, and things became tough for the family of five during the COVID-19 pandemic when students stopped taking tuitions.
Securing funds
That’s when Gope, the eldest child of the family, started looking for earning avenues. She joined the Ma Laxmi Salbani Self Help Group in December 2020, and came across Reliance Foundation Information Services two months later. She started seeking helpline support from RFIS experts on the group mode of financing and availing SHG credit.
Gope then applied for bank credit and community investment fund (CIF) from SHG-based Cluster Federation (CLF). The group secured a bank credit of Rs 2 lakh in March 2021. With her share of Rs 20,000 supplemented with another Rs 10,000 as CIF from the CLF, she purchased a sewing machine to start a home-based tailoring unit. She kept the remaining fund as the working capital.
Gope and her mother knew how to sew clothes. Their amiable nature made it easy for the duo to find customers. Now, Gope earns around Rs 4,000 per month. She is overjoyed to be able to support her father.
Also Read | Village of Coat Makers
Towards better times
Gope and her mother are now trying to expand the unit by purchasing another tailoring machine.
“The Reliance Foundation has alleviated my pain of having to give up higher education because of poverty. It helped me get the business capital by giving me proper guidance and information,” Mandira said. “I am proud to stand by my father during this post-COVID crisis. I am also helping my family pay for my siblings’ studies.”
The lead image shows Basanti Pradhan tending to her cows (Photo courtesy Reliance Foundation Information Services)
Reliance Foundation Information Services is working towards the lives and livelihoods of the communities with the help of network of knowledge institutions and different communication tools. The contributors to the stories are:
Story of Palirani Shahoo – Amit Sen, Chittibabu Nagulapalli, Balakumar Sudalaimuthu, Realy Verma, Jasbir, and Senthilkumaran Krishnan
Story of Basanti Pradhan – Ashok Mallick, Chittibabu Nagulapalli, Balakumar, Realy Verma and Senthilkumaran Krishnan
Story of Mandira Gope – Amit Sen, Chittibabu Nagulapalli, Balakumar, Realy Verma, and Senthilkumaran Krishnan
