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| Chhattisgarh
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Case
Studies |
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| Breaking
the shackles |
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25 year old Rakesh Dhruv, was an unemployed
youth of Pounsari village. His family's
sole occupation was farming. Being economically
backward it was hard for Rakesh's family
of 9 to make ends meet exclusively from
agriculture. Though a bright student, his
family found it extremely hard to let Rakesh
continue his education. It was through sheer
grit that Rakesh refused to give up his
education and continued till he finished
with his B.Com, excelling academically but
just about scraping through financially.
After completing his graduation, Rakesh
was on the lookout for a stable job but
the job market was very limited for a mere
B.Com holder. He needed to find a vocation.
He applied for and cleared the criteria
for the 4 month computer hardware repairing
course being run by ACF. Finishing his training
successfully, he also took advanced training
for ten days at the CED MAP IT Division
of Raipur with ACF's help and encouragement.
On completion of this course he was selected
by a computer firm. Rakesh was extremely
happy. Not only had he landed a job soon
after completing his studies; the job gave
him the opportunity to travel to far off
cities like Bangalore, Nagpur, Bhopal and
Indore.
Moving on the fast track, Rakesh changed
jobs to work with Epson printers as a sub
engineer. He now earns a monthly salary
of Rs.5, 000/= and gets company perks. He
is able to save a good deal of money and
he uses this to shore up the family kitty.
Even migrants can grow roots.
The Satnamis are one of the tribes residing
here. Members of this tribe are poor and
they own little agricultural land. They
harvest one paddy crop in the year and spend
the remaining time in far off cities in
search of livelihoods.
Taking this up as a model, ACF motivated
the women to form an Self Help Group (SHG).
A 13 member group came together to form
the Lakshmi SHG and began garnering small
monthly savings. As monthly savings became
a routine activity, the members began drawing
benefits from it. But they felt the need
to do something more. They were told about
the prospects of starting a nursery and
this appealed to the group. The training
and exposure visits for starting a nursery
raising operation were provided by ACF and
the day to day care of the nursery was the
responsibility of the group members. The
group began the nursery in Feburay 2008
and within 5 months they were able to earn
Rs.1,25,000 from the sale of plants. The
families of the women were immensely impressed
by this outcome. Highly encouraged by the
results, the group decided to take this
on as a regular activity and nurtured amla
and bamboo plants in the next season.
In between the two plantation seasons, the
SHG came across the possibility of winning
the contract for constructing a water tank
in a nearby village. The group took on the
entire responsibility of procuring material,
undertaking construction and even doing
the physical labour. The construction was
a success and it earned the women a tidy
sum of Rs.19,000/=With group savings increasing
substantially with this money, they were
able to access a bank loan for their nursery
operations to expand further.
The group members are not satisfied with
their nursery operation: They now want to
do much more and have set their eyes on
starting a paper plate making unit.
Indeed, migrants can also grow roots! |
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| Extending
a Helping Hand |
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Dev Sigh Paikra, a 23 year old tribal
from Bharshela, Chhatisgarh, comes from
a very poor family. He had dropped out of
school after class eight because of his
family's financial constraints and joined
his parents to work as a daily wage labourer.
Though the family had a land holding of
1.5 acres, the family didn’t have
the money to make the initial investment
in agriculture.
Dev wanted to change this situation. He
took a loan to grow vegetables on his own
field but because of a bad harvest, was
unable to pay back the entire loan. Being
the resilient man that he was, he found
out about ACF,s agricultural support projects
for marginal farmers. He attended a meeting
organised by ACF and with the support of
the Foundation, procured 40 horticulture
plants of mango and amla and vegetable
seeds. This time he had the technical know-how
and support from the Foundation. His venture
didn't fail this time. In fact it was an
out and out success. His yield from these
plants was good enough for consumption by
the family as well as sale in the market.
In a few months of this cultivation, Dev's
fortunes changed. His family's economic
status improved significantly and they were
able to completely stop working as daily
wagers. Today, they spend all their time
developing their own piece of land. |
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Jethu’s life takes a U turn
In a sleepy village in Chhattisgarh Jhetu Druv smiled as he stood looking at the rows of fruit trees on his 3 acre plot of land. When he reflected back and thought of his difficult past, he choked with emotion. How could he forget that until recently, his land remained barren during most parts of the year? Baring the monsoons when he could cultivate paddy that was barely enough for his family’s subsistence, he and his land lay unproductive for the rest of the year.
His life changed when he met with the ACF community worker on one of his visits to the village. ACF engaged with Jhetu and introduced to him better farm management practices. Due to the small size of his land holding, it was suggested to him that he develop a wadi or orchard on it. He planted guavas, lemons and mangoes besides continuing growing traditional crops. His income rose manifold and more importantly, he was able to earn all through the year. Encouraged by his success and the support of ACF he also began growing some vegetables, vermin composting and even turned to SRI.
Today Jethu uses his land optimally- at no point in time in the year is his field fallow. After having tasted success with wadi cultivation, his mission is to spread the word to other farmers like him. If wadi could change his life, it could change theirs too! |
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Orchard
Cultivation for an Improved Life
In Karmada village, Madhya Pradesh,
Pardesi Dhruv, a Gond tribal, worked extra
hard to make ends meet. He was a farmer,
but his 1 acre piece of land was barren
and so he was forced to turn to casual labour
work. However, sufficient work as a daily
wager was not available in his village so
he had to migrate to nearby towns to earn
for his family. Even his wife began working
as a daily wager to add to the family income.
This was still not enough to meet the family
needs. Their children had to drop out of
school and their home was in desperate need
for repair because the rains were flooding
the house. Conditions became so bad that
the family began depending on the subsidised
food grains given by the government.
Pardesi and his family weren’t the
only ones in dire straits. Many other tribals
were also living hand to mouth, so ACF formulated
a strategy to deal with this problem. In
association with NABARD, a Wadi Project
was initiated in these tribal areas. Under
this project, tribals with small and barren
land holdings were encouraged to practice
horticulture. Initially the tribals were
sceptical because they were unsure about
how the project would help them. They were
worried that if they tried something different,
and if it didn’t work, they would
lose what little they earned before.
ACF held meetings and finally convinced
the people to take up the project. The people
were reassured that they wouldn’t
be at any loss if they gave horticulture
a shot. So land was fenced and seeds for
fruits and vegetables provided. Pardesi
and his wife also began growing vegetables
and arhar dal on their land. Together they
made good profits by selling the surplus
yield. Their new agricultural practice was
doing so well, that they completely stopped
migrating for work. |
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Pardesi
Dhruv
In Karmada village, Chhattisgarh, Pardesi
Dhruv, a Gond tribal, worked extra hard
to make ends meet. He was a farmer, but
his 1 acre piece of land was barren and
so he was forced to turn to casual labour
work. However, sufficient work as a daily
wager was not available in his village so
he had to migrate to nearby towns to earn
for his family. Even his wife began working
as a daily wager to add to the family income.
This was still not enough to meet the family
needs. Their children had to drop out of
school and their home was in desperate need
for repair because the rains were flooding
the house. Conditions became so bad that
the family began depending on the subsidised
food grains given by the government.
Pardesi and his family weren’t the
only ones in dire straits. Many other tribals
were also living hand to mouth, so ACF formulated
a strategy to deal with this problem. In
association with NABARD, a Wadi
Project was initiated in these tribal areas.
Under this project, tribals with small and
barren land holdings were encouraged to
practice horticulture. Initially the tribals
were sceptical because they were unsure
about how the project would help them. They
were worried that if they tried something
different, and if it didn’t work,
they would lose what little they earned
before.
ACF held meetings and finally convinced
the people to take up the project. The people
were reassured that they wouldn’t
be at any loss if they gave horticulture
a shot. So land was fenced and seeds for
fruits and vegetables provided. Pardesi
and his wife also began growing vegetables
and arhar dal on their land. Together
they made good profits by selling the surplus
yield. Their new agricultural practice was
doing so well, that they completely stopped
migrating for work. |
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