SHAPING DREAMS. TRANSFORMING LIVES
SHAPING DREAMS. TRANSFORMING LIVES
A majority of the women farmers involved in this farming initiative belong to the Santhal tribe—an ethnic group native to the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Tripura. A large number of them are uneducated and live below the poverty line. There are six gram panchayats of Labhpur block where women farmers have undertaken the nutri garden initiative. These are Bipratikuri, Chauhattav Mahodari I and II, Indus, Kurumnahar and Labpur I. “Over 650 odd adivasi (tribal) women of Bengal’s Birbhum district have earned their place under the sun by establishing their own vegetable gardens, since the start of 2021. Living on the fringes of society, these adivasi women decided to grow their own vegetables to fulfil the nutritional needs of their families during the Covid-19 induced lockdown. With minimal literacy levels and between 20-50 years of age, these women made the choice to decide what they get to eat. From brinjal to lemons, they grow it all.
“We are getting a good yield from the nutri-gardens since the last few months. After the daily vegetable consumption by producer households, a few women farmers are selling their surplus in the local market,” says Sonali Murmu, a woman farmer from Tatinapara village in Birbhum district.
Sonali and 30 other women of the village who don’t have cultivable farming lands have been able to lease 15 katha (i.e. 25 decimal) barren land from a local villager, and set up their individual nutri-gardens. The concept is to grow vegetables and fruits that are nutritious and seasonal, so that they have healthy and fresh food throughout the year. In the last few months, “We have grown papaya, tomato, brinjal, lady’s fingers, cow beans, chillies, lemon, pumpkin, variety of gourds (bitter, bottle, snake and ridge), and multiple varieties of leafy greens” adds Pinky Murmu.
“Most men and women in my village either work as farmers, daily wage labourers or in the nearby brick kilns. During the lockdown, many of the working members of our families lost their jobs. Due to lack of regular income flow, it became very difficult to fulfil the basic nutritional needs of our family members. Eating healthy was the need of the hour to develop better immunity to fight the corona virus. When we were approached by ‘Tomorrow’s Foundation’ to be a part of a nutri-garden nitiative, we got associated with it,” Pinky adds. The foundation is a non-governmental organisation which is helping the women farmers with farming equipment and skills, as well as vegetable seeds.
“I have five katha (eight decimal) of land on which I have started my vegetable garden in 2021. This farming has helped me with a constant supply of vegetables and fruits,” she says. The 35-year-old has a college going son who helps her in the field, as her husband is suffering from Tuberculosis, and is unable to do labour intensive jobs. Pinky gets her annual supply of rice from her seasonal paddy cultivation. “Our pushti bagaan (nutri-garden) has saved us from buying expensive vegetables from the market in these Covid times. We save around Rs 400-500 every week,” says the mother of three.
They are using the most sustainable techniques of farming like preparing organic fertilisers and using mulching techniques etc.,” says Utpal Majhi, Gram Panchayat Secretary of Chauhatta Mahodari – II, and this initiative benefited the women and their families at a time when they needed it most.
Rising unemployment, food supply disruption, a downturn in international trade, etc. were the unavoidable fallouts of the Corona virus pandemic. These continue to pose serious challenges to the already precarious state of food and nutritional security among the poor and marginalised in India. Women and children will continue to bear a disproportionate burden of the pandemic-accelerated health and food crisis for a long time to come.
India may be the world’s second largest producer of food, but it has its second largest ndernourished population. According to a report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), there are about 189.2 million undernourished people in India; a majority of whom are women and children.
Whether in rural or urban India, community based and individual nutri and kitchen gardens can play an important role in enhancing national food security and dietary diversity to combat malnutrition as well as provide sustained food for communities living on the edges of survival in normal times or during disasters and crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic. A report by TERI states that nutri-gardens help to combat malnourishment among children, lactating or pregnant women and women in general. Spinach, potato, papaya and other leafy greens can be easily home-grown help to fulfil the basic nutrients required in a balanced Indian diet.
Gardening Techniques (learning bydoing)
Many of the nutri-gardens in Birbhum district have been developed either in the backyard or the unused front yards of homes; while some women have leased barren or unused land from their neighbours. Under the initiative, the women farmers were trained to make their own compost using compost pits and earthworms (vermi composting). While preparing the organic agro-inputs, they strived for the optimum use of locally available resources. They have been trained to make rich organic manure that has a concentration of several micronutrients including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (which increases the microbial count and improves the pH of of the soil).
The women farmers also learned about proper fencing methods of their the soil). gardens, necessary to protect their crops from any livestock damage. Making maximum use of a small piece of land, bamboo fencing techniques are used to grow vegetables like bitter gourd and snake gourd. Some vegetables like papaya and lemon are grown on the edges of a field, to work as natural hedge fencing. Creeper vegetables like squash, beans, peas, pumpkin, different types of gourds are grown using bamboo and green net supports, while leafy greens are grown at the centre of the farm.
Birbhum district is known for its red soil, and dry and hot summers which implies that farmers here face challenges in irrigating their fields. As part of this nutri-garden initiative, the women were educated on the mulching technique of farming. Mulching is a water saving technique used to increase the production of fruits and vegetables. It is an economical approach to use local and organic material like hay and dry leaves which increase soil nutrients, maintain the optimum soil temperature and restrict the rate of evaporation from the soil surface, while also preventing soil erosion.
Many of the nutri-gardens in Birbhum district have been developed either in the backyard or the unused front yards of homes; while some women have leased barren or unused land from their neighbours. Under the initiative, the women farmers were trained to make their own compost using compost pits and earthworms (vermi composting). While preparing the organic agro-inputs, they strived for the optimum use of locally available resources. They have been trained to make rich organic manure that has a concentration of several micronutrients including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (which increases the microbial count and improves the pH of of the soil).
The women farmers also learned about proper fencing methods of their the soil). gardens, necessary to protect their crops from any livestock damage. Making maximum use of a small piece of land, bamboo fencing techniques are used to grow vegetables like bitter gourd and snake gourd. Some vegetables like papaya and lemon are grown on the edges of a field, to work as natural hedge fencing. Creeper vegetables like squash, beans, peas, pumpkin, different types of gourds are grown using bamboo and green net supports, while leafy greens are grown at the centre of the farm.
Birbhum district is known for its red soil, and dry and hot summers which implies that farmers here face challenges in irrigating their fields. As part of this nutri-garden initiative, the women were educated on the mulching technique of farming. Mulching is a water saving technique used to increase the production of fruits and vegetables. It is an economical approach to use local and organic material like hay and dry leaves which increase soil nutrients, maintain the optimum soil temperature and restrict the rate of evaporation from the soil surface, while also preventing soil erosion.
Surplus Sale
Most women vegetable farmers of Labhpur, whether working in group or individual capacity have sold their surplus produce in the local haat (market). “During the peak vegetable growing season of winter and spring, the womenfolk have sold around five to six kilos of vegetables every week,” confirmed Majhi.
A veteran in kitchen gardening, Tulsi Soren of Kalikapur village under Chauhatta Mahodari-II zanchayat says, “As a newly married bride in 2008, my mother-in-law taught me to grow vegetables in our backyard. It’s been at least 13 years that I have grown my own vegetables. I sell the surplus and earn around Rs. 500-600 every week during the season”. Apparently, Tulsi’s vegetables have a good demand in her village due to their organic quality. “I send my husband to sell the surplus produce in the local haat but mostly, villagers drop by my house to buy their share,” she says. The 37 year old has approximately three kathas (9.3 decimal) of land in her porch and near the pond, besides her house, where she does her nutri gardening. This effort became her major fallback during the pandemic, with added fillip from the nutri-garden initiative started during the pandemic.
“The Adivasi women farmers of the region still need many summers to grow vegetables that can make them economically independent by selling the crop in the market, but the Pushti bagaan has undoubtedly given us independence from relying on the local market for nutritional vegetables,” says 56 year-old Sonali from her farm while equally distributing the share of her weekly harvest of pui saag (Malabar spinach) with her community farmer friends on a rain-washed morning.
Written by Diwash Gahatraj
A light of hope in the darkness of pollution.
Mohammad Bazaar is a place of acutely polluted air which makes breathing difficult. The local people have severe health problems but consider this to be the norm – living with coughs and shortness of breath and painful chests. Their fingers and toes are bent out of shape.
Saraswati Tudu is a stone breaker and does not know why she suffers from so many ailments, leave alone being able to identify the cause or putting a name to it.
“What is silicosis? Do you know about it?” We ask her.
After hearing the question she answers, with confusion on her face. “What is that? I don’t know anything”.
However, a 60 year-old woman from Talbadh village in the Mohammad Bazar Block of Birbhum has no thought of illness when she asks her 8 year-old grand daughter, ” Why didn’t you go to school today?”
What school is this? The school which has changed their lives. Some distance from the grandmother’s house, a community school called Agamir Pathshala is held every afternoon, using the premises of a local club. Sometimes the classes are held indoors, and sometimes in open air.
The District Administration is the change-maker in this effort to provide supplementary education for the primary school children. Although conventional education is available in the village schools, Agamir Pathshala offers additional bridge learning to these children in the comfort of a stress-free community environment, with special learning aids and lessons.
18 educated and unemployed young men and women from different villages in this area now have a job and a salary of a few thousand rupees – these are the community teachers who have been employed by Tomorrow’s Foundation, the NGO running Agamir Pathshala to educate 1300 children.
The poison of silicosis floats around the villages where everyone works in the stone quarries. The disease continues to invade body after body and inevitably lead them to disability and a painful death. Silicosis is the pall of danger looming over Talbandh, Jethia, and Habrapahari, surrounded by crushers. Yet, these quarries offer jobs and the young are drawn to them, despite the risks. Jobs bring money and that is more tempting than continuing with studies.
This is the situation which made District Magistrate, Shri Bidhan Roy decide to tackle it on a war footing.
“Some developments cannot be immediately seen with eyes. But the invisible development will change lives for the better and the impact will be seen later. “
According to Shri Bidhan Roy, children should be motivated to envision a future for themselves. To realise that there is a life beyond their home and the environment in which they live today – that they can be in charge of their future. He added that the District Administration has now made an application under Sarva Siksha Mission’s ‘Community Mobilization Sector’ to take the Agamir Pathshala project forward. If scaled up, this initiative can expand to even more remote areas. These are under-developed tribal villages where 95 percent of the children can barely write the alphabets. Varkata, Hinglow, Puratan gram, Deocha Gram Panchayats have abysmally low literacy levels. The Covid pandemic has resulted in a loss of two years of formal schooling.
Since January 2022, 23 villages of four Gram Panchayats have been conducting supplementary classes after school, within the same premises – on the verandahs, under the trees, in the courtyard – any place where a group can sit together and learn with the teacher.
What is the reaction to this effort amongst the locals? A thin, elderly man on the Kapasdanga road says” That is just what we needed. It will make the future brighter for our children. “ A painful bout of coughing stops him from elaborating further and he slowly walks away.
Sonamoni Baski, a resident of Dhenupara is doing her M.A in Philosophy through a distance learning course. She is a community teacher in the Agamir Pathshala project. The learning methodology uses play and activity: “One clap means ten, and one pinch means one.” This is a good way to learn numbers!! And the happy clapping and laughter we heard, proves that the children are enjoying their classes.
Like Sonamoni, there are others like Shiv Hembram and Rupali Mardi and others who are teaching the children every day.
A representative from Tomorrow’s Foundation implementing the project says,” At first the local people were suspicious and thought that we had come to talk about the coal mines. Then they understood that we had a different mission. “Does the poison of the air allow these villagers to ever break free?
The District Magistrate states firmly, “ We have many initiatives to tackle the problems: silicosis, malnourishment, education, women and children’s health and well-being. We are running health camps to meet the shortage of doctors at the primary health center and urgently trying to recruit all levels of medical and para medical staff.”
Tackling the adverse health and economic effects on society caused by silicosis is top priority for the West Bengal Government, the District Administration and the Block Development Office.
