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Diversified
Agriculture |
Case-X
Milk-Maid |
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Background |
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Residents
of Sahanpur usually work as wage labourers. They have never
thought that there could be any other profitable job for them.
Wage employment was never sufficient to meet all the family
expenses, but there was no other option. Laxmi Devi is also
from the same village. She is a functional literate and has
the tendency to take risk to change the life situation. She
was tied with the societal rules and could not do anything
else other than the routine work. |
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Emergence
of Idea |
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She
came to know about Aseed when the workers visited the village
for the purpose of future intervention. But the workers faced
resistance from the villagers who did not want them to initiate
something new in the village that would divert their women
from work. Laxmi Devi wanted to know about the organization,
but she could not go against the whole village. She waited
till Aseed made its way into the village by convincing the
menfolk and clarifying all their doubts. When the women were
allowed to meet the Aseed workers, Laxmi Devi was one of the
first ones to come forward. She also played a key role in
the formation of SHG in the village. Despite all the hurdles
and the confusion created by the people who did not want that
women should have a chance to progress in life, she was able
to motivate other women about the aims of the organization
and the advantages associated with it. Soon, there was a group
with eleven members. They decided on a common monthly installment
as guided by Aseed and started depositing the money. They
faced many furdles in between, but at last the women had sufficient
amount in their group account that they can be linked with
the bank for further support. The women members wanted to
start some income generating activity to help them come out
of object poverty. |
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Initiation
of Action |
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Considering
their interest towards self-employment, the Aseed workers
provided them with relevant information regarding different
activities, i.e., food processing, cutting & tailoring,
allied agricultural activities, etc. Laxmi Devi liked the
idea of allied agricultural activities. She discussed it with
her husband who agreed to rearing a buffalo for the purpose
of selling milk. Laxmi Devi told about her decision to the
Aseed workers who made arrangements for her to get training
for buffalo rearing and handling the milk afterwards for selling.
After that, she borrowed money from SHG and bought the animal.
With the help of her newly acquired knowledge, she handled
the milk carefully and started selling it to the people in
the neighbourhood. The place where the milk was kept was always
kept clean which attracted people towards her. |
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Generation
of Support |
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Soon,
with her hard work and Aseed's intervention, she was able
to expand her work as Milk Collection Centre. This milk was
supplied to the processing factories later on Laxmi Devi arranged
all the equipment required for the purpose and took care of
the highly perishable product. Her Milk Collection Centre
was now a topic of discussion for the menfolk who were now
able to see the advantages of joining an SHG and an organization.
The women from the nearby areas started bringing milk to Laxmi
Devi's Centre, which was nearer to their place. Laxmi Devi
started motivating other women to follow the same path to
come out of their miserable conditions. She was being approached
by people both men and women to seek advice to get themselves
connected to the organization and the milk processing factory.
Simultaneously, she also underwent training for acquiring
the skill for cutting and tailoring. She started utilizing
the time in the afternoon by stitching garments for other
people. This also helped her to have some additional income. |
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Recognition |
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Laxmi
Devi got her recognition when the women in her SHG started
taking initiative for the betterment of the village themselves.
Under her leadership and field workers guidance, the women
started taking up activities like organizing awareness camps
for different issues, village cleaning, etc., apart from keeping
a check on the shop-keepers, teachers and other people. Most
of them started their own work and now are able to earn a
devent income. A local bank with which a total of seventeen
SHGs were linked by Aseed has evaluated her SHG as the best
one. Their success has motivated the people to develop a positive
attitude towards the efforts of the field workers and are
showing interest in the training provided by the organization. |
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