Dare to Dream: Kamala and Jaisen Sakia

the willingness to take risks and experiment with innovative methods, with the backing and guidance of professionals, proves to be life-changing for the tribals of Koraput district and especially one family…

K amala Sakia is a 35 year old Gadaba woman, who lives with her husband, four daughters and a son in Chaparamba, a far-flung village in the tribal-dominated Koraput district of southern Orissa. She has been living in this village since her birth.

The main source of livelihood for her family is agriculture, followed by wage labour. They own approximately 2.5 acres of land, of which half an acre is lowland, where they cultivate paddy twice a year, and the rest is upland, where they cultivate upland paddy, ragi, nigera, and vegetables in the kharif season. At one time, they used to cultivate only cereals and oil seeds, and had food sufficiency for six to seven months in a year; after the government introduced the Rs 2 per kg rice, they get 25 kg of rice with their BPL card. Once the pressure of food security was taken off, they have began cultivating some vegetables and there by earn some extra cash for their household expenditure.

In February 2010, PRADAN began its intervention in this village. Poverty was abject and pervasive and the people highly vulnerable; literacy rates were dismal, the village was poorly connected and there was a soaring migration rate. PRADAN started its work by mobilizing the women into Self-Help Groups (SHGs). The task was more difficult than anticipated. The women in this village had been members of SHGs twice before. Unfortunately, they lost their valuable savings both times, and also lost faith in outside agencies. Therefore, a lot of time had to be invested in rapport building and community mobilization.