This Agripreneur’s Journey From Silence To Strength Is Inspiration
When it comes to keeping her family well, a woman knows no bounds. She will do all in her power to feed her children and keep them well. Such is also the story of Jharkhand’s Rukmani Devi, now 47, who, after her wedding to a farmer, came to live in the village of Alankera in the Gumla district of the state.
Married off at a young age, Rukmani saw lots of hardships in her life. Soon after her wedding, she had four children in her marriage – three daughters and a son. During that course, she found that her husband had turned to alcohol and his abuse of it soon became a struggle for the family. His excessive consumption and dependence on alcohol led him to squander away the family resources, including losing their agricultural land on which they cultivated mahua trees for a livelihood.
Now knowing where to turn and whom to seek help with, Rukmani was soon widowed, and resorted to work as a domestic help and a labourer to make ends meet for her family. In a dire state, she had to make the decision to send her younger daughter away from home, to the city of Ranchi, to work and contribute towards the meagre family income.