Stories of Success: Converging Schemes for Generating Livelihoods

Converging various government schemes and helping village women take charge of the planning and implementing processes is proving to be a big leap in creating selfsufficiency, boosting confidence in their abilities to negotiate with the government and other agencies, and helping women take ownership of their prosperity and progress

S avitri bai is a marginal farmer belonging to the Gond community. She lives with her husband Fakir Ram and their two sons in Bhothapara village, Nagari block, Dhamtari district. Last year, she conducted her daughter’s marriage. She says, “Hamar pariwar ka abhi khushhali ke din chalat hai. (Our family is living a prosperous life these days).” Looking back at her life, however, reveals a different picture.

She recounts that her life was full of struggle before she joined her SHG in 2008. She has two acres of cultivable land in the rain-fed area and, earlier, it was very difficult to get more than six quintals of rice from one acre of land because her land is undulating and there was no provision to arrest the flow of water from the uplands. The paddy yield was barely enough to feed her family. Her husband used to work in a rice mill as a labourer, and she collected minor forest produce (MFP) and firewood from the village forest. She migrated to the plains area (locally called the Chhatar Raj) of Chhattisgarh, to work as a labourer and earn money. She reminisced how difficult it was for her to leave her home and children, and go look for work in a distant place. She had to work really hard to make ends meet. She remembered how anxious she would become when she was away. At that time, a few community works were being initiated under MGNREGS but that was for not more than a week, and she did not know how to get work under the Scheme.