ARPAN

Dhana Devi, a 38 years old women comes from a dalit community which resides in village Talla Gaon, a hamlet of Baluakot Gram sabha. The village has 35 Dalit families and 16 families from other castes. Dhana’s husband is a daily wage labourer. The couple has two school going children.

The family has 0.020 hectare agriculture land, barely enough to grow grains. Dhana grows vegetables. Earlier too she used to grow vegetables but with no profit. Dhana says, “A women farmer collective was formed in 2016. We 18 women joined the group and learnt new techniques of raising our livelihood from whatever we had in hand. I made the best use of my land by raising organic vegetables and using vermi-compost. The production was good, enough to sell in the market besides home consumption.”

Along with the other women farmers she was able to sell beans, lady finger and radish in the local market. There is great demand of their organic fresh vegetables. The women have also started sowing spices like ginger, chillies, coriander and garlic in small amounts for selling at the spice unit.

The family asset and income of Dhana has increased by 40 per cent since she joined the village collective. She says, “The five goats I have are an asset of roughly 25 thousand rupees.”

Today Dhana is a proud woman farmer who has full control of the money she earns from her efforts. She is the finance minister of her home.