Gaya, They are clad in colourful sarees, they have designations, they have money in banks, they have smiles on their faces but they have no toilets to ease themselves in privacy.
Corners of the lush green fields that have made their lives better double up as toilets in the dark of night and in the twilight hours for the women of many villages around Gaya.
But they have no grudges. They have a lot more in their lives to rejoice about. Like the money in their hands, like no longer being hounded by the money lender and burdened with mounting interest rates, like their new capability to earn, feed and educate their children and most importantly to know that help is always at hand.
The women who have come together in Self Help Groups(SHGs) in various villages dotting the countryside of Gaya are interlocked in a network that spreads over them like a protective umbrella facilitating the betterment of their lives in miniscule but substantive ways for which they are ever so grateful.
Popularly known as the ‘Jeevika’ scheme, the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project(BRLP) which made s small beginning in 2007 in 5 blocks. It now covers 7.5 lakh rural households in 55 blocks in 9 districts of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states.
Bimla Devi of Bara village now has a roof over her head but just about. The brick walls of the two-roomed structure–one of which is a kitchen with a mud chulha–remain unpainted. Bereft of any possessions except utensils, the rooms are bare. Ask her about it, Bimla, who is the Village Organisation (VO) secretary,says she is happy with what she has.’Bahut hai,’ she tells journalists visiting the village which has become exemplary for implementation of the Livelihood schemes of Jeevika. The scheme is assisted by the World Bank footing 86 per cent of the total cost.
Asked about lack of toilet facilities, she says she is reconciled to using the fields, like always. But we are told by some officials of instances of either non-sanctioning or no reimbursement of money spent on building toilet structures which therefore remain incomplete.
But for the women of the village now actively involved in bettering lives what matters is the triggering of change. It is evident in the large number of goats outside homes enhancing earnings and providing nutrition too. What they are happy about is that they can easily access small loans which add up to making their lives big.
Thirty-year-old Munni Devi joined Sriram SHG and first obtained a loan of Rs 900 and then Rs 1000 at a much lower
interest rate towards solving health problems. Already burdened with a debt of Rs 12,000 at 10 per cent interest, she took a loan of Rs 3000 for debt swapping and another Rs 3000 for setting up a petty shop. Now she is earning more than Rs 1200 from the shop.
Similarly, incense stick maker Majda Khatun, mother of seven children, has increased her income from Rs 1200 to her present earnings of more than Rs 10,000. Along with making incense sticks, Majda, Secretary of Ganga SHG, has with easy loans established her sons in garage business, resulting in manifold increase in her income.
Her debts are easily payable and she says she never had it so good.
Another agarbati (incense sticks) maker Sampool Devi, mother of six and member of the social audit Committee, admits that easy loans, have made it possible for her to look beyond.
Incense makers who were paid Rs 500 a month for rolling the sticks to make the agarbathis, are now planning to buy their own raw material to make more money through their labour. Thinking big is now all in the realm of possibility.
The Jeevika projects that has ushered in the change has done so under its various productivity enhancement efforts both in the farm and non-farm activities including arts and crafts.
The crop in the vast green wheat rice and mustard fields along the countryside now has yields which are ten times more due to improved sowing and planting techniques, according to Mr Kamal Kishore, TM-cum-DPM In charge of Jeevika, which has now been scaled up under Aajeevika (meaning livelihood), the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).
The system of root Intensification (SRI), applicable to wheat and other crops too was introduced for the first time in 2007 and adopted by the Bihar government last year. The method requires just 2 kg seed compared to the earlier nearly 30 kg in an acre of land, said Dugri Devi of Shekhwara village.
Earlier, she grew only sugarcane but now she has diversified into other crops. She was happy that with the increased productivity she would be able to feed her family of four children all through the year. During her days of poverty, she had food only for three months in a year.
With the increased crop yields, most villagers were hopeful of tiding over their food needs. Among other means of battling hunger was to ensure food rations from Public Distribution System (PDS), collective purchase of food , land leasing as well as ensuring access to entitlements such as BPL and Job cards. But how far these would actually translate into food, remained to be seen.
For what the journalists saw in the Prathmik Bal Vidyalaya in Bara village were children without any mid-day meals or any kind of food despite boards proclaiming the menu of each day. Asked by the in charge about it, the school authorities said they were helpless if the food is not sanctioned from above. At another place, the children had congregated with utensils for more than an hour but whether they would be fed, we did not wait to see.
–UNI