Jammu and Kashmir4.1 Case Study of Sapna

Chak Waziru, Deoli, Bishnah I

Sapna speaks about her journey with Self Help Group:

My parents were very poor, so I could not continue my studies. I left school after standard 5 th, and got married at the age of 18 to Lakshman from Chak Waziru, Deoli, Bishnah.

He was an agricultural labour. I have four children, three daughters and a son.

My husband used to find it very hard to manage household expenses. Caring, feeding and educating children seemed a burden to him. It remained a challenge for me to take proper care and continue my childrens’ education.

We lived in a Kaccha house. Often, this house got damaged in rainy season. The roof would leak and let rain water come in. In those days, we would stay at a nearby government school to protect ourselves from rain.

Umeed: A Ray of Hope

It was in the month of March, 2014 that a team from Umeed consisting of CRPs and PRP visited our village. The team assembled village women in the Anganwadi centre and made them understand how it was possible to overcome the hardships of life with the help of Self Help Groups.

That was the first time I had heard of Umeed and the Self Help Group concept.

I took the opportunity and joined the SHG. Soon I was elected as the First Leader, the President. My SHG’s name is Puja. This experience brought new changes to my life. Availing loans, which was earlier a distant dream, was now easily possible.

I have taken loan thrice in the group. First time I took Rs. 5700 from SHG for daily consumption. Second time I took a loan of Rs. 10000/- VO loan for repairing of house and Rs. 20000 for starting livelihood of my own. I purchased material and prepared a stall outside my house to sell boiled eggs.

There was nobody in the village ready to help me during the days prior to joining SHG. My SHG enabled me and my family to repair our house and to have a sustainable source of income. Moreover, SHG made it possible for me to provide education to children.

Sapna has been an inspiration for other women in her group. The way she brought in changes in her life through SHG, has been an encouragement for them.

I express my sincere gratitude to Umeed for giving a new direction to my life. It has brought many laurels to me. It not only raised income level, but also changed my status. I am a leader of my group. It is a great privilege for me to be so.

4.2 Case Study of Rajni

Gloom and despair turned into happiness in Rajni’s life.

Rajni is a resident of Chorli, Bishnah

At the age of 19, I got married to a factory worker. Bad luck entered my life soon after marriage. My husband started drinking liquor. I had two children, but my husband left factory work also. It was not uncommon for him to beat me. Managing household expenses was of course difficult. I wanted to work, but my husband put restrictions on me. I approached people in my neighbourhood for a loan, but no-one was ready to lend. My mother often helped me by giving me rice and some money. All my dreams and hopes had shattered.

It was one blessed day I attended awareness programme on concept of SHG organized in our Village Panchayat Ghar. They made us understand the benefits of being part of a SHG and shared the success stories of other women. This gave me a ray of hope and I too joined SHG

(Preeti- SHG) like other women in the village. To my surprise, I got elected as SHG president and Vice-president in VO P.S Pura. This became a turning point in my life. The shadow of darkness in my life has been replaced by a bright sunlight.

I was one whom people refused to give even meagre amount as loan. But after becoming part of Umeed SHG, I have been given a total loan of Rs. 60000/- (sixty thousand) through my SHG as detailed under:

Loan Amount Type of Loan Purpose

Rs. 8500 SHG For purchasing hand card

Rs. 25000 SHG Vegetable and Fruits for Hand cart

Rs. 20000

Bank loan Down payment for purchasing

Load Carrier

Rs. 6500 SHG Supplementary loan for auto

We had a hand cart. With the loan from SHG, I along with my husband purchased vegetables and encouraged my husband to sell those in the village. After getting bank loan through SHG we sold our cart and made a down payment and purchased a load carrier.

My SHG is always like a maternal home for me. It enabled me to provide a livelihood to my husband. He too has come on track in due course of time and has a sustainable livelihood now. SHG has brought many laurels to me. I have got an opportunity to go Andhra Pradesh where I attended training on CRP.

Other members in Rajni’s SHG are happy for her and proud of being part of Umeed.

4.3 Case Study of Self Help Group

All of us are women residing in Chak Bana Panchayat belong to a Scheduled caste.

We have always had to run our families with our husbands’ income, who have been the sole breadwinners of our families. Managing household expenses has always been a major problem, and we have had to slowly cut down our food expenses in order to meet other basic needs.

It was in the wake of this severe financial crunch that we learned about the concept of self-help groups from through Umeed. Once we were convinced that we must form a self-help group, 12 of us joined together and formed an SHG. We elected our leaders and opened saving bank accounts with the J&K Grameen Bank into which we started remitting weekly small savings of Rs.300 (at the rate of Rs.25 per member) on behalf of the group.

Our group has collected saving amount of Rs.19200/- and we were circulating this amount as internal credit at very low rates of interest (1%) for urgent household expenditure of our members in joint consultation. Seeing our gradual progress, our Community Mobilizer and PRP graded us and we were found eligible for receiving the Revolving Fund (RF) and Community Investment Fund under Umeed. Utilizing this RF and CIF, we granted additional

Name of block: BishnahName of village panchayat: Chak BanaName of VO: Chak Bana-1Name of SHG: Jai hunuman

loans as internal credit to our members for strengthening our existing livelihoods and repaid the same using the income earned from there.

For adding further value to our trade, Umeed facilitated bank credit linkage and soon we were graded. On being qualified Grade-A, our application was forwarded to the Bank, where our application was sanctioned. We received a loan of Rs. 50000/- This assistance came as a great boon to our members and our members have utilized it for livelihood activity. Now, our family income has considerably increased.

Livelihood Activity Details of SHG members:

It has been possible only with the help of Umeed that we got enrolled for Social Security Schemes too. Seven of our SHG members have enrolled for Pradhan Mantri Bima Yojna. Economically we are now moving towards self-reliance and would not be dependent for long solely on our husbands’ income for running the household. We are extremely grateful to Umeed for our remarkable development.                         

S. No.

Name of Member Livelihood Activity

1 Anju Cutting and tailoring Unit2 Geeta Shop 3 Srishta Horse cart4 Jeetu Cow5 Sonia Vegetables for Cart6 Prakasho Cow7 Suman Buffalo8 Geeta Devi Provision Shop9 Ramani Cutting and tailoring

4.4 Case Study of Village Organization

Bahadurkhan VO

The name of our Village organization is Bahadurkhan. There are10 SHGs consisting of 100 member in this VO. The total saving of SHGs is Rs. 1,71,000. All the SHGs in VO have a Revolving Fund and Community Investment Fund amounting to Rs. 1,50,000/- and Rs. 4,00,000 respectively.

All 10 SHGs have also been credit linked with the help of Umeed and have received Rs. 500,000/- as bank loan at the rate of Rs. 50,000 per SHG. The VO caters to all its member SHGs in terms of providing loans for various purposes, resolving issues in the group, ensuring following of Panchsutras by the groups, capacity building of member SHGs and so on.

Resolving Drainage Issues

Apart from these, the VO resolved a long pending drainage problem in the village. There was no passage for draining out water in the entire panchayat. This led to many diseases as small quantities of rain water got inside the houses of village residents.

The VO mobilized its members and Sarpanch of Bahadurkhan and approached Tehsildar concerned for the same. They visited concerned Tehsildar’s office four times and staged a dharna outside his office to address their grievance. The Tehsildar made a visit to the Villages and ordered for immediate arrangements for draining out of water in the villages.

As a result, a passage for draining out of water was unblocked and channelized through neighbouring villages Khour and Phinder, and Bahadurkhan succeeded in addressing this major issue.

The VO has started even rice bank and named it Amma bank. All SHG members collect rice that is distributed to needy in the villages at the time of emergency. So far, the VO has collected 100 KG rice and distributed it among two women. The VO also facilitated enrolment of two children (their mother is mentally challenged) in the Bal Ashram in R. S.

Pora.

“It is a source of immense pride to us that we are and we have earned a respectable social and economic status in society. We, who had earlier been confined to the four walls of our homes, now carry out ban transactions and participate in all important organisations such as VO meetings, Awareness Programmes, and Trainings conducted by Umeed”, says a member.

Rajasthan

11.1 Individual Case Study

SHG Member Name : Kanta DeviVillage Name : KhatwaName of the Block : AnandpuriDistrict : BanswaraState : Rajasthan

Kanta Devi, a CMSA farmer, belongs to a tribal family of an extremely interior village of Banswara district of Rajasthan state. She had joined the SHG movement in the year 2012, when the Community Resource Person from SERP (AP) came in the village to mobilize the poorest of the poor women into SHG fold.

At that time, she held one acre of un-irrigated land and two goats which were the only source of livelihoods for her family comprising of herself, her husband and two daughters. At that time, her family used to cultivate maize, urad and tuar on her agriculture land during Kharif and usually no crop during Rabi season.

Being a SHG member, she started a small saving of Rs. 10/- per week. During course of time, she borrowed a small loan from SHG for purposes like daughters’ education, purchasing of agriculture inputs, digging of bore well etc. In 2014, she started a small flour mill along with setting up a small Kirana Shop with the big loan from SHG.

Simultaneously, she got associated with CMSA (Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture) intervention initiated by RGAVP in Kharif 2014 with the technical support of SERP. Under CMSA intervention, she started practicing SRI (system of Rice Intensification) in ½ Bigha of land and 36’ * 36’ model of vegetable cultivation. She followed intensively the PoP of SRI like Seed Bed preparation, Seed treatment with Beejamruth, one to one seedlings transplantation with the help of marker keeping in mind the row to row and plant to plant distance. Further, she used weeder for intercultural operations, applied Ghanajeevamruth and Dravajeevamruth as nutrient supplement, organic inoculants like Neemastra when there was a pest attack in vegetable.

Similarly, she adopted these organic low cost fertilizers and pesticides in vegetable cultivation also.

In 2015, she installed a motor pump for the bore well to irrigate her vegetable plot.

Following this visual success in low cost NPM farming, she continued the vegetable cultivation during Rabi and also cultivated wheat on her small piece of land following SWI (system of wheat intensification) method.

She improved her vegetable production by following a multi layer cropping using creepers and also produced different types of vegetables like Palak, Chilly, Lady Finger, Bringle, Tomato, Bottle guard, Onion, Garlic etc. in the specified particular area under the model.

Figure 1 Kanta Devi on her 36*36 Model of Vegetable Field

Through all these interventions, Kanta Devi took good earnings both from crops and vegetables. In 2015 itself, she earned a total net income of Rs. 43000/- following this NPM farming. Besides these, she is also getting a regular income from her Kirana Shop and Flour Mill. With this increase in her income, she is now in a better position to plan for her family future. Both her daughters are presently studying, one in 8 th STD & other in 6th STD. Now, she has constructed 2 new rooms in her home for rental purpose and earning Rs. 2000/- month.

In all, Kanta Devi is considered as a successful example in her village, who gradually improved her livelihoods after joining SHG and adopting CMSA practices. She has her future plans to establish a sewing center at her home for additional income.

11.2 Sahera Devi

SHG Member Name : Sahera DeviVillage Name : AkodiyaName of the Block : NewaiDistrict : TonkState : Rajasthan

Sahera Devi is a scheduled caste woman who belongs to a BPL family of an interior village Akodiya from Newai Block where RGAVP initiated to bring poor under SHG fold after PIP survey in the year 2012 with the help of Resource Persons from SERP. Her family consists of 5 members. Her husband, one eldest son, two daughters and herself. At that time, they used to work on 4 Bighas of agriculture land for their livelihood earnings. Her two children used to go to village Aaganwadi for their education.

Being a SHG member, initially she used to save Rs.10/- in her SHG during its weekly meetings from which in the year 2014, she borrowed a small loan to get admission to her eldest son to a primary school. Later, she had taken a big loan for digging a bore well for irrigating her agricultural fields in the year 2014. Generally, they used to produce Mustard, Wheat and vegetables during Rabi and Arhar, Bajra, Groundnut during Kharif season.

Since agriculture produce is the main source of livelihood for her family, to get better productivity she was highly dependent on using hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. She tells that she had purchased fertilizers and pesticides for Rs. 10,000 in 2014

for her crop which caused a big disaster to them and a net loss of Rs. 40,000 in that year. Her family suffered a lot of financial burden due to this in that year.

Due course of time, at the end of Rabi season in 2015, RGAVP introduced CMSA practices in her village with the help of Resource Persons from SERP where they made her aware in her SHGabout low budget NPM farming using local organic materials which helps enhancing the productivity in multiples.

In that season, she followed the packages of practices of SWI (System of Wheat Intensification) as introduced by CMSA CRPs in her small patch of land for pilot. She tells that earlier her family used to broadcast the wheat seeds at Rs. 30 KG/ Bigha while in SWI, it only took 2 KG seed per Bigha. In that, she did the seed treatment with Dhravajeevaruth as guided by CRPs, also used NADEP compost, Ghanajeevamruth for fertilizer purpose and Brahmastra, Neemastra for pesticide as per the requirement. Also, all fertilizers and pesticides used in her field was prepared by herself only.

Figure 2Sahera Devi counting SWI tillers in her field Figure 3NPM

fertilizers and pesticides prepared by her

Once, she got surprised after seeing 50-60 tillers in her field from just 2 seeds. Her SWI plot was a model in her village as it is unbelievable for oher villagers and most of them were making laugh at her while she was sowing 2 seeds in her field using a marker to maintain uniformity in distance.

Now, she worries a bit about the amount of labor required for following proper PoP in SWI, however she laughs looking at the Konoweeder provided by her Cluster Federation for weeding which had reduced much, the labor required for weeding purpose.

Also, in that season, her family produced a good amount of vegetables (Tomato, Chilli, Coriander, Carrot) under 36*36 model of vegetable cultivation using NPM fertilizers and pesticides despite less water availability in the area. Her family earning by selling vegetables in local markets is shown below:

Item Cost Selling Price Savings

Vegetables 4,400 30,000 25,600

All in all, CMSA intervention in her family has brought smiles, happiness and confidence into her family just within 8 months. She confidently tells that with this intervention she had saved around Rs. 32,000/- (in 8 months) till date by Reducing expenses on Chemical Fertilizers, Pesticides, Seeds, Wage Labors and by Increase in the production under SWI, Vegetables. She is now a model famer in her SHG for other members to guide them following these practices. She had now planned to do inter-cropping of Arhar and Groundnut in coming Kharif season.

She extends her thankful gratitude to Rajeevika, SERP, DPMU-Tonk and CMSA team to make her Village Organization members aware about CMSA activities.