Nira Chhatria was chosen as a participant when Trickle Up began working with ultra-poor women in Odisha in 2015
Tucked away in a remote corner of the Bangomunda block in Odisha’s Balangir district, is a little village called Beherabahal.
Nira Chhatria who is in her mid-forties, married and shifted to this village 20 years ago, making it her home. She lives in Beherabahal with her husband and three sons aged 15, 11 and nine years.
The husband and wife used to migrate to Raipur — a village about 500 km away — to work as daily wage labourers for six months every year.
For the other half of the year, they depended on whatever little they could grow in their small patch of land or the work they would find as agricultural labourers in other people’s fields.
The money they earned by migrating to Raipur and doing odd jobs around the year, barely ensured their survival.
But with their eldest son now going to school, they faced a challenge: If they kept migrating, their son’s education would take a serious hit and he would grow up to become exactly like them, living in extreme poverty and continuing their vicious cycle.
They knew this could not be the future they wanted for their children. Taking a stand, the couple decided to stop migrating for work. This decision, however, came with huge economic hardship.
The family’s earning was now only from the odd jobs that came their way.
What they were not aware of, however, was their luck would change in a few years.
In 2015, non-profit Trickle Up began working with ultra-poor women in the Bongomunda block and Chhatria was chosen as a project participant. Soon, ‘Nari Shakti’, a self-help group (SHG) was formed in the village and Chhatria became an active participant.
“At that point in time, it was not easy to even save Rs 10 every week. But the field staff kept encouraging and telling us that this was all for a better future and we slowly started to believe in them. We started keeping that money aside,” said Chhatria.
She was also chosen as a participant in 2016, when Trickle Up and TATA Communications Ltd intervened through the M-Powered project.
Chhatria received a seed grant of Rs 3,000 and a smartphone. The smartphone came to her with Package of Practices (PoP), a preloaded application.
She was coached on agricultural practices and trained to use the PoP application as a part of the intervention. From the app, she learnt how and when to use the optimum amount of organic manure for agriculture and learned to till land for the best results.
The vegetables she grew in her patch of land now became products she could sell in the market.
Chhatria would go to weekly markets in Balangir district and sometimes even in the daily markets around her village to sell her produce.
The quality of the vegetables was so good that people soon started to buy directly from her.
“One of the first few things I did with the money I earned from my farming was to buy some gold. I am looking forward to getting some pretty earrings made. I also bought two goats and two cattle. This will help me expand my channels of earning and I won’t be dependent on agriculture alone,” she said.
Not only is Chhatria earning much more than she used to, she began seeing the benefits of saving her income with the help of the SHG.
“It seems we are going through major climate change. There is very little rain and agriculture is badly affected. If it hadn’t been for the money I was able to save or the alternate livelihood options I learnt, like livestock rearing, we would have been poor again,” said Chhatria.
“I haven’t been able to buy any gold this year, but my family eats well and I can buy all the stationery and books my children need in school. I shudder to think how things would be otherwise,” she added.
The intervention also connected her to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and she’s proud of the pukka house built under this scheme in 2017.
“My dreams are simple. I just want my children to become educated, stand on their own two feet and escape a life of poverty. They should not have to experience what we did,” she said. “I also want to keep farming. There is a great sense of satisfaction when people from around the village appreciate the quality of your produce. It feels amazing,” Chhatria added.
She is proof that given access to opportunities, women — even from the most vulnerable situations — can excel.
This International Women's Day, it’s time we recognise women's rights and ensure that the avenues for creating a better life are non-discriminatory.
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