Power tiller improves livelihood for Hardai Devi

Hardai Devi wife of Sharad Singh Bisht, age 38, belongs to a poor family of village Ginwala, Block Agastymuni of Rudraprayag District is one of the members of Jai Chandika Self Help Group. She has a family of five members where the livelihood is dependent completely on agriculture and livestock. The disaster of June 2013 destroyed her family’s lifeline with all of their agriculture lands swept away in the flood. It was the toughest time for her family as the disaster took away their lone source of food and income. There was nothing left to eat and no options even for labour or wage work. Soon after, Himmotthan Society started working in Rudraprayag district. The team visited several villages and Gainwala was one of the villages. A Gram Panchayat meeting was conducted with several women and various issues were discussed like their livelihood, income-generation, health and education of their children, etc. One of the highlighted issues was related to the cultivation. There were only 3 pairs of bulls in a Village of 76 families and that was not enough to meet the demand of cultivation of entire village. Farmers were bound to hire bulls from another Village and that was causing them extra expenditure. The focus of the Himmotthan team was to work on a need basis strategy and they introduced the power tiller and its benefits to Hardai Devi and her husband. After understanding the details explained by the team, Hardai Devi was ready to do farming business with a power tiller. Himmotthan Society organized training on running of power tiller by the experts of Bharat Agro Company. Finally, SHG members decided to provide a power tiller to Hardai Devi and her husband. The group members said that the work done by Hardai Devi's power tiller has greatly reduced the agricultural workload of women of the Villages. This is saving time and energy and has added to the family’s income. Hardai Devi says: “We are blessed by the Himmotthan Society who gave us the support and opportunity to emerge from difficult times.”