She is a very active member of the community from Baghdongri village. Out of the 20 villages I was working with, she was easily one of the most involved and proactive women members. She had been raising her voice in the Gram Sabha where illegal transport of sand from a local rivulet was happening, and the Panchayat wasn’t taking any action to stop it. She didn’t let the issue go and kept pushing to protect her village’s resources.
Because of this kind of initiative, she naturally became my main point of contact for organizing our NTFP-related activities in Baghdongri. She was also the primary link to the youth leaders in the different villages. This was largely because she was well versed in the Hindi language, but also because she already had the necessary practical skills like documentation, doing simple calculations, and a solid understanding of livelihood activities.
She put a lot of effort into trying to gather the community to work together on several different NTFPs. Due to various local reasons and hurdles, that broader plan could not happen. But she didn’t lose motivation. Instead, she got really excited about the organic Mahua harvest. She would constantly check in with me to see if I was able to get the green nets we needed for a cleaner collection.
She took full responsibility and promised to oversee the harvest and the use of the nets on 10 trees in her village. Showing real forward-thinking, she even suggested that the women get a loan through their SHG to pay for the nets themselves. We eventually got the nets, but unfortunately, due to delays and some drastic weather conditions, the harvest quantity turned out to be very low.
Even with a small harvest, she didn’t let the women get discouraged. She suggested we make Mahua ladoos out of what we had managed to collect. Her idea was to sell them to bring in some income, but also to try them out within their own village community as a nutritional option, which was something they hadn’t actually done before.
Today, she is a member of the Mahagramsabha and strongly wishes to carry out more collectivization and value addition activities, not just at her own gram sabha, but across her neighboring villages as well. She has a naturally entrepreneurial approach to things. She is always open to learning new skills and is pretty good at picking them up quickly, too. She has what it takes to lead her community into a prosperous and sustainable life, and both I and she truly believe she can do so.
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