‘Aim to touch millions of hearts’- A tale of two city slum kids

BHUBANESWAR: Unlike Switzerland, people residing here don’t obey zebra crossing rules on the roads. The European country is very kind  towards its children,” said Rupak Gouda and Jasmin Nisa of Science Park slum in the city, who had attended a children conference held at Caux in Switzerland recently.

The two children, who are active members of the Humara Bachpan child club, took a pause and said they saw several good initiatives taken by the Swiss Government for children. Their transportation system was child-friendly and living condition was also good, they added.

“An elderly people also says sorry for committing a minor mistake in that country which I found very educative and inspiring,” said Rupak, a +2 first year student reading in city-based Acharya Harihar College.

We were listening to Rupak and Jasmin’s success story in a small house in the slum which was connected with a narrow road slashed by small drains connected with dingy houses. When we asked Rupak about his feelings towards slum, the boy stopped smiling and said he had raised the issues related to the awful living conditions in Bhubaneswar slums in three international conferences held in New Delhi, Switzerland and Hyderabad.

In the conferences, Rupak and Jasmin had raised eight points related to slum problems including housing, water, sanitation, public space, electricity and public transport. “Living condition is very bad in the slums. We cannot get a good space for playing for which we feel dull,” said Rupak, adding, “The sewerage and drainage problems in the slums create breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other germs as a result of which we fall ill most of the time.”

Jasmin, a Class IX student of Unit-IX Government Girls High School in the city, said they have several child clubs in different slums of the city. Child advocates of the clubs meet together and discuss about different problems of slums. After discussion, they meet people’s representatives and Government officials to solve problems of their area, she added.

“Two years back, I had joined the club formed by Humara Bachpan campaign. The campaign helped me attend international child conferences to represent Bhubaneswar,” said Jasmin.

The duo said a group of children from different slums had met Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Mayor Anant Narayan Jena recently and discussed about different issues related to children. “We were very happy that the Mayor behaved with us like a normal friend and lent his ears to our grievances,” they added.

Jasmin, who wanted to be a social activist and fight for rights of slum people living in the country, said the Government should ensure that every girl child of the slums gets education and equal rights.

Rupak, who wants to be an aeronautical engineer to help the Indian Air Force, said every children of the country have rights to get education, live with dignity and get basic necessities which should be guaranteed by the Government. “We have been raising this point in every forum that the Government should help us in improving our living condition,” he added.

The duo was also selected to meet the President of India on the occasion of Children’s Day on November 15. They would represent the State in the national level.

The smiling little girl and the talented boy came with us to the end of the slum road to say goodbye. While leaving the place, Jasmin’s words, “Aim to touch million of hearts” were reverberating in my mind.

The story was published in The Pioneer English daily on November 5, 2014 

Community farming proves boon for tribal women

--Makes them self-reliant, checks distress migration

BHUBANESWAR: Community farming has shown a way of livelihood for women in the State in general and tribal districts in particular. The model in agriculture sector has made the women folk more confident and self-reliant than ever before.

Community farming is also called as group farming where farmers cultivate crops in groups. In this form of farming, a group of people gives a share for the expenditure and works unitedly. When the crops are ready, it is sold in markets and the money is distributed among each member. The model of agriculture has been experimented successfully and subsequently implemented in the tribal areas of the State which yielded a good result.

With a small land holding in hilly areas, women didn’t want to do farming by spending money and labour. When the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), an NGO, persuaded the women to do community farming in a group combining their small land holdings and workforce, the women folk took an initiative and succeeded in the field.

The organisation chose women for implementation of the model because women, according to the 2011 Census, constitute a major proportion of agricultural workforce in Odisha (37 per cent) out of total 62 per cent of State’s population is active in agriculture sector. As per the figures mentioned in the Agriculture Census of India, out of the total female agricultural workforce in the State, 74.7 per cent belong to the marginal category with a total of 41.2 per cent of land holdings.

Several women group from the tribal dominated districts got benefit from the farming. The living standard has gone up following the economic condition of the women enhanced after selling agricultural produce in the market.

The Pioneer team came across a few successful women farmers of different tribal dominated districts to know about their views on community farming. We met Laxmi Khila of Dadhipadar under Boipariguda block in Koraput district and asked her about her experience in the field. Khila said she along with a group of 15 women had started community farming in three acres of land of her village in 2002.

Before the farming, they were migrating from other States in search of work and some of them working as agricultural labourers, but now the group (Maa Tarini Self Help Group) is capable enough to generate income of around Rs 2 lakh per annum after meeting their family needs.

Now most of the women have started participating in several meetings, farmer workshops in and outside their district to learn new things about farming to increase their living standards. “The land, which was lying uncared for, has become our income source now and I thank my core group which undertook community farming in last 12 years, showed it to other women how rewarding it could be,” said enthusiastic Khila who was awarded with ‘Siddhasuddha’ award for her excellent contribution to women empowerment through agriculture. She said women of other villages have taken special interest to do something in their own after knowing about her group farming. From raising crop to selling the produce in the local market, the women show an extraordinary courage to face all odds, she informed.

As many as 42 groups in the blocks of Boipariguda, Kundura, Laxmipur and Dasamantapur in Koraput districts have started farming in group after converting low-lying land (patita) and other community lands to farming land with the help of the local administration. The womenfolk, who feared to come outside their village, now have bargaining power and competitiveness in the market. They have knowledge to use organic manure to protect the health of soil and environment from chemical fertilizers.

The womenfolk not only focus on farming, but also do some social service like advocacy for safe drinking water, good education for their village children and women empowerment programmes.

Similarly, women farmers of Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Kandhamal have continued their group farming to get good earning.

We also met Sabitri Bhue of Dhanras village and Lalita Bhue of Surulata village both belonging to Hemgiri block in Sundargarh district. Lalita, who was suffering from acute poverty, is a strong woman now with new hopes after getting benefit from group farming. After meeting treatment expenditure of her husband and funding higher education of her two children, she has built a new house. She is the sole bread earner of her family now. It became possible due to the farming. Lalita and her group have started group farming since 1996.

They especially raise mix crops to get more benefits. Another farmer Sabitri Bhue is not an exception. There are five groups in her village doing farming in two groups (total 30 persons). They raise crops like ginger, potato, onion and other vegetables which have demand in market. “Now we are saving more than Rs 10,000 per annum after meeting all expenses of our family,” said Bhue.

Similarly, Chanchala Majhi of Pujariput village under Kundura block in Koraput district, Manmodi Gadba of Dasmantpur block in Koraput district and Golapi Kanhar of Chakapada area of Kandhamal district have their own tale to tell about the success story of their empowerment through community farming.

According to the Economic Survey Report-2013, the State has 14, 92,000 acres of low-lying land. If the State Government gives the land to women for community farming, thousands of women farmers will be benefited. The State can promote and inspire community farming in the forest land as well.

The story will be published in The Pioneer English daily on July 14, 2014

Puri villagers relieved after purified water supplied

BHUBANESWAR: People of Raypur village under Satyabadi block in Puri district never imagined that they would get purified water at their doorstep.

The women folk, who were struggling everyday in the summer season to get drinking water from a water body situated around 2 km away from their village, are now happy with the purified tap water in their village.

There are 137 people of 22 families living in the village. The village has only one pond and a tube-well. When the water in the pond and tube-well got contaminated, the clueless villagers fetched drinking water from Sukala Chhak, around 2 km from their village.

After getting information regarding the acute drinking water problem of the Raypur village, members of the Regional Center for Development Cooperation (RCDC) with the help of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) brought water samples through the Society for Women Action Development (SWAD) in order to test the level of contamination of the village water bodies.

After the test, the officials found chloride, fluoride, iron, silica and arsenic content in the water bodies of the village. Then they initiated their project PRAYAS, an attempt to install such purification system providing drinking water, in the village.

According to RCDC programme manager Barsha Mishra, the estimation and design was made in consultation with the villagers and an expert engineer. Necessary procedures were adopted in order to obtain and install the water treatment system, she added.

An in-take well (about 200 mtr) was constructed in the bed of the Ratnachira river. A pump house was built near the in-take well to lift water from it in order to save water in two tanks (2,000 litre each) for purification. After passing the stored water through sand-carbon-UV filter along with iron removal, finally the water was made available to the villagers.

As a gesture to respect the womenfolk in the village, responsibility has been given to 11 women to oversee and manage the whole process of water supply. They collect Rs 20 per user every month to raise the fund which would be used in future for repairing of the water treatment plant.

“The water in Raypur village is saline. After the construction of the intake well and relative drinking water supply system, the community has been benefited as they get clean drinking water,” said Mishra.

The story was published in The Pioneer English daily on July 4, 2014

Puri farmers find ray of hope in floating garden

--After vegetables grown in abandoned wetlands successfully

BHUBANESWAR: Farmers of Satyabadi block in Puri district, whose hundreds of acres of land are covered with waste water round the year, have a reason to cheer with successful implementation of a pilot project that allows them to again raise crops on the land in an innovative way.

Before the project, the farmers had lost hope on their land covered with waste water. They had left farming due to the water-logging problem. But the members of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Regional Center for Development Cooperation (RCDC) and the Society for Women Action Development (SWAD) told the farmers that they could use the water clad land by raising floating gardens.

According to the process of making a floating garden, the farmers first make rectangular plots with bamboo sticks. After making plots (20 ft length, five ft width and 1 ft heigh) intertwined with bamboo sticks, the farmers cover the wooden plot with water hyacinths and leave it dry. Then the hyacinths are covered with a layer of soil mixed with compost to make it ready for farming.

This year, farmers sowed seeds of green leaves, coriander, panmahuri, chili, tomato and other vegetables and have yielded good amount of vegetables. “I got vegetables sufficiently for 15 days and also sold some of these in the market,” said a woman farmer Sumi Baral, adding, “I’m not calculating loss and profit out of the vegetable produce, but I’m happy that I am able to use the waste land and raise crop on it.”

SWAD member and a farmer, Swadhin Pradhan said the vegetation on the bamboo plot from a distance seems like a garden floating on the water. The bamboo plot is tied to a log so that it cannot change its location, he added.

Now, Sumi is more confident about her crop. She would create more bamboo plots to sow seeds on it. Floating garden concept has brought a new ray of hope for the farmers of waterlogged areas, said RCDC manager Barsha Mishra.

It is a Front page story published on July 3 in The Pioneer Bhubaneswar