This Unique Poultry Project Is Helping Tribal Women From Shahpur Village Feed Their Families And Be Gainfully Employed

The COVID pandemic has been hard on us all, infected or not. With case numbers rising ridiculously fast, by now, we all know someone or the other who has been touched by the curse we are calling the coronavirus. We’ve all realised that this healthcare emergency has caused chaos in every other industry and field of work. It’s like dominoes (the game, not the pizza). Our health care fell and all the other industries came toppling over. In fact, broken supply chains and lack of daily-wage labourers has impacted us a lot harder than you think. 

 However, today I am not talking about how the big industries in the game have been affected. On the contrary, actually, I am talking about how this pandemic has affected the marginalized communities that live on a daily wage. If you think about it, though they have fewer positive cases, they are the worst affected by all this. You see, in these communities, the men are usually the sole bread-winners. And often, their jobs taken them away from their village to cities to seek employment. Most of these migrant workers have gone back to their villages and are unemployed. So, how are they sustaining themselves through this nightmare? 

The answer lies in the women of those villages who are doing great work and actually keeping their households afloat. For instance, let’s look at the villages in the Shahpur taluka which is not far from Mumbai. 

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Indutai Wagh is a mother of three and also a subsistence tribal farmer from Khanduchiwadi, a remote village in Shahapur taluka. She earned her very first income. She sold 250 home-grown organic eggs and made Rs 1,250. She says that these earnings are enough to feed her family for over a month. 

Just like Indutai, 17 other tribal women from the hamlet of Ma Thakur tribe, a marginalised community are fending for their family amid the pandemic. This is thanks to a free-range poultry project that was started here as a pilot by Population First. This is a non-government organisation that focusses on communication and advocacy for health and population issues from gender and social development perspective 

This brilliant initiative is not only helping the women of the village stand on their own feet but and feed their families but also helping the government run the supplementary nutrition scheme for tribal children despite the broken supply chains. 

It’s the women’s poultry business that is keeping the village afloat. The women involved in the poultry project, are selling the eggs they produce in their own backyards to Anganwadi workers in Khanduchiwadi and other neighbouring hamlets. These eggs, in turn, are being used to run the run the scheme under the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Amrut Ahar Yojana. 

The aim of the supplementary nutrition scheme is to combat malnutrition and improve the nutritional levels in tribal children as well as pregnant and lactating mothers. According to the scheme, it is mandatory for the tribal children (up to the age of 6) to be provided with eggs, among other food items. And that is where the poultry project women come in. 

Also Read: 200 Women Came Together To Form A Startup Involved In Making Masks After The Male Members Lost Their Jobs. This Is Inspiring

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Anita Wagh, an Anganwadi sevika for the hamlet said, “I need 200 eggs a week for the scheme, and from April onwards, buying eggs from outside became difficult owing to the lockdown. Our local poultry project came in very handy and I now buy eggs from the women in our village for the scheme.” 

In January, the women involved in the poultry project were trained in poultry farming. After the training, Population First provided them with 180 chickens of a breed that are known for egg production. 

Fazal Pathan, project director, Shahapur, said, “We first tried training this group of women last year, but the project didn’t take off. We then renewed our efforts in January. Their training consists of various aspects, including taking care of chicks, their feed, vet visits, hatching etc and close follow-ups over three months. It’s not easy to train the tribal women because of huge gaps in education and language [the tribe speaks Thakari Marathi dialect]. But they did have traditional poultry-rearing skills, which were useful.” 

This project will now be expanded to other tribal villages as it has proven to be a great source of livelihood. These women are honestly doing a great job of keeping their families secure through a tough time. 

Whoever said a woman can’t do everything obviously has never met a woman whose family was in crisis. They are getting more innovative and finding new employment opportunities which hopefully will sustain them even after the pandemic is over. 

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