Asahabai Rameshrao Kokade, Natala, Tal- Arvi, Dist. Wardha, Maharashtra
Asahabai Rameshrao Kokade, a 48 years old woman with education up to 2nd standard lives in a Natala village from Arvi Block of Wardha District. She has a family of 3 other members which includes husband and 2 sons. In terms of education also the family is backward. Husband is educated up to just 3rd standard, and the sons are 10th and 7th Standard respectively. The family has a 4 acres of the rain fed land in the Natala village. The ever changing climatic conditions, erratic and unevenly spread rainfall, variation in rainy days, prolonged dry spells are some of the noted factors which had affected the crop production from the project area and the Natala village. In addition to this the wild animals also used to destroy the crops. In view of this the total crop production was used to be less and insufficient to take care the financial need of the family.
The family and the son are forced to work on wages for the earnings so that they could properly feed the families. The work was not available in proportionate to the requirement. The wage work was available only during agricultural season and for the remaining period there is no work available. This resulted into the children drop out from the school for this family. The issue of the livelihood became grave for the family.
In the year 2015-2016, Holistic Rural Development project (HRDP) started in the village with the financial support from HDFC Bank under the Parivartan initiative. Sanjeevani Institute for Empowerment and Development (SIED) was given the responsibility to implement the programme I the Natala village along with 4 other villages forming the cluster of project villages. Under the HRDP project site specific and as per the real need different interventions like farm bunding, Earthen Nalla Bund, Cement Check Dams, Solar wire fencing, wage based activities have been undertaken and fully implemented. This has greatly supported the labors that were in real need of wages. The income from the agriculture has increased.
Ashabai Kokade chose to go for the goat rearing activity as she was confident about it that it would be beneficial. She has got the support from the project. Initially Ashabai purchased 5 goats in the year 2016-2017 and started this livelihood activity. Recently she sold 3 male goats for Rs. 15,000/-. As on today she has 14 adult goats and 4 kids. In all she has 18 goats. When in need only male goat to be sold and the female goat to be maintained further this is the strategy of the Aashbai. This livelihood activity which has been started with Rs. 18,000/- has now a total worth of Rs. 1, 80,000/- the whole family is very happy and they have a definite assured income from the goat rearing activity.