Women Empowerment to become Self Reliant

Farm women were organised in Bangakhala village of Dehradun district in Uttarakhand in 1994-95. 20 farm women became members of one SHG. They started productive actvities for example fodder tree plantation, grasses, credit disbursement to needy memvers, etc. They used to organise regular meetings and maintained transparency in accounts. Membership fee collected and seed money provided by watershed management department was kept in bank. Mushroom cultivation, bee keeping, fruit prservation, value addition, etc. were introduced by the group. a village motivator identified made a difference in enrolling the people. They utilised the commomn land where fodder tree plantation was done which was protected and lateron benefits were shared as per norms fixed with iteraction in the meeting. No product was given free of cost. A nominal amount was recovered from the members. This case reflects that a leadership emerged in the village showed a path to become self depend.  It is the experience gained during my visit and reserach work.

Lakhan singh

Zonal Project Directorate

Zone IV, Kanpur