ONE VILLAGE AT A TIME

"Poverty can be sustainably conquered by empowering women."

Born and brought up in the remote village Dhora, located in Kullu district. Begma Devi comes from a socio-economically backward family, consisting of 15 members. She finished her schooling at a local government school in Gadsa village.

Women entrepreneurs at Jagriti

Begma Devi is a very passionate woman and works towards the social and economic empowerment of women. According to her, women are still much more likely to be poor and illiterate than men. When we spoke to Begma Devi, she told us about her life, her father and the role she first played at Jagriti, without any hesitation.

When we asked her how she came to know about Jagriti she said, "Ek Jagriti ki field worker ai thi aur unhone Jagriti ke bare main bataya aur mujhe bahaut acha laga aur maine socha ki apni kausalta ka istemal karu aur mahilao ki madad karu" (A field worker belonging to Jagriti came to our village and spoke to us about the organization and I thought of joining the organization so that I can also help the women in the village).

She now works as a group organizer with Jagriti, one of the NGOs in Kullu. Jagriti is a nonprofit organization working towards the empowerment of poor, rural hill women. Her work basically consists of educating, forming self-help groups and enhancing livelihood activities. The women in her villages earn about 12-25 thousand rupees a year, by selling locally made food products and organic manure. She is involved with the procurement, packing, marketing and sale of organic produce. Through her work, she has made it possible for the women in the villages of Kullu to smash the societal barriers and become entrepreneurs. These women are selling their products through their shop, Mountain Bounties, which is located in Kullu. Some of their products are:

• Bitter apricot oil, wild peach oil.
• Oregano and Mint.
• Herbal Tea.
• Mountain honey, buckwheat and hazel nuts

Her initial stint with Jagriti was tough because she belongs to the Dalit community and just like Dalits in other parts of the country, she was neglected and marginalized by people. Since she belongs to a Koli Dalit family, she was hesitant to come out and utilize her skills.

Initially, she was not allowed to interact with the people belonging to the upper castes and faced trouble while interacting with women in the villages.

Now, she sees herself as a changed, confident and independent woman who is empowering women and trying to create a green economy. In Jagriti, she has worked on the following projects:

• Energy conservation.
• Conserving threatened medicinal plants and trees.
• Livelihood enhancement.
• Education and nutrition.

She now leads the women belonging to 25 villages in Gadsa and has sensitized them about their rights. When we asked her how the community perceives her, she said, "Mujhe par mahilaye bahaut garv karti hain aur meri ek hi call par meeting main aa jaati hai" (The village women are proud of me and come for meeting as soon as I call them).

Begma Devi was given the award for Best Community Work by the United Nations Development Programme and was also awarded for Facilitating Green Economy by the Earth Day Network. She ended the interview by saying that "Poverty can be sustainably conquered by empowering women."