Monthly Archives: October 2020

The livelihoods of rural and tribal population of Rayagada greatly affected due to the lockdown combating COVID-19 Pandemic. Their livelihoods primarily revolve around agricultural practices and daily labour works. Though the government has permitted for agriculture and MGNREGS works in later stage of lockdown, but getting agricultural input support was a challenge. Meantime, the MGNREGS works got affected due to monsoon break.

In order to give some respite to the poor tribals, the Child Development Project team of CYSD, in consultation with the community people, proposed to the Block and District Administration for promotion of individual vegetable cultivation projects, in the form of nutrition garden model, under MGNREGS. The District Administration had agreed with the proposal and advised Project Team to extend required support to the Kolnara Block Administration in mobilising the community. As per the proposed model, each beneficiary was suggested to get 34 man-days for land development and fencing of garden area measuring 1200 sqft.

In order to carry forward the proposed Nutrition Garden project works, community meetings were conducted in each village of the outreach areas for collection of individual applications, making the job demand under MGNREGS and dissemination of input support. In this Khariff season, the Project could mobilise and able to technically support around 540 households under 5 panchayats of Kolnara block for the vegetable cultivation in Nutrition garden model and linked with MGNREGS for generating wages.

After completion of land preparation, getting required quantity of vegetable seeds was a big challenge. Whatever vegetable seeds was supplied by the Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM) to the beneficiaries, that was not adequate to cover the entire garden area. So, the Project Team approached to the Deputy Director of Horticulture, Rayagada to provision seeds for the left out beneficiaries. Considering the gamut of situation, the Deputy Director, Horticulture was agreed and supplied vegetables seeds in mini kit (13 varieties of vegetable seeds) for distribution to the remaining beneficiaries of the Project area.

“Indeed, this agriculture input support ‘vegetable seeds’ is a great help for us to meet the vegetable requirements of our family as well as to fulfil the nutritional deficiencies and sell the surplus ones to procure allied household items”, says Suba Kantabansa, a successful vegetable grower from Gouda Lelibadi village.  “We are really thankful to CYSD Team for restoring our livelihoods and supporting timely to get out of this pandemic burden”, added delighted Suba.

 In the upcoming Ravi season, the Project has target of supporting 1000 households for vegetable cultivation under Nutrition Garden Model.

Manjulata, a tribal girl of 19 years, got married to Dhruba Charan Mohanta of Taramara village in Thakurmunda Block of Mayurbhaj in 1997. Dhurba is the third son of Mahendra Mohanta, who is having four sons with a family of 20 members. The family members fully depend on farming & daily wage. Mahendra used to cultivate 1 acre of own land and 2 acres on share cropping basis following traditional method of cultivation. As a result, the agricultural production was limited within 4 quintals per acre and whatever they produce from agriculture that hardly continued up to 5 months. But, they could manage their livelihoods supplementing wages out of daily labour, the second livelihood option of the family. 4 daughter-in-laws of Mahendra including Manju used to collect Sal leaves and prepare plates out of leaves. They sell the leaf plates in nearby market and spend the earned money for procuring rice and dal. This process continued till 2005 as there was no other option for improvement of the family. In the meantime, Manju became a mother of 3 daughters.

 Being a farmer’s daughter, after her marriage Manju was observing that her father-in-law had been practicing broadcasting method in paddy cultivation. Out of 3 acres of land, production of paddy comes maximum up to 12 quintals per year. Manju, with confidence, insisted her father-in-law to change the existing traditional pattern of cultivation and to adopt line sowing for better yield and she committed to support in applying her advanced knowledge gained from the training imparted by CYSD in 1996. But Mahendra did not accept Manji’s advice. Rather, reluctantly allowed Manju and her husband Dhurba to start line sowing paddy cultivation in one acre of land on trial basis. Surprisingly, the result was very good – the production increased to 8 quintals from 4 quintals. Since then not only her family members accepted this innovative method of agriculture, but the entire villagers of Taramara adopted line sowing method after seeing the magical progress brought out by Manju.

The story of Manju does not end here. The first child of Maju was a daughter. The problem arose when she gave birth a second girl child.  The in-laws were much reluctant in accepting a second girl child. The issue further increased when she delivered to a third girl child. Manju shared the issue with her husband and motivated him for adopting family planning. Her husband was agreed but the parent-in-laws strongly opposed it. But, Manju being a headstrong lady, could visualize her children’s future and better education. Taking the permission of her husband she underwent for Tubectomy sterilization in 2006. Presently, her three daughters have successfully completed their High School Certification Examination securing First Division each. The first daughter got married at the age of 22, the second daughter is continuing her Graduation and the third one has taken admission in +2 (for higher secondary education). “I will not give marry to any of my daughter before attending the age of 21 years, as I am aware regarding the consequence of child marriage”, shared Manju, a proud mother of three daughters.

Educating her 3 daughters and giving one daughter’s marriage could only possible when Manju became an active member of Taramara Women’s SHG group promoted by the Child Development Project of CYSD. She was motivated to initiate a goat rearing project through availing a loan of Rs.5000 from the SHG. With the amount she procured 3 female goats in 2008 to start goat rearing in a small way and later received another she goat as gift from her father. With the proper care, she could increase the goat population up to 15 within 3 years’ time. Meantime, she has repaid the loan taken from the SHG. “We are living a happy life and the goat rearing is the real source of our happiness. We are getting food from agriculture, but meeting other household requirements from goat rearing. At the time of financial need, we needn’t have to borrow money from anybody, but we meet the requirement by selling a goat”, shared Manju delightfully while paying her thankfulness to CYSD team.

 Definitely, a woman can bring changes in the society, if she gets a chance! The responsibility of our society is to give her a space to demonstrate her innovation.

“I will not let other children in my community to become school drop out any more”, says Ratu Golari, a 14 years old boy from Hathiagonda village of Somanathapur Panchayat under Korukonda block of Malkangiri district. After completion of his Class-V, Ratu decided to drop school going due to meagre pecuniary condition of his family.  Ratu’s family comprises of his parents and an elder brother. The parents are engaged in agricultural work, whereas his elder brother works in a construction site as well as assists his parents in farm activities at times.

Korukonda block being the operational area of CYSD Child Development Project, this case came to the notice of its Program Team. A counselling team of the project encouraged Ratu to continue his study, but it was a bit difficult task for the team to persuade a small child for continuing his education who seemed quite disinterested to pursue his higher study. After continuous visit to his home accompanying a local community mobiliser, the project team counselled him including his parents and eventually Ratu backed to school in Class-VII.

Repeated counseling and provisions of study materials could have ignited Ratu’s interest and made him more lively and enthusiastic in study. During this Covid-19, he was provided with educational kit (pen, wordbook, storybooks, compass, notebooks etc.) which helped him continue his education at home, thus preventing him from losing touch with his previous learnings.  While acknowledging his thankfulness to CYSD for enlightening his future by taking care of his study, Ratu says, “I will be a teacher in future and will never allow other children in my community to become out of school any more”.

Besides, during this difficult times of pandemic, Ratu’s family was provided with survival kits – dry ration and basic amenities and further supported to earn their livelihoods. Since his parents are engaged in paddy cultivation, along with other farmers, they have received free agricultural input support, like paddy seeds. They have been informed about the use of novel and better farming techniques through the “Mo Upakari Bagicha” scheme introduced by the government of Odisha. This year, with the help of CYSD team, the family has been able to successfully implement the line-transplantation technique in paddy cultivation, knowing the fact that the new method has better benefits and outcomes than the general broadcasting technique. This will lead to better germination of seeds, easy pest application and weed management. “The adoption of line-transplantation method hopefully increase in the productivity of crop at a good pace as the fertilizers and other nutrients are available to all the plants in equal amounts”, shared father of Ratu with cheerful face.

Mencha, a 45 years old widow from Hatigoda tribal dominated remote village in Thakurmunda block of Mayurbhanj district took a great challenge in nurturing her 3 children – two daughters and one son, when her husband – Benudhar Gaipai passed away due to serious illness in 2017. That time, her elder daughter Anima was about to appear the High School Certificate Examination in two days ahead. Anima managed to complete her examination in First Division securing 63% marks and now continuing her higher study in Dharanidhar Maha Vidyalaya, Kendujhar. The second daughter, Pratima has been studying in Draupadi Girls’ High School, Nisaposi from 8^th Std. with all sincerity and her participation in various programmes is remarkable.

Being an Anganwadi Worker, Mencha manages a 4-member family with limited remuneration including children’s education. Knowing the value of education, she tries her level best to impart better higher education to her children. They have only a small homestead land of 0.30 Acre.

This year, Pratima had appeared the HSC Examination and got First Division securing 74.52% marks (446 marks out of 600). Among the Scheduled Tribe students, to her credit, she has been declared as Topper in Thakurmunda Block and felicitated by both Debabrata Memorial Charitable Trust and Block Administration in her success.

Being a sponsored child of CYSD’s Child Development Project since 2020, Pratima has been supported for her education in particular and Draupadi Girls’ High School, Nisaposi in general in terms of infrastructure, water facility, Computer lab, Library, study materials in every year, training, orientation & exposure to students & teachers. This helped Pratima a lot to perform well in her study. As a sponsor child, her family also availed varied support from CYSD including dry ration and hygiene kits during this Covid-19 pandemic.

“My dream is to fly high becoming a Doctor and serve the deprived people for which I am aspirant to get admission in +2 Science in Dharanidhar Maha Vidyalaya, a good college in Kendujhar. Also, I am thankful to CYSD for standing behind me throughout and supporting my family during any crisis”, says Pratima enthusiastically.

Being part of Odisha Chapter of “Rapid Community Response to Covid-19 (RCRC) Coalition, CYSD in association with Gram Vikas, Harsha Trust and Shristi is currently implementing a common project in some select Blocks of Odisha. A study on “Monitoring Rural Lives during the Pandemic” was conducted by RCRC in July 2020. One of the key findings of the study revealed that there is a significant impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the mental state of affairs of the rural community mentioning 72 percent of the households surveyed have fear and anxiety, followed by 39 percent have come across irritation /anger and 15 percent sleeplessness. In this context, providing psycho-social support to the people in need, as one of the critical interventions, has been planned under this project.

To take the process forward, a three-day virtual orientation programme (1st Sept. to 3rd Sept.) on psycho-social support (of 8 hours’ duration in total) was organized for 32 Community Resource Persons (CRPs) and the Programme Coordinators of RCRC Odisha partners, facilitated by Ms. Sushree Mishra, a Senior Counselor on psycho-social. After training, the CRPs involved in this project, as ambassadors of mental wellness, have visited different families and initiated conversation on mental health, impact of Covid-19 pandemic and people’s experience during this phase.

The CRPs shared their experiences from the ground during the follow-up training programmes organized on 15^th and 26^th Sept. 2020. While there were dozens of cases the CRPs wanted to share and get further support, only three cases were discussed and supervised for the clarity and benefit of all the participants. The CRPs like Jemamani Mahanta, Hemalata Mahanta and Khirodini Mahanta volunteered to share their learning and experience.

Jemamani shared how there was little scary to start the dialogue on mental health. To her surprise, she told within 30 minutes, one after another all the family members joined her and shared their struggle. They were pleasantly surprised as someone paid a visit and asked about their well-being, as other villagers had ostracized them due to the corona positive case in their family. Sharing her experience, Jemamani told that she had tried to reach out to a family when she came to know they are in a difficult situation. Within no time the family members could openly express about the existing mental illness in the family and how they feel so clueless about it. “It’s an everyday stress, an everyday problem,” family members shared. While one of them was in tears, another was looking at the open sky with some hope.

Hemalata, while visiting a family, offered empathy and talked to them about the Citizen Support Center Helpline (8880592592) set up by CYSD. She discussed with the family members about the psychosocial support provided by the professionals through this programme. The family requested her to come back again and help them make a call to Helpline. They were more than thankful for the presence of Hemalata.

Khirodini, who herself has recovered from Corona, is no less than a warrior. She actually didn’t listen to others instruction for not visiting other villages. She was convinced to provide her valuable services to a family, which was recently under home quarantine.

While talking about Covid-19 impacts, many stories, many struggles, Khirodini just shared a girl’s case who was reported attempting suicide simply due to the sheer difficulty in everyday life. She patiently listened and showed them a video (End your Problem, not Life) on the same issue. The same girl thanked Khirodini and promised her not to harm her life again.

Being an eyewitness, Khirodini has been trying to make herself believe that she was one of the sufferers. Despite all these, she provided required support to the affected families for which she is trained. Many more such lived cases connected to psycho-social support will come through our CRPs, the ambassadors of mental wellness, in near future phase-wise.