A New lease of life to the tribal community

Alluwada village in Komarada mandal, Vizianagaram district is located around 15 km away from the mandal headquarter. Like many other poor tribal families in the region, it was indeed a struggle for Mrs. Mellika Kalavathi, age 32, to meet both ends of her family – husband and 3 children. There was no financial support from her husband, an alcoholic addict. The whole burden of managing the affairs of the family was on her shoulder. The family owned 1 acre of barren land and it was not used for cultivation due to lack of irrigation facility and poor investment capacity. The whole family managed by the income earned by Mrs. Kalavathi by working as daily labourer. During agriculture she used to earn Rs. 1000 to 1,500/- per month. During lean period there was no work and the family really had to struggle to have a single meal a day. “In certain months we did not even have enough money to buy the subsidized rice from the PDS”, recalls Mrs. Kalavathi. The precarious situation has forced her 3 children to discontinue their studies. With limited option to survive in the village her family migrated to Tamil Nadu to eke out their living. After six months of strenuous hard work the family earned Rs. 20,000/- and returned to the village during agriculture season. Within a few months the whole money was spent on household needs and their life was back to square one. It was at that juncture on invitation she attended 10 days training on Microenterprise Development Program - cultivation of climate resilient crops, conducted by Jana Kalayna Samakhya (JKS), with the support of NABARD, at Community Resource Centre, Kuneru. Being an agriculture labour, she has learned all the aspects of cultivation of climate resilient crops during the 10 days training. After the training, realizing the condition of her family, JKS supported for development of her 1 acre land and provided her with necessary seeds and seedling for starting cultivation of climate resilient crops. Even her husband came forward to support her. She cultivated crops like Cassava (Tapioca), discoria, colacassia, sweet potato, elephant foot yam, red gram and different types of vegetables etc., in her 1 acre of land. After 3 months she started getting regular income form vegetable cultivation. When she harvested other crops after 7 months, she got net benefit of around Rs. 35,000/-. It was indeed a turning point in the lives of the family. Now the family takes 3 meals a day adding vegetables, pulses and tubers to their daily diet. At the same t\she ensured that her children continue their studies. “Now my husband has stopped taking alcohol and is keen on taking one more acre of land on lease to cultivate those crops” says a visibly happy Mrs. Kalvati.