Breaking out of tradition – Ranjan Kanwar
Women moving out of home is a taboo in Ranjan Kanwar’s community, but that could not hold her indoors, with much resistance, she became a member of an SHG, took loan to purchase a sewing machine to do stitching business, next loan was to buy a buffalo, being a Pashu Sakhi was the most significant achievement of her life. She went for a long training to Lucknow. She has been providing on-field support to 32 SHG members on goat rearing, reared five goats of her own contributing significantly in her family income and awarded at Ajeevika Diwas in Jaipur on 5th May 2018.
Ranjan Kanwar was a housewife and belongs to a traditional Rajput family, like other women in her community she was not allowed to go out of her home having her husband, their two children and his husband’s both parents.
In March 2017, when RSRLM started the formation of SHGs in her village, she was very much eager to join, but her family members did not want her to appear in public. After continuous persuasion and help of RSRLM staff, she could convince her family members and became a member of Chavanada Mata SHG on 19th March of the same year, which was the turning point in her life. She was always motivated to make something of her own, but her family did not want her to go outside; thus she took a loan of Rs 8,000 from her group and bought a sewing machine for stitching that she could do from her home.
The stitching activity had built a lot of confidence in her and then she took a bigger loan of Rs 60,000 from her SHG and bought a couple of milch-buffaloes. She started earning about Rs 6,000 per month by selling milk and contributing significantly to her family income. This had changed the perception on her in her family, and she could convince her family comfortably to be the Pashu Sakhi of her village when such offer came from her group in July 2017 and her income increased further as she started getting an honorarium of Rs 1500 per month. She took charge of supporting the livestock of a group of 32 SHG members on de-worming, vaccination, and nutrition of the animals.
Deogarh district is well known in Rajasthan for its high quality breed of goats. As per livestock census of 2012, Sirohi and Marwadi breeds of goats accounts for 52% of total livestock population in the district. Seeing the opportunity, RSRLM initiated its intervention in Goat in November 2017 through cluster approach with the help of the Animal Husbandry Department. This initiative was piloted at Anjana village under Kundva cluster, and Ranjan Kanwar was selected to help the goat rearers.
Now she did not face any problem to convince her family and went to Rajsamand for training on goat rearing for the first time, particularly on vaccination and castration. This was followed by a series of refresher training and Ranjan got a full grip on goat rearing and marketing of buck.
After six months of being a Pashu Sakhi and well-trained in goat rearing, Ranjan started taking care of five goats. She got her goat shed constructed through RSRLM under buck marketing project. After six months of rearing of goats recently, she has sold all five goats and earned Rs 25,400 at the rate of Rs 5,080 per goat.
Now Ranjan is not merely a housewife of a traditional Rajput community, but a regular earner, skilful, knowledgeable and confident women. She was recognized as the best Pashu Sakhi with the award she received at Ajeevika Diwas in Jaipur on 5th May 2018.
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