Tribal Women Empowerment- A success Story from Purulia

Purulia, the westernmost district of West Bengal surrounded by great mystery and natural beauty. However, the district is also known for its long history of drought which often finds space in the local folksongs as well as Folklores. Water development is linked closely with poverty reduction especially in low income countries that are highly dependent on rural economy (UN-WATER, 2006).

There is a classic success story coming from Purulia district how establishing a surface Water structure under West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project has empowered the tribal women not only to take part in economic activities but also bring local problems like illicit liquor sale and domestic violence under control.

Even though the WDS structure was handed over in November 2018 but as per the project guidelines the institutional support activities are initiated right after the approval of the scheme. A Water User Association was formed by including the active women members in the command area to maintain, operate and manage the scheme. The well-tailored capacity building program under the Project deliverables came out to be helpful in raising the collective aspirations of the members which contributed towards strengthening their group dynamics and actions. Their collective effort finally put the local authority into action and all the illicit liquor dens were uprooted.

Mangali Mandi, 42, Secretary of Gokulnagarpally Unnayan WUA as well as a passionate farmer is a proud woman because now she can sell her produce in the market and keep some savings for her children. Till a year ago, production from her 5 bigha plot of land was not even enough to fill her granary. Completely at the mercy of the rain and traditional long duration paddy varieties, she was getting a yield of not more than 2-2.5 quintals per bigha during kharif which was kept solely for home consumption. However, erratic monsoon rainfall pattern often compels her to sale some stock to avail irrigation from private suppliers.

But now, there is a different picture, the water detention structure which was dug just before the onset of monsoon season could harness the erratic rainfall and made it available during dry spell. Farmers like Mangali who had adopted less water consuming early short duration paddy variety like Shahbhagi upon recommendation from the DPMU experts were particularly benefited. For those who decided to remain with the traditional long duration paddy varieties suffered heavy crop damage as a result of the deficit rainfall that engulfed the district during Monsoon 2018.

Assured irrigation as well as drought tolerant short duration paddy variety has doubled her production from 2.5 quintal per bigha to 5 quintal per bigha. The additional 10-12 quintal enhancement of production from 5 bigha plot of land brought an incremental benefit upto Rs 18000-20000 from which she could save some amount for her children and rest she is investing for the first time on oilseed and vegetable cultivation in the coming Rabi. The community pump set bought by the WUA has also reduced the irrigation charge from Rs 100/hour to Rs 40/hour. Moreover, agricultural technologies such as seed treatment and preservation disseminated from the project have also been coming out to be productive by reducing mortality as well as maintaining seed quality.

The WUA also has been included under horticulture orchard plantation as well as fisheries program from the project which is bringing windows of opportunities for the WUA members to upscale their corpus fund. The WUA earned Rs 50, 264 from Drumstick nursery that was established with project assistance. Spawn to fingerlings culture which was introduced under the Project’s fisheries wing fetched them Rs, 1, 40,880 by selling the fingerlings to other WUAs.

 As a result, after many years migration among the local youths at the end of Kharif has come down from 40% to 5 %.

No. of WUA members having personal bank account has increased from 27 to 35. Earlier only 20 % of the husbands in the village were involved in the agricultural activities, rest were found spending time in the liquor dens. Now 85 % of the husbands are found engaged in the agriculture field. According to Mangali, increase in household income as a result of assured irrigation and agricultural support services has brought a paradigm shift in attitude among the village males towards the opposite sex. Males are now more accommodative as well as supportive towards their spouses.

For Mangali, She is taking decision in her house hold and also has her say in crop planning with support from her husband. She is carrying out a drive on girl’s education in the area.

According to World Bank, “the contributions from Women in agricultural labour exceed 50% in some developing countries. Closing the gender gap could increase yields on women-run farms by 20-30%. This could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5- 4%.”