Petty Business for Sustainable Livelihood
Situated at a distance of 63 km from district headquarters Bolangir, Limpada is a remote village under Patrapalli GP of Muribahal block. Most of the inhabitants here are small and landless farmers who hardly find any work during the off-season. So, it is difficult to maintain their livelihood forcing many of them migrate to neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and MP for work.
Bhaskar Chhura, aged 41, is an inhabitant of this village.He is poor and low-literate having noagricultural land of his own. So, he works as farm labour in the area during the kharif season to support his family consisting of 4 members - his wife and two children besides himself. As there is no work in the region after that, he has to live in hardship borrowing money from the local money lenders to meeting bare necessities like food and medicine till December when he, along with his family members would migrate to Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu or Madhya Pradesh for 6 months (December to May) to work in the brick kiln every year. However, they had to undergo hardships and exploitation. The wage they used to receivewas just enough for their subsistence and clearing of the debt. Besides, they were forced to work for long 13 to 14 hours during day and night which resulted in ill health.
Bhaskar lamented that had to live like animals in an unaccustomed area. Besides, his children’s education was destroyed while the family missed out the government schemes.?Sometimes on return they would find their house in dilapidated condition demanding immediate repair.
It was at this juncture that NYDHEE organised meeting in the village and Bhaskar was selected as a beneficiary under the PHF project when the NYDHEE experts were aware about his plight. They also came to know that Bhaskar was interested in starting a business but could not due to lack of fund. In February 2022 the NYDHEE staff discussed a business plan with him and by March 2022 they supported him a grant of Rs 5000/- for sustainable livelihood.
With this grant money, he started a small business of selling dal or pulses.?He went to the local market twice a week, the rest of the day he went from village to village selling pulses, such as green gram, black gram, horse gram, cowpea and arhar dal. He is made a living from the income he earned from starting of the business. Then he planned to save his income from the business and started farming. As his income increased, he saved moreand was able to accumulate Rs 10,000/-. In July he acquired a land on lease and cultivated paddy on leased land. ‘It would provide food for 9 to 10 months and there willbe no shortage of food’, says Bhaskar. ‘Now I will save money in my bank account to send my son to schoolI am very happy that NYDHEE has encouraged and supported me to start a business Initially, I was scared but I am very happy and enjoy the business and I am sure that I can earn for our family from the business and would not go farawayplaces for work. Because it made me aware of wealth and gave me the wisdom of sustainable livelihood’, says Bhaskara Chhura