Migrant Women Regenerate Rural Agriculture & Livelihood
Thousands of migrants returned to their villages when they could no longer survive in the cities where they worked. The returning migrants faced stigma, & were without money, without work, with inadequate food. The migrant workers exodus from cities to rural areas triggered by the pandemic resulted in multiple crises for rural poor, whilst reaffirming, one of the core principles of SSP’s work. When a crisis sets in –If you listen to women & carefully observe how they solve everyday problems, they will set you on the path to recovery.
As an answer to the crisis, women’s groups on the ground responded swiftly. organized themselves into 5-10 members Task Forces and devised a series of strategies to get returning migrants employed.
Women leaders like Anjana in Latur put a step forward to understand the situation of the returning migrants. In village after village, community leaders have mapped clusters of migrants and guided, counseled women – advocated with Panchayats to find them jobs, job cards with PDS systems to get rations cards and free rations. Anjana with her cadre of village leaders have surveyed and listed over 2500 incoming migrant families across 34 villages, and made a blueprint for skills and job creation. Anjana has established a very neat urban-rural connect between the returning migrant women who she says are “market savvy with city skills”
The women leaders touched the lives of many such migrants. Such is the story of Surekha, who, having lost all work and opportunities in the city, returned back with her husband to their village in Latur. Coming back to the village, they also brought with them the added pressure of surviving and working in an almost unknown atmosphere.
“Even though the people in the village helped us to settle down when we returned, it was really a difficult and uncertain time for us. We have been working in the cities and we did not have any experience of working in the villages.”
With constant motivation from the women leaders, Surekha took a loan of INR 15,000. The leaders have also handheld her and trained her on climate resilient farming and animal husbandry through her journey of starting something new. From there, there was no looking back. Today, Surekha has successfully started a poultry and also sells the vegetables she produces to support her family in this time of crisis.
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https://swayamshikshanprayog.org/voices-of-women/