Saving for that rainy day
Tarannum Manjul Posted online: Sunday , Nov 29, 2009 at 2324 hrs
Lucknow : This year, as drought cast its shadow across Bundelkhand, no
one in Chandauli village in Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh went
hungry. Instead, they turned to the grain banks that the women of the
village had set up a year ago.
Chandauli, like the rest of the villages in Bundelkhand, has been
under a spell of drought for the last five years. Villagers of this
Dalit-dominated village usually bought grains from local landholders
at hefty prices or promised to pay back with interest. But that
changed in 2008, when late but abundant rainfall in Bundelkhand
allowed a good harvest of the rabi crop. That's when the women of
Chandauli decided to save for bad times. The plan was that every
household would save at least a basketful of grains.
Pankunwar, a member of the Mahila Ekta Sangh who was among those who
set up the grain bank, says, "We always save some grain in our houses
if we managed to get something beyond our regular supply. But this
time, during a meeting of our Sangh, we decided that we should be
doing something to help the entire village."
Pankunwar and five other women met Manoj Kumar of Kriti Shodh
Sansthan, an organisation that helped the villagers create a village
disaster management committee. Together, they decided that with the
extra grain, they would set up a grain bank and each household would
be asked to contribute as much as they could.
"Manoj bhai told us that we should ensure that a minimum of 20 kg is
collected from each household. As we met in a small room, we decided
to start off the grain bank immediately—ten women in our group donated
20 kg each. And with this, we started our grain bank," says Pankunwar.
Manoj's organisation, with support from international support agency
ActionAid, pitched in with two quintals of wheat.
And so, every month, women of the group donated some grain to the
bank, even if they couldn't donate 20 kg. Bharti Devi, treasurer of
the grain bank, says they drew up a plan to distribute the grains in
times of emergency. "Families that have 2 to 5 acres will be given
grain on interest. Families who owned less than two acres will pay
back the principle amount. And those who did not have any land would
be given free grain," she says.
Soon, the grain bank started giving grain on interest. Since the last
one year, around 1 quintal and 60 kg of grains have already been
loaned out. One of the recipients, Rampyari, took 40 kg of grain and
gave back 50 kg. Similarly, Rajabai took 20 kg of grain and gave back
25 kg. Rekha, the sister of a debt-ridden villager who had committed
suicide, was given 20 kg of grain for free.
ActionAid's Utkarsh Kumar Sinha, who has been monitoring these grain
banks, says, "Women always have the habit of saving for tough days.
After the success of the Chandauli grain bank, other neighbouring
villages too set up their own banks."
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