Mrs. Poojadevi Nishad, aged 30yrs, wife of Awadhesh Kumar Nishad resides in the village along with her family in Kanjausa village, on the banks of Yamuna Pahuj in the district of Bundelkhand. Earlier both husband and wife worked as a daily wage earner and for extra income her husband migrated to cities. Still the household income was not enough to meet the expenses. With an objective of developing alternate sources of income for her family, she first associated with Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan in collaboration with Save Indian Farmers, Poojadevi added to the SHGs and also ensured daily availability of organic vegetables for her family by setting up a nutrition garden in her own back yard through a sustainable livelihood development project of Kitchen Garden. She is a woman who has been actively engaged with self- help groups, entrusted with the responsibility of the post of a president and has worked with Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan for the last 2yrs.
After enrolling in the program, she not just motivated other members of her Self Help Group to join the program but also motivated 50 other women to come together and expand the budding business. Today 05 new SHGs were created. Poojadevi has one and half bigha of land where all SHG member of her group worked together with the use of organic manure and as a result, she saved Rs. 50.
The reason for her intrigue in the program was due to the nature of her family’s diet. Poojadevi mentioned that prior to joining the program her family’s diet lacked diversity and consisted mostly of the crops what they could purchase from the market. She further noted that relying on the market for food can be costly; thus, their family could not expand their diets through the market.
She has limited knowledge but was enthusiastic in trying new things. Now she became a motivation for many women and working as a trainer in the village. Poojadevi Nishad not only enhanced nutritional status of her family but also earned additional income from scale of surplus produce.
The kitchen garden model by Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthanincludes usage of diversified seeds and improved sustainable farming practices. Indulgence of household with the organization enhances access to vegetables and fruits; increases skill sets in usage of sustainable agricultural practices and utilization of nutri-dense foods and also provides additional income generation activities.
