Kitchen gardens brings Socio economic change in remote villages of Bundelkhand

Dr. Utkarsh Sinha

How difficult the conditions of women are in Bundelkhand, but how they are coming out of it by making a new beginning in the same difficult conditions, can be understood from Manju’s story.

40 year old Manju’s village Keshavpura is 14 kilometers away from Jhansi district headquarters. Like other women living in a village far away from the city, Manju was also living with her routine life. In such an environment where the women of the house were the last to get food, Manju used to support her family by doing farming and labor work.

Most of the women in this area of poverty and traditional environment are suffering with malnutrition.

Manju lives in her house with three children. Her husband works as a laborer. Manju helps him in farming. She used to meet and talk to women in the village. Meanwhile, Volunteers of Parmarth Samajsevi Sansthan reached to the village. Where after meeting with the women of the village, they formed their own Panchayat Committee and Poshan Panchayat Samiti, The committee started regular meetings and planned to find some space in their village to establish a kitchen garden, to  ensure the availability of vegetables in their own house and to earn and save some money for them self .

Manju come forward to lead the meetings with the women in her village. Parmarth supported them and provided seeds to started planting kitchen gardens in the surroundings of their homes. Now, not only kitchen gardens are there in the village, the women also worked on various issues related to them.

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Manju is doing all the work with great responsibility, including saving water, encouraging people to set up their own kitchen gardens in the village and holding meetings with local community and holding Gram Sabha meetings too.

I would like to thanks to Parmarth and Mission Samriddhi for this change, Now the income of about 20-25 families increased and there was economic and social change in our lives,  Manju Said.