A SHINING EXAMPLE OF WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Millets, Malnutrition and Rural Livelihoods: A Collective Enterprise Shows The Way

The tragic death of over a hundred children in Bihar due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) has brought the focus back on the state of nutrition in India today. Access to nutritious food continues to be a challenge even when India is food secure. The much talked about route of fortification of food through centralised factories raises a fundamental question. Rice and wheat in the public distribution system are shorn of nutrition and later fortified through micro and other nutrients and redistributed at a high cost by the Government and more recently in collaboration with other donors and CSR foundations. Are there other ways where communities are not passive recipients but also contributing to their own nutritional well-being and in the process improving rural livelihoods? A collective enterprise run by the Chinnayya Adivasi Vikas Sangam (CAVS) in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh presents an inspiring alternative wherein local millet based production systems have been reworked to improve nutrition of women and children in the tribal areas. The Neelamma Talli bakery managed by CAVS today supplies ragi and multigrain biscuits to school children of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) hostels and government schools in Srikakulam as well as at the airports in Tirupati, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam through the Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) stalls.

Unlike many other coastal Andhra districts millet production had not declined fully. Truckloads of millets found their way to Nasik and processed to serve the poultry industry even as households continued to consume millets in many tribal areas. CAVS took up the small millets programme in 2015-16 and with a gradual increase brought back millets in people’s lives. The then District Collector Mr Dhananjeya Reddy encouraged them to provide biscuits to the tribal children in the hostels whose nutrition levels needed a boost. The pilot to serve school children that began two years back has now reached significant scale. The bakery that started with a small oven with a single tray five years back and has seen constant up-gradation over the years and the current production capacity of 250 kgs/ day and a modern oven that can take up 18 trays. The unit runs on two shifts providing employment for 35 women in and around Seethampeta who are also members of a Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO). The unit serves 47 schools in the area and the biscuits are sent on a monthly basis to the schools and Anganwadi centres as well as the ITDA hostels apart from catering to the increasing demand from urban consumers.

The story of the Adivasi Sangam is one of constant engagement with the tribal communities of the region. Its founder Chinnayya was one of the few graduates in the region who started the Adivasi Vikasa Sangam in 1987 with a view to mobilize tribals to fight for their land rights. Chinnayya formed several Vana Samrakshana Samitis (VSS) in the process. Following the demise of its founder in 1996, AVS became CAVS. While the government was encouraging tribals to go for mono-crop of cashew and cash crops CAVS was keen to strengthen collective institutions and the Gram Sabha resolved in 2006 to collect the traditional seeds of the region and cultivate millets in 200 acres. The cultivation of millets continued on a low-key and received a boost with the comprehensive millets revival programme taken up by WASSSAN (Watershed Support Services and Activities Network) with the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2016. CAVS was one of the active partners and introduced improved cultivation practices such as Guli Ragi and System of Millet Intensification techniques to improve the productivity. With a strong base of collective institutions and a collaborative approach of working with the local Government work increased manifold.

The local administration today purchases close to 80-90% of the biscuits and the women and child department purchases millet-based nutri-mixes for pregnant women. Jaggery from the area is also used for making groundnut balls that is sent to the hostel children. Importantly the process of addressing malnutrition in the region has led to improved rural livelihoods in a remote tribal area through collective entrepreneurship by the women.

Leading the initiative is Padala Bhudevi, the secretary of CAVS and Kailash the CEO of the Manyadeepika Farmers Producer Company. The three-year old FPO has close to 1000 members and caters to the diverse production requirements of its members. Apart from the bakery, the FPO and CAVS have been able to procure and process millets both for sale at local farmers markets (rythu bazaars). The FPO is also a stakeholder of a medium-level millet processing unit, Manyam grains, in Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district and Bhudevi one of the Directors. Borra Srinivas the Director of Manyam grains and a rural management professional was one of the participants of ISEED’s “Building and Managing Social Enterprises” (BMSE) in February 2019 and had facilitated the visit to the FPOs involved in millets in the region. Manyam procures, processes and markets millets from the FPOs and has been in operation for the last six months.

The journey of CAVS ably led by Bhoodevi is an inspiring journey of tribal women leading change through collective institutions that began work on a rights-based approach but has effectively used its local presence and strength to leverage these institutions towards collective entrepreneurship. These local institutions have not just enhanced members’ welfare but have improved the nutrition levels of the school children in 57 villages in the region. This rural India initiative has used ideas of the circular economy by enhancing local production and consumption systems for improved health and well being of the tribals and offering healthy products for the urban consumer too.

The next time you pass through the airports of Andhra Pradesh do look out for the GCC stall and taste the ragi and multigrain biscuits that would soon come out in attractive packets. Munching the millet biscuits can improve our health while improving livelihoods of tribals.

The Woman Who Works To Bring Prosperity To The Villages

A firebrand personality, from the tribal village belt of Srikakulam district, Padala Bhudevi from the Savara Tribe, leads a life that's true to her name. Having taken upon herself a unique journey, of collecting and transplanting traditional seeds, she brings back a legacy from the brink of extinction. Jaya Siva Murty brings you the story.  LAYING THE GROUNDWORK  Her story started with her father Chinnaya, who was a resident of Seethampeta. Life in and around the village belt had its share of problems as this was a belt that neither came under the agency area nor under the plains. Lack of protection and government support, led to cases of missing land documents, land grabbing and other issues. Due to low awareness, many residents would succumb to circumstances. Moved by the villagers' plight and defiant on making a difference, Chinnaya, started to work for their welfare, forming the Adivasi Vikas Trust in 1996. He thus helped people through awareness and coordination between the authorities and the parties. In the meantime, Bhudevi had been married into another village. The birth of three daughters was a point of contention, and eventually, Bhudevi's husband abandoned her and the daughters. She returned to her parent's house in the year 2000 with her three daughters in tow. Working as a daily wage labourer, for her father wanted her to be financially independent, she eventually became an active participant and a governing member with the trust. In 2007 Chinnaya passed away, and the onus of the work fell upon her shoulders. Changing the name of the NGO to Chinnaya Adivasi Vikas Trust, she started taking an active interest in its work. "The problem of the villages cannot be solved from a distance, so for the next nine years I went and lived in the villages and travelled to 62 villages in three mandals."                                                                  FINDING ANSWERS  She identified many problems, ranging from a lack of proper roads to the availability of basic amenities such as potable water, health awareness and educational facilities. She began to approach the government and with the help of ITDA, she started spreading awareness on these matters to the people in the village. For every issue that needed government support, she would sit and wait at the offices, just to make them understand and implement her ideas. "It took me three years just going around government offices, sitting there and getting them to listen." It wasn't easy, but people began listening to her and soon solutions for problems started falling in place.  SEEING THE LIGHT  The health awareness camps were eye-openers in themselves. They showed the reality of how people had low haemoglobin, low immunity and health problems. In fact, in one of the villages, babies were being born with severe deformities. Delving deeper into the problem revealed that a healthy diet was missing. Trying to seek a local solution for the local problem, Bhudevi sat down a meeting with the elders of the village. Talks and discussions came about as the elderly reflected about their good old days. They spoke about how they led a more energetic life and also had three to four children without any health issues. The issue of old nutritive value missing in today's food, lack of minor millets, and the current grains not being strong varieties as the past, were highlighted.                                                                           THE SEED IDEA  The solution for collecting traditional seeds came about. Going to different houses, Bhudevi and her team started to collect the seeds that some families had saved up for many years. These were then distributed to others and were sown. The harvest was further distributed to people. And in her small quiet yet firebrand way, a revolution started to sprout. The implementation had its hurdles. An awareness camp first had to be conducted and organisations like WASSAN and NABARD in Hyderabad provided their support through the process. Today Bhudevi has collected 125 variants of seeds from the farmers, and each of these has been cultivated to keep the strain alive. Not only this, she and her team of 25 members are also looking at the processing and marketing of forest produce, in a way that it lends health to the village people while providing a good source of income. They are thus making value-added products like tamarind, turmeric, millets and other produce.  With minor millets being their core area of focus, aspects of costs, planning and value addition are taken care of by WASSAN. Neelammatalli Millets Biscuits and many products are being produced today. The Comprehensive Revival of Millets Programme (CRMP) started in 2016 by Bhudevi, is now a national programme too and nutritional biscuits are supplied to 47 hostels, with 15000 being sent to the city every day.                                               Having accomplished so much, Bhudevi isn't resting on her laurels just yet. She travelled to China in 2013 to study how they were cultivating grains. In order to expand her knowledge base, she also visited the Netherlands to know about their farming techniques. The road for her is still a long one, and there's much to do. Trying to revive tribal medicine, by bringing formal recognition for it is a dream. Working on henna, which is abundantly available in the reserve forest area is a dream closer to realisation. 30 women have been trained in making mehendi cones and hair-care products with it. 15 of them are already generating income through this project she shares. Sowing the seed of an idea, Bhudevi has also planted hope for the people in her community. We can only wish that it grows into the tree of life, sustaining those around it and spreading its branches far and wide.                                                                                                                                                                      #silenceworlds.com