b'We All Win:An Entrepreneur Couple Inspires a CommunityByGAURISHA MALHOTRA World Ark writer Photographs by PRANAB K. AICHAT THE BREAK OF DAWN, MOST WOMEN INmillions of others who live at the mercy of the THE VILLAGES OF THAKURMUNDA LEAVEerratic monsoon showers.THEIR HOMES and march toward the forest,Mainly dependent on small-scale farming singing tribal songs and folklores and carryingand selling forest produce, such as mehuli baskets woven of golden grass on their heads,flowers, families like Babilatas have little to intent on collecting mehuli flowers fallen fromfall back on. Women often pick up activities the local mahua trees.such as rearing goats and poultry to shoulder The grass under the mahua trees is burnttheir economic and food needs during periods to ashes, the small fragrant flowers with tenderof agricultural distress, but poor breeding white petals glimmering against the dark graypractices, inadequate shelter and lack of health ground. Spending hours scrounging the forestservices increase the risk of disease and attack and collecting baskets of mehuli flowers to sell inby predatorsall leading to frequent animal local markets adds a few more cents in the handsmortality, small herd sizes and unstable of these tribal women, most forced to toil andfinancial returns.tire their feet this way due to a lack of otherWe have been rearing goats and poultry for livelihood options. very long, but it wasnt a profitable business, In this challenging agricultural environment,said Babilata, explaining the struggle she has where poverty is high and means to earn a stablehistorically shared with most of the livestock income are scarce, Heifer is partnering with aproducers in her village. We didnt know how AFGHANISTANcommunity of would-be entrepreneurs to createto do it in a systematic manner, so there were no opportunity for themselvesand each other.From Toiling to Thriving NEPAL CHINAFarming provides jobs to millions in IndiasPAKISTAN BHUTANeastern state of Odisha, where the district of Thakurmunda is located, but it also results inThakurmundaunemployment, food insecurity and migration in the agriculturally dormant months of the year:BANGLADESHOdishas agriculture is rainfed and supports onlyINDIAa single round of crop cultivation annually.BAY OF BENGALWe have some land and we grow paddy [rice]. But, there is no irrigation system. We depend on [the] rain, shared Babilata Das, a farmer in Thakurmunda, voicing the struggle of HEIFER.ORG |43'