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One pregnant crossbred cow changed Noorjahan
Mehboob's life. Hundreds of others are being aided by BAIF's
holistic approach to rural development
Noorjahan
Mehboob, a landless agricultural labourer living in Manakikere village in
Tumkur, Karnataka, made a pitiful living from agricultural and
construction labour. Things changed
dramatically when she joined the Transfer of Technology for Sustainable
Development (TTSD) Project of the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation
(BAIF). BAIF gave her Rs 10,000, and with an additional Rs 750
contributed by the other members of the project, Noorjahan bought a
crossbred pregnant cow. In four months she sold 1,050 litres of milk to
the co-operative society and earned a net profit of Rs 2,220. Noorjahan is one of the many people whose lives of
abject poverty have!
changed for the better through BAIF's interventions. Started in 1967 by Dr Manibhai Desai, BAIF, located in
Urulikanchan in Maharashtra, works to eradicate poverty through a holistic
approach to rural development. With a huge network today, BAIF now
implements multidisciplinary programmes in livestock development, water
resource management, tree-based farming systems, community health and
empowerment of women in 10,000 villages spread across Andhra Pradesh,
Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh. The focus is on socio-economically backward families.
The TTSD Project was started in 1996. The
project was implemented in 192 villages in 11 field clusters in six
districts. The project focussed on the Jana Utthan (advancement of
people) approach, which works towards reviving traditional knowledge in
income-generation activities. The Jana Utthan
appro!
ach first identifies the poorest households in a particular community.
Then the village community representatives and the families together
prepare a micro-level plan based on the family's assets. The
micro-level plan aims to assure food security and find out what an
individual household needs to rise above the poverty line. The families
constitute a People's Organisation (PO) to support each other by
managing input supplies, training, services and monitoring. The POs are
directly linked with mainstream organisations like government departments,
banks, markets, etc. BAIF's Livestock
Development Programme is supported by the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar
Yojana (SGSY) scheme, as dairy husbandry continues to be the most popular
and effective programme among the poor. The Comprehensive Tribal
Development Project, implemented by the Dharampur Utthan Vahini, a sector
of BAIF in Gujarat, works with 11,478 poor tribal families over 140 !
villages in Dharampur. Over 4259.6 hectares of wasteland have been
developed under this programme. Contact: BAIF Development Research
Foundation
BAIF Bhavan
Warje, Pune 411 029
Maharashtra, India
Tel: 91-20-523 1661/523
1662
Email:
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