Guardians of livestock
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COMMENTS 
Anthra trains women in veterinary sciences so that they can take better care of their livestock.
The poorer the community, the more significant is the income generated from livestock activities. In rural households, it is generally the women who are responsible for looking after domestic animals. Between 1996-1997, a detailed study on the gender component in livelihoods in six districts of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, revealed that almost 90 per cent of livestock care and management was undertaken by women. With no access to curative/preventive measures, animal health was their major concern.
Anthra, formed by women veterinary scientists, concerned with livestock development issues works in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. It trains Animal Health Workers to rear and breed animals, and provide preventive and first aid care. The organisation ha! s devised various intervention programmes to strengthen ethno-veterinary knowledge, and the emphasis is on imparting traditional knowledge on animal health, which has been a male preserve.
Initially, 32 women volunteered to train as village veterinary health workers. These women can now recognise and treat at least ten different animal diseases like maggots, fever, bloat and diarrhoea. They are trained to give first aid to cattle and poultry and approach the local vet only if first aid is ineffective. Besides time-tested herbal medicines they also administer homoeopathic, ayurvedic and allopathic medicines. They also administer vaccines to village animals, which constitutes an additional income for them. Selling and preparing indigenous medicines gives them status and respect as caretakers of animals.
To restore biodiversity and alleviate the fodder crisis, Anthra aims to restore fodder varieties through forest regenerat! ion, and cultivation of fodder and medicinal plants. It maintains nurseries of fodder and medicinal plants, which are sold to regenerate forests.
A total of 94 AHWs have been trained so far (19 in Andhra Pradesh and 75 in Maharashtra). The organisation is active in 258 villages, covering a livestock population of 83,000. Mortality rates of livestock have fallen significantly in Medak, East Godavari and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Latur, Pune and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, where the study was undertaken.
Contact: Anthra
10 Lantana Gardens, NDA Road
Bavdhan, Pune 411 021
Maharashtra,India
Tel: 91-21-395 1282
! Email:
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