Forty-eight-year-old Jamuna Das owns one bigha land at Monachitura Village in Birbhum. When her husband was alive, this land was just lying idle and not being used for cropping.
After her husband’s demise in 2001, Jamuna joined IMSE Mahila Samiti. Her son and daughter were living with her then and it was challenging for her to suffice the requirements of the family as she had no source of livelihood. In fact, at one point, she thought of selling off the piece of land, but her son did not agree.
Compelled by acute financial hardships, Jamuna applied for a loan for the survival of her family. IMSE activists visited her land and found it fertile for cultivation of pulses and Kharif and Rabi crops–hence, they sanctioned a loan amount of INR 4,000 (USD 53)—of which 50% had to be used for cultivation of masur dal and 50% for mobile vegetable business. This was how she got associated with IMSE.
Today, although her son has separated from her, Jamuna is able to earn her livelihood. At the behest of IMSE, her daughter has come forward to take care of Jamuna and the latter is now at peace.
Jamuna now owns 10 kathas of land and another 10 kathas belongs to her son. In her portion of land, she deploys semi-organic cultivation practices to grow vegetables. These sorts of vegetables enjoy a good market demand which enables Jamuna to garner a hefty profit.
“IMSE came to my rescue and helped me to overcome a very critical phase of my life by taking me back to my farming roots. I shall remain indebted to them forever,” says Jamuna.
Established in 1973, the Institute for Motivating Self Employment (IMSE) works to strengthen grassroots level governance and effective participation of the poor, particularly women in the decision-making process. IMSE has been able to develop a network of more than 8,000 strong women groups in West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand with village-level units in more than 700 villages in Eastern India. IMSE is one of the farmers organizations that are part of MTCP2 India. #
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