Swarna Basumatary is a native of Sonpur Village. He family hails from Assam’s tribal Bodo Community and her father is a farmer. Swarna studied until Grade IX. She was married off at a very young age. However, her husband was an alcoholic so she left even without any possessions on her own and started living separately.
She has a son who is studying in Grade XI and a daughter who is an incoming college student. She worked as a helper in other people’s houses to earn a living for her family. Swarna’s financial condition was very bad and she lived on the charity of people who pitied her.
Then Swarna joined Kokila Vikas Ashram (KVA), a member organization of SEWA, the national implementing agency of MTCP2 Programme in India. With the help of KVA, Swarna worked hard to learn skills in weaving and tailoring. Eventually, she was able to create a name for herself with her crafts.
Swarna became independent and now makes her own decisions including switching her religion from Hinduism to Christianity. From someone who had nothing to call her own, no roof over her head, and who does not get respect from the society because of her situation, Swarna gained a lot from her organization and KVA is proud to have her as their member.
Established in 1986, the Kokila Vikas Ashram (KVA) operates on the lines of Gandhian principles and values on rural development, livelihood opportunities, employment generation and self-reliance. The organization aims socio-economic transformation by creating awareness, capacity building, organizing the rural people, skills training of youth and women, and educating the children. KVA works in Gahpur Sub Division of Sonitpur Districts and focuses on the empowerment of the Boro Tribal Community living in the North Bank of Bhramaputra. KVA is one of the farmer organizations under the MTCP2 Programme in India.
About MTCP2
The Medium Term Cooperation Program Phase 2 (MTCP2), a five-year capacity building program supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the European Union (EU), has been implemented in 19 countries across three sub-regions—Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific—engaging 1,544 sub-national farmers organizations (FOs) with a total membership of around 22 million farmers. The funding support (total budget of $ 5 million for the whole duration of the project across 19 countries) serves as a catalytic fund that will allow FOs to enhance their capacity to be effective channels of economic services to farmers. So far, the program has contributed to the formation of strong national platform of FOs with improved capacity to engage in policy processes and mobilize resources from mainstream agricultural development programs like extension services, credit, and pre and post harvest facilities. The program also helped in transforming farmers associations into commodity-based cooperatives to strengthen the role of small-scale farmers within an inclusive and sustainable value-chain. The program is being implemented by the consortium Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and La Via Campesina (LVC).
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