April 13, 2023

From migrating every year since she was 16 to farming on her own land

Fulmani didi belongs to the Birhor community living in Simardih, Jharkhand

She says she has been migrating to work in brick kilns since was about 16 years of age and for the past 14 years. She has 3 kids now and had been growing worried about the future of her kids. She recollects painful experiences of her 14 years of migration and vows to never migrate again. Migration was her family's main source of income in a village in which nearly all families have at least one person migrating.

Fulmani didi herself had been migrating with her entire family until The/Nudge CRD's up team started working there. The birth of her 3rd child and growing food insecurity had been on her mind and she accepted to participate in our program.

With the help of our team's training on nutrition kitchen garden and vegetable cultivation she started working on her own farm of 10 decimals and in a small plot near her house. She now grows at least 4 types of crops including leafy vegetables, tomato, gobi, radish and dhaniya in her own kitchen garden. Her children and her family now have access to nutritious meals. She also grew Karela and Bindi in her farm during Rabi and sold it in the panchayat market post harvest. Although the prices were affected by COVID-19 lockdowns, she is hopeful that with the continued support of the up team she'll do better in Kharif and wont migrate this year.

"I want to send my children to the nearby government school. I don't want them to migrate or do manual labor" she vows as she rushes from her farm to her house to take care of and play with her kids for an hour before she returns to the farm.