A ray of hope for tribal women in goatery

Amarjyoti Borah

(amarjyotiborah@gmail.com)

Even as the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in 2020 was rapidly destroying livelihood options across the country, several women in the flood and erosion-affected Morigaon district of Assam were able to start a new chapter of their lives by starting to generate their livelihood sources, something which they had not done earlier. They started rearing goats.

Apart from the pandemic, the communities here have to also suffer the impact of floods and erosions. The Morigaon district located in Central Assam by the Brahmaputra is among the most severely affected districts in the state, and according to the latest data of the Assam government the Morigaon district has lost 17,741 hectares of land to riverbank erosion since 1951 and this also includes agricultural land.

According to government rules, the state is unable to get funds from the Central government to help victims of erosion because river-bank erosion is not listed under the list of natural calamities by the government.

The Assam government has repeatedly sought the Union Government's intervention to include river erosion in the admissible list of calamities for funding under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), but there has been no positive outcome as yet.

Meanwhile, Oxfam India which was implementing the Brahmaputra River Basin Resilience Building Programme in four districts in Assam—Morigaon, Dhubri, Jorhat and Darrang— reached out to the villagers in the district immediately after the Government had announced the nationwide lockdown in 2020.

Oxfam India provided livestock to women who were from some of the most marginalized communities and were left vulnerable due to the double whammy of the pandemic and recurring floods. It also trained a team of village-level 'community workers' to oversee the grassroots level execution of the relief and support work.

"We have trained village-level community leaders in all the places where we are working – one leader in each village where we work. These leaders are our frontline workers and they ensure smooth execution of our grassroots work," said Iftikar Hussain, a project officer of Oxfam India.

Twenty-five-year-old Bodo Domlaisi Basumatary and her family from Botabari village in Dhupguri are among the victims of flood, erosion and the pandemic.

"We only have a small plot of .33 acre land left now and we can cultivate for only one season due to flood. We grow enough grains for the consumption of the family. We don't get surplus which we could have sold to earn money to meet ends," said Domlaisi. At the moment, it is the husband who works as a daily-wage labourer and sometimes even migrates to nearby towns for work. "To supplement the family's income I also sometimes work as an agricultural labourer," she adds.

Domlaisi and others like her have not received any support or rehabilitation package from the government for their eroded land.

Though she has never been to school, she wants to see her children—nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter educated. And so she is always on the lookout for additional income to fulfil her dream.

Assam was severely affected during the first phase of lockdown in 2020. The State government had constituted a committee—the Advisory Committee for Revitalization of the Economy of Assam—to prepare a roadmap for the economic recovery. The committee reported the total loss in gross state domestic product in Assam due to the COVID-19 lockdown was estimated at around INR 32,167 crore.

The committee mentioned that rural livelihood including those engaged in farming and as daily wage labourers had been impacted severely. The recommendations by the committee also included a social security scheme for workers in the unorganized sector and industry.

As people continued to lose their jobs and livelihood options, through the lockdowns and the pandemic, Domlaisi and 29 other women in the Morigaon district were taking steps towards a livelihood option that did not just bring income but also helped create an asset.

Sarala Boro, a 28-year-old woman from the Bodo tribe in Botabari village is one of the women who received 2 goats in 2020 from Oxfam India. Besides providing the livestock, Oxfam India provided veterinary support and guidance.

"We were trained on getting a good price for the goats and also connected with people who gave us a good price," said Sarala.

"Our goats gave birth to kids and their numbers have multiplied to 3. I sold two for INR 15,000. I took on lease 10 bighas of land for INR 10,000 and cultivated mustard," said Sarala. The remaining money she used to buy a bicycle for the family.

Sarala also said that a few others in her village who rear goats (not related to the Oxfam India project) suffered losses recently when some of their goats died and they weren't insured.

"Thankfully all my goats have survived. The veterinary consultations arranged by Oxfam India were very useful," she added. Sarala has bigger plans. She plans to raise her goats for the next 2 to 3 years, sell them for a good price, and use that money to start a grocery shop in the village.

Like Sarala, Domlaisi too was able to make money from the goats provided. "I managed to sell two goats this year and earned INR 13,000. I purchased a bicycle for the family. Our village has practically no means of transportation and so was very useful," said Domlaisi.

"The remaining money I am saving for my children's education. I want them to study in good institutes in the cities for a better future, and not live in poverty like us," she said.

45-year-old Rumila Bordoloi too, also from the Bodo community in Botabari village, hugely benefitted from the support she received in 2020. "I sold three goats for INR 18,000," said Bordoloi. She used INR 10,000 to repair the house and invested the remaining in the family's agricultural land for mustard cultivation.

Life is the same for the flood-affected in the Kota-Jahi village. The village falls in the Kota-Jahi gaon panchayat and is about 20 km away from Domlaisi's village.

Here, the farmers are severely flood-affected and they can cultivate for only a few months in a year. The only other option is to work as a daily wage labourer, said Mamoni Bordoloi, a woman farmer from the Kota-Jahi village. 30-year-old Mamoni, who is from the Tiwa community, has been groomed as a community leader by Oxfam India.

She added that Oxfam had reached out to them during the time of the Covid pandemic and supported many in the village with 2 goats each. She also explains that for the majority of agriculture as their primary source of income, they do look at daily wage labour to supplement their income but they are keen to try other options as well.

"The labourer wage is just INR 140 per day and the work we get is that of agricultural labourers in the field. As we don't get work every day, we are always on the lookout for work," she said.

"People here are poor and hesitant to invest money to start something new. When we approached them and offered them support and guidance, they were enthusiastic. We arranged veterinary camps for them and help in every way possible," said Mamoni.

Iftikar explained that the women for the goatery project were selected after a thorough screening process—their interest in livestock, their economic status, and consultation with community leaders who were in regular touch with the villagers.

And they were regularly monitored after the livestock was handed over to them. "We have trained one such community leader for every village where we work. They are our frontline staff," added Iftikar.

Meanwhile, with no support from the Centre for relief and rehabilitation to the erosion affected despite several appeals made by the state and thanks to bureaucratic tangles, organizations like Oxfam India have a very critical role to play in the lives of women like Sarala and Domlaisi.