It is said that no one has ever become poor by giving. Over 230 tribal families in five districts of Madhya Pradesh have proven this by sharing their resources like vegetables and fruits with their less fortunate neighbours amidst the crisis caused by the COVID-19 lockdown.
They chose to share the vegetables and fruits with families that have either malnourished children, or pregnant or lactating women, to ensure that these vulnerable groups receive adequate nutrition. Besides, the elderly, destitute and the disabled are being helped by these villagers, who themselves are facing lot of difficulties due to loss of livelihood during the lockdown.
However, the availability of vegetables and fruits from the kitchen gardens that they set up four to five years ago as part of a community-based malnutrition management project of NGO Vikas Samvad has turned out to be life saver for them and their less privileged neighbours.
During the past 40 days, about 232 families in 115 villages of Satna, Panna, Rewa, Umaria and Shivpuri districts, have shared as much as 37.25 quintal of vegetables with 425 families around them, without charging any money.
“Each of the families received around 16 kg of vegetables and fruits. This has helped 217 malnourished children, 140 pregnant and lactating women and 68 elderly persons,” Rakesh Malviya of Vikas Samvad says. The families are sharing resources selflessly despite the fact that most of them are marginal farmers or landless labourers themselves, facing crunch in the current situation, he adds.
The two daughters of Rajji Bai Mawasi of Dadin village in Majhgawan block of Satna district—Krishna and Sukanti—were severely malnourished till a few years ago. Their condition would improve temporarily when they would get admitted to the local nutrition rehabilitation centre, but they would slip back to become malnourished again, when they would be back home.
In 2016, Rajji Bai’s family decided to become part of the malnutrition management programme and started growing vegetables in a small kitchen garden in their backyard. This resulted in the family having vegetables for nine months in a year, making the diet for her daughters nutritious. This, with other interventions, saw the kids come out of malnourishment. The family was also able to sell vegetables from the kitchen garden to add to their income.
When COVID-19 lockdown was announced this March, it was this kitchen garden that helped Rajji Bai’s family to sustain. Not only this, the family had also shared about 25 kg vegetables, including tomatoes, gourds, and pumpkin, with families of Acche Lal, Ram Lakhan, Anuj, Sampatia and Buti Mawasi of the same village during the past few weeks.
“We knew that the economic condition of Acche Lal was very bad and his daughter was malnourished too. We thought that we should help this family as we know the pain of malnourished children. If we don’t help our neighbours in such crisis time, who will?” Rajji’s husband Ramkhilawan Mawasi asks.
Siyadulari Adiwasi, who has been working on nutrition issues of women and children for over 15 years in Rewa district, says when the COVID-19 situation struck, they had discussions with the Dastak women and youth groups (formed under the malnutrition management programme) about how the children and pregnant/lactating women could be helped with food and nutrition.
Normally, the villagers depend on weekly markets 20km away, for their grocery and other essentials. Lockdown brought about a big challenge due to closure of markets and loss of income.
“In Rewa district, where we work (in Java block), we had supported families for developing kitchen gardens under the community-based malnutrition management programme four years ago. During discussions, the villagers themselves decided that families with kitchen gardens should help children and women as much as possible,” she says.
Sampati Sahu of Ansara village in Chataini panchayat of Rewa district has been sharing vegetables from her kitchen garden (spinach, bottle gourd, tomatoes, pumpkin, ladies finger, potatoes and onions) with 15 families of the village, three days a week. She has selected families with children, pregnant/lactating women and those with no source of livelihood. Sampati had shared more than a quintal of vegetables with others in about 45 days.
Kesri Bai of Magarghara village in Umaria district says vegetables from the kitchen garden was also a source of income for them and when lockdown began, initially she thought that if she shared the vegetables with someone else, how would her family manage. “But then I remembered the discussions that are held during our Dastak group meetings. We always made plans to keep the children in our village healthy. Then we decided that the produce from our kitchen garden would be shared with needy people as much as possible.” So far, Kesri Bai’s family has shared 90 kg vegetables with others in the village.
Kasturi Bai of Vikrampur village in Panna district ate just chapatti and salt for two to three days after the lockdown, because she did not have anything else at home. She is disabled too. When Tulsa Bai of the village came to know about this, she took personal initiative and sent across vegetables from her kitchen garden to Kasturi. Now, since the past six weeks, Tulsa is regularly sending vegetables like tomatoes, ladies finger, brinjal and others from her kitchen garden to Kasturi Bai.
Ravi Pathak, a social worker active in Panna villages, says COVID-19 has scared the people. “But soon these people also started finding ways to survive. Despite the caste-based structure, poverty and gender discrimination in the villages, we saw unusual activity among women of the villages who have been connected with the programme of health, nutrition and leadership development since past four years,” Pathak says.
There have been unexpected benefits, too. Krishna Mawasi of Kailhora village in Majhgawan block of Satna district shared vegetables with 15 families of his village during the COVID-19 situation. When Vikas Samvad member Vijay Yaduwanshi shared this initiative on Twitter, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, took notice and appreciated the initiative. The next day, the local Member of Parliament Ganesh Singh reached Kailhora village and announced development works worth Rs 15 lakh to acknowledge the initiative of Krishna Mawasi.
