| Buddhi Maya's Painful Days Gone Away |
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Buddhi Maya Praja-32 never thought before that her distress family would receive this type of pleasure and happiness in her village Polaghari. Her house is enlightened not only by solar panel she has installed for lighting but with her economy gradually changing to a better perspective.
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Polaghari where she lives is not so far from highway. One can reach there in one hour walking. Polaghari is a settlement of most deprived 20 chepang families. Possibly, there are no other poor in Manahari VDC deprived than these people say Mr. Navin Subedi, Field Supervisor of MDI. This village remained in isolation for many years from development perspectives. People say that no any development workers were seen in this village before entry of MDI-Nepal.
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Buddhi Maya has seven family members. Out of them five are small children. She cultivates in steep slopes called "Khoriya". She has no other land except khoriya. Maize and millets are main crops grown in Khoriya following slash & burn practices. However, this production is not enough to feed her family even for 3 months. For many years she lived with hardship and utter distress. Her family had to live eating roots of wild food plants called Githha, Bhyakur and Chuhiya during the period of food deficits. |
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| Many nights she passed with starvation. Her husbands Mr. Sancha Bahadur Praja had routined work going to churiya jungle (National Park) at every fortnight, collect Amriso, Nigalo, Bamboo Shoots and sell it in local market in Manahari and buy foods. Not only the Sher Bahadur had this routine, but all the 20 chepang families of this village had same fate. They had to live in the jungle for many days for collecting these commodities. It was really a risky job for them due to threats of wild animals and park administration. In many events women also had to join at this risk. If they are captured by the buffer zone security they had to pay a heavy cost to get out of this trap. |
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During 2003 MDI entered into this village with small projects from Danida. MDI organized a meeting in the village. All chepang families including Buddhi Maya joined the meeting. They were asked what type of projects they would prefer to improve their livelihood. They asked for drinking water, irrigation and preferably some other income generating projects. They formed Churiyamai Group and all 20 households joined the group.
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Now, Polaghari has received small drinking water and irrigation project. All households have been involved in planting banana and pineapples in sloping lands (khoriya). Buddhi Maya also planted 500 plants of banana in the beginning. Each year she is expanding banana farming. Last year she planted additional 1000 banana plants in khoriya. Now, she has more than 2000 banana plants in her khoriya land giving regular income.
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Asked her how is life going on these days?. With smiling, Buddhi Maya tells "No problem now. It happened three years we have left eating roots of wild food plants and have stopped going in churiya jungle in search of forest products. Just yesterday I sold banana with Rs. 3,000. I have still 90-100 bunches in the farm ready for harvesting. Now, any time I can harvest my banana and sell it in Manahari Bazar. There is no market problem. Since cultivation of banana & vegetable crops my children have never faced hunger. Each month I can receive Rs.1,500 to Rs. 2,000 by selling banana. Annually I can receive Rs. 20-30 thousand by this crop".
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Buddhi Maya has also constructed small plastic water harvesting tank where excess water is collected by tapping overflow water from drinking water scheme. This is used for irrigating vegetable crops. Her husband is more attentive in vegetable farming. They grow vegetable like tomato, early cauliflower and beans preferably in off-season to get good price. Each year he receives from Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 8,000 by sales of vegetables.
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Buddhi Maya and her family are no poorer now. They have attained dignified and prosperous life. Earlier the people of Manahari Bazar had very disgrace look over them. They would have denied giving food stuffs in credit. Now, they respect Buddhi Maya and even ask for taking goods on credit. But, Buddhi Maya denies taking on credit. With cash in hand she can choose cheaper shops in Manahari Bazar. Any time she can buy the things she wants and meet her family needs. With deep satisfaction Buddhi Maya tells "those painful and starving nights gone away. Thanks to MDI for bringing these changes in my family".
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