In Agra village, about 45 kilometres from Ranchi, Janu Devi, 27, dressed in her blue saree uniform, is excited about the ice box she has just received. She’s one of five women from the pashu sakhi -- meaning friend of the animals -- community in Jharkhand’s Tamar block office to get the box that stores vaccination vials for goats, poultry, and pigs.
Devi is part of a team of about a thousand women across all 24 districts of Jharkhand, recruited since October 2013, for last mile coverage of livestock management. These women, formally called community animal care service providers and informally known as doctor didis, go door to door when they’re called. They advise farmers about health check-ups for their livestock, vaccinations, de-worming, hygiene, breeding, feeding, and the management of animal waste.
The project was conceived under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, with the objective of building a line of community resource persons. In 2017-18, the Jharkhand Opportunities for Harnessing Rural Growth (JOHAR) took the project under its wing and the World Bank began funding it. World Bank data says that there are now up to 57,000 farmers who benefit.
“With the help of the pashu sakhis or doctor didis of Jharkhand, the mortality rate of goats has come down by about 30%, and of poultry by 40%,” said Pravin Singh, a senior official in the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society, a unit of the State’s agriculture department.
Compared to the days before the pashu sakhis began their work, the average income of farmers from small backyard livestock production has risen between 55 to 125 times, according to the U.K.’s Oxford Group.
Creating social change
In December, a World Bank newsletter said that the pashu sakhi model under JOHAR had been selected by the UN’sFood and Agriculture Organization and the International Food Policy Research Institute as one of the top eight global best practice models for farmer service delivery.
Besides the technical training in animal rearing though, the success of the women is because of the respect they have garnered both by their professional success and the income they bring in for their families.
Janu Devi, for instance, is a master trainer, who began as a pashu sakhi in 2018. She now trains other women, and earns ₹15,000 a month. Her family, with two daughters, has recently remodelled the roof of their house. “I spent over one lakh rupees on roof construction and it was possible only because I work as a master trainer pashu sakhi,” Devi said. As her husband rides in on his motorbike, she whispers: “This bike too was bought with my income.”
In Bhakur-Tungari village, everyone knows Balamdina Tirkey as the woman who comes around on her moped, to deliver her services to about 100 households. She’s been awarded by several organisations and is so busy it’s difficult to meet her.
Jharkhand’s livestock production is in the hands of marginal and landless farmers, with women accounting for over 70% of the production | Photo Credit: Manob Chowdhary
Aloka Devi, 30, from Ragra-Baran village, Tamar block, recently took a loan from a nationalised bank to buy a tractor for her husband.
The pashu sakhi model
Jharkhand’s livestock production is in the hands of marginal and landless farmers, with women accounting for over 70% of the production, says Tapas Ranjan Behera, the State’s head for skills, jobs, and enterprise. In fact, many of the pashu sakhis own livestock themselves.
There’s no strict criteria to be a pashu sakhi except for the women to be living in the village they serve. For instance, Palko Devi from Jaratoli village, now in her 60s, is unlettered, but has learnt how to keep records of vaccinated goats, and understands the exact time they need to be sold for higher profits. She also has a ‘button’ mobile phone to stay in touch with villagers who may reach out for help with livestock. Her yearly earnings are about ₹1 lakh, and she charges ₹10 for the vaccination of a goat, ₹2.5 for poultry, and ₹2 for de-worming.
The pashu sakhis are put through a three-level (introductory, practical, and upper) 30-day training programme over seven-day tranches on how to take care of poultry, goats, and pigs. After the training, they provide technical expertise on taking care of livestock, advise fellow villagers on the economic benefits of rearing livestock for sale, and connect farmers to producer groups and traders, helping them getting better access to markets to sell their produce.
Pashu Sakhis from different blocks showing their vaccine boxes at a collection centre at Tamar in Ranchi. | Photo Credit: Manob Choudhary
About 30 pashu sakhis have also been trained with 45 days of additional training in livestock management. These are the master trainers, of which Janu Devi is one.
“Upto 70% of those trained have been certified by the Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI), which guarantees a high common standard of services,” said Mr. Behera, adding that Jharkhand has become the first State in the country to get almost all its pashu sakhis certified by the ASCI.
Published - January 15, 2023 04:14 am IST
