Our Voice_ Bimonthly Newsletter Issue 28

Volume: 28 Issue: May - June 2022

OUR VOICE

Bi-Monthly Newsletter




Community leaders sharing their field experience to the audience during the
celebration of 40th Foundation Day of CYSD

CYSD Felicitated the Community Change Agents for their
outstanding contribution to the Society

Inside .........

Adaptation to change in agriculture practices brings prosperity –
Maina Murmu shows the Way.
Alcoholism - the Root Cause of Domestic Violence.
Access to Health Facilities Restricts Pregnancy Complications –
empowered Sambari sets an Example.
Migrant Worker ‘Khara’ Sowing Hope to Restore Livelihoods.
Miseries Manifold, Lengthy Legalities, Sufferings continue.
Marital Rape: A Sad Existing Reality, Unacknowledged as Violence
by Society.
Photo Gallery
Publications Archive | Media Coverage

Adaptation to change in agriculture practices
brings prosperity – Maina Murmu shows the Way

Nutrition plays a vital role in the promotion of individuals, especially for the
children. The advantage of nutrition supplement is that majority of the vegetables
in the backyard are proved to be a rich source of nutrition. Keeping this context in
mind, nutrition gardens are being promoted with the support of implements by
government and other agencies, especially for the marginalized and vulnerable
families. The families also undergo awareness through video shows and
counselling on the importance and consumption practices in serving nutritious
food in their platters for all the members in the family.

Maina Murmu, aged 25 years belongs to Santali family in Dhuduku village under
Jashipur block of Keonjhar district near Similipal biosphere. Her family comprising
of five members – father in law, mother in law, husband, herself and a daughter,
falls under marginal farmer category. The family aptly demonstrates how after
adapting to change in agriculture practice for supplementing nutrition need of the
family, it graduated to become a regular vegetable producer and vendor. Until
recent days, four adults in the family were engaged as daily wage earners in
agriculture, being their own landholding was meagre and resorted to indigenous
traditional agriculture practices.




During one SAMVAD video show on nutri-garden promotion in the village, Maina
evinced her interest to witness the show and learn the benefits of nutrition and
promotion of nutri-garden. She could like the presentation and interacted with the
Presenter to get her doubts clarified. However, after experiencing the knowledge
shared through the SAMVAD videos, the family attempted to experiment the
modern agriculture methods including land treatment, preparation of organic
manure and vermin compost, drip irrigation, mulching and effective harvesting
systems. Maina started attending the subsequent video shows along with her
husband and decided to attempt this practice in their kitchen garden to counter
the apprehensions associated with traditional practices. The attempt was partially
successful to boost their morale.

Then Maina’s family was introduced to the local agriculture extension team for
accessing technical guidance and quality seeds. She could convince her family to
take up the modified agriculture practices in their entire patch of land. Now she has
developed her agriculture land as a demonstration site for other villagers where
they have grown vegetables like Bitter Gourd, Ridge Gourd, Spinach, Brinjal,
Banana, Papaya, Pumpkin and a host of other vegetables. This also
supplemented the family income substantially.

Alcoholism - the Root Cause of

Domestic Violence

Meena (disguise name), a tribal young woman of 20 years, belongs to Bergaon
village of Koraput district who likes to visit different places and spend time with her
friends. She was having a happy go lucky life until marriage happened to her. In the
year 2017, she got married to Sunil at the age of 16 due to societal beliefs about
early marriage of children. This was an arranged marriage.Now she is suffering
from domestic violence in her early years of marriage because her husband is a
drunkard.

The survivor belongs to a lower middle-class joint family and their main source
of income is farming. They have a small house and little land from which they
earn their livelihood. Her native family includes parents, grandparents and one
younger brother. In her tribal community, girls get marry after attending the
age of 14 or 15 years. This community does not allow their members to marry
outside their community and if someone goes against this then the people will
not allow that family to live in their community. Meena’s husband works as a
labour in private sector and father-in-law works as a farmer in his own field.
After marriage, she came to know about t
he evil truth of her husband as a
drunkard. In her parents’ family, no one drinks so she faces difficulty in
inhaling the smell of drink. Her husband drinks on a regular basis and if she or
his family tries to stop him then he threatens to commit suicide. In 2015, Sunil
had attempted suicide by taking rodenticide (rat kills poison). When he drinks,
he never listens to anyone and does only which he likes. He used to beat, slap
and push his wife after taking alcohol. He also abuses his wife and family
members. Though Sunil wants to live with Meena but doesn’t want to leave
alcohol either. Even he does not give any money to his wife for fulfilment of her
basic needs.

As Meena was passing through a lot of mental trauma and agony, she did not
wish to continue staying with her husband. The physical abuse (hitting,
slapping, pushing and beating with objects), emotional abuse (verbal abuse,
threaten to commit suicide) and economical abuse (not providing money for
basic needs) caused by her husband were intolerable for Meena. That was
why she returned to her parents’ house and started living with them. Due to
the continuous domestic violence incidents with her, the peace loving Meena
always remains in depression. Despite all misdeeds, the survivor has not filed
any complaint against her husband due to societal shame. Even none from the
community has taken any initiative to solve her problem.

However, after CYSD’s intervention she got counselling support from the SGBV
Warriors for filing a complaint against her husband in case he continues
harassing her. In addition, the Warriors tried to counsel her husband who was
not in a mood to listen. Now, Meena wants to depart from her husband and to
be engaged in some economic activity to lead an independent life. “I am
thankful to CYSD for helping me during the trial period and guiding me to take
up such productive activity to meet the survival needs”, says hopeful Meena.

Access to Health Facilities Restricts
Pregnancy Complications – empowered
Sambari sets an Example

Champajhar is a remotely located village in Thakurmunda Block of

Mayurbhanj district. The majority of its residents belong to ‘Ho Tribe’. The

villagers depend largely on agriculture and periodic casual labour for their

livelihoods. The villagers had hardly any exp
osure to the information on health

and nutrition. They followed the age-old orthodox rituals in managing

pregnancy of women. Many a times the expectant mothers fell prey of

anaemic with serious complications during delivery. Nobody did seem to have

bothered about it. One such example is Sambari Ho, aged 30 years, who came

to this village in 2015 after her marriage to Surendra Ho. Her in-law’s family

comes under small and marginalised farmers category with a minimal land

holding. Just after her marriage,

Sambari became pregnant, but

she had no access to health

advice for a safe pregnancy. She

visited the local Anganwadi

Centre on the advice of the local

ASHA Worker and collected IFA

tablets for intake with proper

guidance. Back in the family, she

was warned by her family

members against the

consumption of IFA tablets and

nutrition supplements with a

premise that it would complicate

the pregnancy. Her efforts in

getting guidance from the AWC

became futile. She delivered her

first child - a baby boy with much

difficulty and deprived her child

of getting the first colostrum. Her

breast-feeding was also not

exclusive which affected the

child’s growth - who is now 5

years old.

In 2017, Sambari again got pregnant and amidst the pressure of daily
household activities, she failed to take required rest, which resulted a
troubled health. In the seventh month of pregnancy, due to complication,
she had to rush to the District Hospital where her pregnancy was abortion
detected and she was hospitalised for seven days. This incident shattered
her mental balance and her family was perturbed too. However, the family
received some advice from the ANM to focus more on work to stabilise the
situation.

Sambari, after two years in 2019, have had her third pregnancy with some
extended rest. In one winter evening, she came to know about some video
shows focussed on pregnant and lactating mothers in her community.
With mixed intentions, she attended the video shows. Her experience was
very exciting as the Presenter clarified the doubts and invited to join the
next show after 15 days. She became a regular attendee of the video
shows, which facilitated her exposure on the effective pregnancy
management process, child healthcare and nutrition. So, the couple
decided to adopt the advised practices as shown in the videos, like timely
health check-ups, immunization and n
utrition supplements for managing
the pregnancy. She delivered a healthy baby girl in the hospital and
continued with exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months followed
by supplementary feeding and timely immunization. The girl is now 3
years old.

Meantime, Sambari has gathered knowledge on the importance of WIFS
and the proper process of pre and post-natal care. The couple also
became aware about the family planning through spacing and resorted to
the use of contraceptive methods. For adopting family planning, Sambari
has received advice from Pratima Ho, a Community Support Person, to
whom she believes very much. She has started using Copper-T and learnt
how to administer it. Pratima also guided her in developing a kitchen
garden to grow vegetables for getting the required nutrition supplements
for the entire family. Sambari has become an empowered volunteer who is
now spreading the messages of Samvad Project among the members of
her SHG and other community members on a regular basis.

Migrant Worker ‘Khara’ Sowing Hope to
Restore Livelihoods

Baikuntha Khara recalls his journey vividly when he started walking back
from Gubeda in Andhra Pradesh all the way to Koraput on a hot summer
day earlier 2020, together with 19 other people. “We used to work at a
brick kiln in Gubeda and earned around Rs.9,000 every month. But after a
few days of the announcement of the Covid lockdown in March, the brick
kiln owner asked us to move out. We had no option but to walk back to our
village,” shares Khara as he remembers the long arduous journey through
the unbearable heat. Khara is one of the millions of informal workers who
returned to their villages once the national lockdown was announced to
curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a few weeks, Khara had
exhausted all his savings and struggled to meet his both ends meet.
Neither Khara nor his companions who had returned to their village in
Koraput, had their job cards, so finding any work under the Government
schemes like MGNREGS was also not possible.

In early May 2020, CYSD and the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) started working together with the panchayats in
South Odisha to help informal workers like Khara. Khara and his
companions got back their MGNREGS job cards and were employed for
24 days under the scheme, earning enough to tide over the difficult
times. Within a span of five months, about 400 households in Koraput
were provided with vegetable seeds under the Nutrition Garden
Programme and were linked with MGNREGS so that they could earn
wages for 34 days to develop a garden of about 1,200 sq ft. Once the
land was ready, the farmers were provided with 13 varieties of vegetable
seeds. “The seeds helped us to grow vegetables and feed our families
and we could sell the surplus vegetables to buy other household
utilities. If we can work here in our village and get to live close to our
families, why will we go anywhere else in search of a job?”, Khara
shared. Hope glistened in his eyes as he made a new beginning in life
with his family, surrounded by the garden he had developed tirelessly.

Khara’s story is a story of hope, a testimony of how with a little help,
people can restore their livelihoods, their dignity and make a fresh start.
While Khara has found a way back, there are many who still need a little
support.

Almost 90 per cent of the workforce in India belongs to the informal
sector, and most of whom have lost jobs during this pandemic. While
they are rebuilding their lives and livelihoods, all they need is a little
hope and support so that they know they are not alone. All are in it
together. This winter season, with the support of CYSD, Khara along with
others sowing hopes to rebuild their life better and stronger. “One thing
that this pandemic has taught us, it is how interconnected all our lives are!
We have learnt that we can be safe only when everyone is safe. We can
only grow when we grow together”, said Khara with a pleasing tone.

Miseries Manifold, Lengthy Legalities,
Sufferings continue

An educated and beautiful girl Bandita (disguised name), about 23 years
old age, from Karanjia of Mayurbhanj district, lost her mother when she
was just ten years old. Her father remarried and since then Bandita has
been going through a struggled life. Her stepmother never paid attention
to her and Bandita felt highly neglected. Though her education continued
at the school, but lack of care and affection from her parents depressed
her.

In the year 2017, Bandita got married to a divorcee who hailed from a well-
to-do family of Kendujiani village. Everyone thought she is lucky to get a
family like this and her sorrows will eventually fade away. However, destiny
had something else in store for her. From the initial days of marriage itself,
Bandita never had a single day of peace and happiness. Her in-laws, along
with her husband, started torturing her from day one without any reason.
She tried to flee to her parent’s home, but could not get much support
there, as she never had an affectionate childhood. She neither could find
any alternative safe shelter to stay nor could happily continue to live with
her husband. The invectives persisted, and Bandita began to accept their
cruelty as her unavoidable reality. Her relationship with her mother-in-law
and father-in-law became increasingly acrimonious; they both verbally
abused and physically assaulted Bandita. Her husband had a secret affair
with a girl before he divorced the first wife. This incident came out while
the AWW and SGBV Warriors were discussing with the community people.

As days passed by, Bandita gave birth to a baby girl who is now three years
old. She hoped for a better life after a child came into her life. But her life
never changed for better. One day, her husband brought the same girl who
is married to another man without any rejection from both the families. On
the other hand, he threw out his legal wife along with their daughter
without any discussion. The CYSD volunteers, ANW and Asha workers in
Karanjia assisted her to lodge a complaint with the police and he was
arrested. However, as the husband belongs to a rich and influential family,

he came out on bail easily. The community only discussed the matter
among themselves but without taking any action against him, as he
happened to be one of the richest individuals in the locality. She also
reported the case in One-Stop Center, but her husband did not agree for
counselling. Harassed from all quarters, Bandita ultimately filed for a
divorce case in Karanjia court. Mr. Chitta Ranjan, the lawyer of Bandita,
revealed that as the court process is very lengthy, he advised her to be self-
independent. Presently, Bandita (along with her daughter) are residing at
her parents’ house. Both of them are in miserable condition by not getting
any emotional or financial support from them. She has started earning for
herself by working in a stationery shop and doing tailoring in her leisure
time. There is no end to Bandita’s miseries. In addition, lengthy legal
procedures and lack of viable financial stability are creating havoc in
Bandita’s life. Her struggle continues.

Marital Rape: A Sad Existing Reality,
Unacknowledged as Violence by Society

Manju (name changed), a 30 years old mother of two children, lives with
her husband and in-laws at Champajhar village of Thakurmunda block in
Mayurbhanj district. Before their marriage, the couple was working
together in work sites. In due course, they both fell in love and got married
in 2017 with the acceptance of respective family members. But, life has
changed after their marriage from the beginning. Due to a lack of
understanding and different personalities, they used to have arguments
every day. The husband is a habitual drunkard who does not take any
responsibility for the family, but he is reluctant to listen to his wife's
suggestions. It always hurts the husband’s ego. Whenever there is an
argument that leads to assault her wife by using different techniques of
sex, which resulted in admitting her in the hospital many times. In July
2021, the husband attempted to kill Manju by putting a fire stick in her
mouth who sustained a grievous burn injury. Her sister-in-law, along with
villagers, admitted her in Thakurmunda Hospital. When the news spread,
the AWW of Champajhar village contacted the district coordinator, SGBV,

Mayurbhanj, and with the help of the survivor's sister-in-law, the case was
reported in One-Stop Center, Baripada but needed consent with full signature
by the survivor. But the survivor was reluctant as her husband warned to kill
her after coming out from jail. So, she didn't act accordingly, being threatened
of dire consequences by her husband.During the conversation with the
community, the male members stated that it was her fault to speak or argue in
a loud voice. But the matter was discussed in the WSHG in a different way. Ms.
Anjali, the AWW of Champajhar village, and the WSHG members together
arranged a meeting to discuss the survivor's problem and the filthy languages
used by her husband, which offended the neighbourhood. The AWW and
other women had threatened her husband to stop abuse in the filthy and
offensive language or else they would be compelled to move for the police
action against him.

The above is one of the many cases of marital as well as sexual violence that
usually goes against the female victim, largely due to the underlying societal
structure. While the awareness in the society requires to be improved, the
resulting change could be extremely slow. Therefore, the gap requires to be
minimised by a robust institutional arrangement, which should be adequately
empowered to fast track such cases and deliver justice. Further, the
government and non-government organizations should also work on
rehabilitation plans for such victims by either creating self-help groups or
creating targeted employment opportunities in the informal/unskilled sectors.

Photo Gallery

Ghantisila Producer Group members from Khudisila village of Jarak GP, under Thakurmunda Block of
Mayurbhanj District preparing Organic Manure after receiving an orientation programme.

Nursery Raising by Maa Tarini Producer Group members
of Mundaguda village in Boipariguda Block of Koraput District.

Elected PRI Representatives from Kundra block of Koraput district attending a
Training program on Natural Resource Management

Ragi seedlings ready for transplantation as Kharif crop in Tayaput GP under
Laxmipur block of Koraput district.

Tribal Women Producer Group Members from Chandragiri Village in Kashipur Block of Rayagada
district receiving Siali Leaf Plate Making Training as an alternative Livelihood Option around NTFPs.

Senior Staff Members meeting the CYSD Board of Management

CYSD PAurbclhiciavteions Annual Report

Annual Report -20-21 Annual Report -2019-20 Annual Report -2018-19 Annual Report -2017-18 Annual Report -2016-17

Our Voice - Newsletter

Our Voice - Issue-27 Our Voice - Issue-26 Our Voice - Issue-24 Our Voice - Issue-23 Our Voice - Issue-22

News Bulletin Issue - 8 News Bulletin Issue - 7 News Bulletin Issue -6 News Bulletin Issue -5 News Bulletin Issue -4

Media Coverage

Our sincere thanks to the Partners, Collaborators,
Supporters and Well-wishers for joining their hands

with CYSD  to fight  COVID Pandemic together.

Centre for Youth and Social Development

 

E-1 Institutional Area,Gangadhar Meher Marg, P.O. RRL
Bhubaneswar 751 013, Odisha, India

Telephone: + 91-674-2300983 / 2301725, Fax: + 91-674-2301226
 Email : [email protected] | www.cysd.org