Gita Saday 30 from Sothiyan VDC-4 of Siraha district in Nepal was only 16 when she was married. A mother of two Gita lives in a family of six. Her husband runs a small grocery in their house while she sews clothes to support their livelihood. They do not have their own farm but her father and mother in- law lends their hands in the farms of neighbouring villagers to make enough money to meet the basic needs of the house.
Gita, who is literate to as basic as reading and writing, however has made sure that her children go to schools to earn good education. Her daughter is studying in grade seven and her son is studying in grade two – both in the same school in the village.
Despite each of the family member in the house working, what they together earned was still less to provide better education for the children and meet the basic needs of their livelihood.
Gita was searching for an opportunity to grow as an individual, empower herself and contribute to her family in the best of her capacity. Gita decided to take 2500 square meters of land on lease and start her own farming of vegetable. In the meantime Gita came to learn about off-season vegetable production training offered by Ensuring Rights through Skills and Voice Project jointly implemented by British Council Nepal and Nepal National Dalit Social Welfare Association. She got enrolled in the training and her life changed ever since then.
After she participated in a weeklong training on off-season farming, Gita’s farm is now spread with seasonal vegetables like eggplant, potato, tomato, chili, beans, cauliflower and radish. The members of her family lend their hands as much to help Gita look after her vegetable farm. Gita, who invested approximately $100 in production of the farm, expects to make about $10,000 from the sales of the vegetable in the next few months.
She is grateful to ERSVP project for providing the skill developing training on seasonal farming. She extended her gratitude to ERSVP’s social mobilizer Ms. Lalita Paswan. Gita said to Ms. Paswan, “I thank you and ERSVP project for providing this opportunity to develop skills and empower marginalized people and community. Thank you for making my dream come true. I am hopeful that you will continue such initiatives which endow and improve the livelihoods of many like me across our country.” Gita is now an inspiration to many in the village.
About ERSVP Project
Ensuring Rights Through Skills & Voice Project was initiated in January 2015. The objective of this initiation is to combating the discrimination of the Dalit (marginalised cast group) population, and to promote their access to economic, social and political rights. More precisely the goals of this action are to increase the participation of Dalit women (some disabled) in economic activity and to actively promote the economic, social and political rights of Dalit women in the target districts – Gorkha and Siraha districts of Nepal. This project is being funded by the European Union and is implemented jointly by British Council Nepal, Association of Dalit Women Advancement of Nepal (ADWAN) and Nepal National Dalit Social Welfare Organisation (NNDSWO).