Jeevika - Sustainable livelihood through natural resources

While mapping the villages, when the village is big, it becomes difficult to get the entire village information especially regarding the poor families. Thus we did village mapping as well as locality wise mapping. In the locality map, we marked which families are living in each of the localities and summarized the types of their houses clearly identifying what facilities they have and do not have in their houses.

The village of Degam is approached by a rough, winding and unpaved road. It is situated in the district of Surendranagar, on the edge of a desert known as the Little Rann. The village’s 325 households are a mixture of Bharvads, Patels, Rajputs, Muslims, Harijans and Prajapatis. The primary livelihoods are agriculture and salt farming. Drinking water is provided by two bore wells, although one is currently broken.

Traditional employment in the rural areas of Gujarat is based upon natural resources. Given that this region is prone to natural disasters such as droughts, cyclones and earthquakes, reliance solely upon these activities results in insecure livelihoods. Insecure livelihoods often force individuals and families into migration or borrowing to ensure survival, leading to a cycle of debt entrapment.

What Menaben Hartanbhai Thakor remembers most about her childhood are the frequent disasters. In the years of drought, which were many, her family would migrate from their home in the Patan district of Gujarat to Pakistan. There her father would work as an agricultural labourer, and her mother would tend to her nine brothers and sisters and the family’s animals. On one occasion, Menaben’s home caught fire and she had to rescue two of her brothers, both of whom were feverish at the time. The village attempted to put out the fire to no avail, and her home was completely destroyed. On another occasion, at the age of twelve, a ‘black’ cyclone ruined her village. Many villagers and animals were killed, and Menaben’s home, which was no more than hut with a metal sheet for a roof, was destroyed yet again.

Poor Women and Local Governance: Kutch Craft

Forty-four year old Mehtaben Tagdanji Gadhvi lives in a traditional Bunga hut in the village of Sonalnagar, in the arid border district of Kutch. Her family constructed their home on their own, using straw, sticks and mud. Their little home does not provide adequate shelter, and has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times after cyclones and other natural disasters. She currently lives with her husband, one son and three of her six daughters.

Poor Women and Local Governance: Targeting the Poorest of the Poor

The poorest of the poor are the most vulnerable to natural disasters, exploitation and exclusion from resource access. Jeevika is designed to specifically prevent this by targeting the poorest of the poor. The actual process of targeting is done by the villagers themselves, by having them consider questions such as, ‘What is poverty?’ and ‘How can you recognize the poorest of the poor in your village?’ Through their responses, villagers develop a set of criteria that set apart the most in need.