A life dedicated to helping others

New Delhi: Nileema Mishra, who single-handedly nurtured a movement and empowered women in Maharashtra, was recently awarded Asia's prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Mishra belongs to a middle-class family of social reformists, wherein members were involved in various social activities. Even as a child, she was concerned about the plight of widows and elderly people and would give away her pocket money to the destitute to buy food.

At the age of 13, Mishra decided never to marry and dedicate her life to changing the way the villagers, especially women, lived. The 39-year-old made them self-reliant and financially independent. She launched Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Ashram (BNGVA) in her native village Bahadarpur in Maharashtra in 2000. BNGVA has empowered thousands of villagers through self-help groups.

Gulf News interviewed the social activist.

GULF NEWS: After the initial surprise of getting the Magsaysay Award, what were your immediate concerns?

NILEEMA MISHRA: The major concern was my work because my attention was getting diverted from it, which I never want. I try to work towards problems of the poor, but ever since the award has been conferred upon me, I am being felicitated by various organications and it's consuming lot of my time.

Wasn't 13 too young an age to think of the good of society at large?

I am an extremely sensitive person, who has seen poverty around. It pained me to see poor people suffer and I wished I could be of some help.

This led me to the decision of dedicating my life for the development of society. I was very focused on what I wanted to do and realising that it was imperative to first have knowledge of the social development sector, planned my education accordingly.

When did you begin work in the social sector?

After doing my Masters in Psychology, I visited Vigyan Ashram in Pabal village, started by Dr S. Kalbag, a scientist-turned-educationist, in 1983.

It is a centre that has a complete programme for giving training to the youth in rural and urban areas. Over the years, it has developed several innovative technologies and successfully commercialised them by training school dropouts. And to increase the pace and quality of education, it even adopted information technology.

Once I saw all this, I knew I had found my destination. I began working with Dr Kalbag and he made me aware of various aspects of social development.

Travelling for almost eight years all over India, I visited various organizations and studied their work culture. Thereafter, I resigned and launched BNGVA.

What issues touched you the most in the initial days when you met the villagers?

Poverty was and still remains the main issue. It is the core of several problems.

It hurt me to see the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer.

There was a wide gap and the system of running a good economy was existent, albeit with many stumbling blocks.

Farmers were in debt and unable to pay back loans, many were committing suicide.

They were not ready for biodiversity, but willing to grow cash crops like BT cotton, which was deteriorating the fertility of the soil.

There were other issues as well. For instance, though women wished to work, they could only do farming. And people were neglecting issues like education and health.

How did you embark on a singlehanded mission of nurturing a movement to enable women in the villages to empower themselves through self-help groups?

It is very common for a village woman to spend her entire life within the four walls of her house.

She is either dependant on her father, brother, husband or son and has no say in family matters.

Taking these facts into consideration, initially, BNGVN took a strong step towards formation and strengthening of self-help groups for women.

But sensing the advantages of such groups, men and youth also came forward and formed their own.

So far, more than 2,000 joint liability groups as well as self-help groups have been formed in 200 villages and almost Rs230 million have been distributed to them.

Each group has minimum ten members and the majority of self-help groups comprise women who contribute certain fixed amount towards the group on a monthly basis.

What benefits do these women get?

Apart from monetary gains, women feel a sense of security.

They have an open platform to express their views on important matters during meetings.Moreover, SHG members are eligible to apply for loan from BNGVN.

Community volunteers of BNGVN help these groups in maintaining their documents and accounts.

BNGVN has utilised their energy for income generation activities and has facilitated the creation of export quality designer quilts.

The quilts are designed for Anne Godfrey, the Australian manufacturers of one-off garments made from unusual blends of fabrics.

Immensely skillful, the women from the slef-help groups are now imparting training to hundreds of other tribal women.

Are there any other products being created by these women?

The village women manufacture a variety of food items, which are marketed locally through 20 outlets of BNGVN, called Bhagini Kendras.

About 45 women involved in marketing of these products have formed Bhagini Vypari Sanghathan, a cooperative to spread business to villages in four districts of Maharashtra — Dhule, Jalgaon, Amalner and Nashik. This has enabled them to earn Rs500 million to Rs1 billion daily, which has empowered them to some extent.

What other initiative has BNGVN taken in the last few years?

We have generated funds for ‘seed money' for women who sell various food items at doorsteps.

Initially, when these women purchased items at retail price, they were able to earn Rs50-Rs60 per day.

Later, BNGVN purchased material in bulk so that women could buy them at wholesale price and retail them.

This has enabled them to earn four times more.

Through yet another scheme, Caring Friends, BNGVN has purchased a land to build a warehouse to store grains purchased in bulk.

This will further generate employment and be a step ahead of women's empowerment.

After all these years, are you content with BNGVA achievements?

BNGVA was set up with the aim of uplifting my native village and others in the vicinity.

The organisation which started operating from my residential premises, now has its own building. Initially run by few volunteers, we now have permanent staff.

With villagers realizing their responsibility towards development and actively participating in various programmes, our strength is increasing by the day.

Experience has taught me that villagers are wise and ready with solutions.

They just need motivation to get through the roadblocks in the working system.

The life of an award winner