Jivi Baibelongs to Garasia tribal family and is a resident of Suran village of Gogunda region with 5 members in her family. A resource person from Gramshree came to her village and added her to the producer group. The name of her Producer group is Sahyog Women's Producer Group in which there are 12 members in total and all of them meet twice a month. Theymake savings in the producer groupandlend money from the savings to its members for any household expenditure, agriculture studying or any other requirement.
Before Gramshree Intervention, villagers used to sell the custard apple fruit to the middlemen who used to pay them Rs 100 to Rs 150 per carat (One carat comprise of 22 Kgs of the fruit). With formation of Producer Group in the village,the women decided to sell the Custard Apples through their own Producer Group. With support from Gramshree, a fruit collection center was established in Suran. Gramshree provided training on grading and timing of harvesting of fruit to fetch higher price for the fruit. They learned that big Custard Applesweigh 250 grams to 400 grams, fetch price of Rs 15 per Kg. They got Rs 300 to Rs 350 per carat by selling the fruits to Van Dhan Shakti Mahila Producer Company.
Producer Company has set up a Fruit Processing unit to extract the pulp of custard apple in Jaswantgarh and Mokela.The villagers collect the fruits together at the village center everyday and apickup vehicle picks the fruits from Suran village to takethem to Jaswantgarh and Mokela processing centers.
Jivi Bai's daughter-in-law named Doli Bai earned Rs 12000 by selling custard apples in the season in 2 months. They also received training from Gramshree under Swalamban Challenge Fund on various aspects of custard apple processing. She earned Rs 8000 by working in the processing unit as well. The family earned a total of Rs 20,000 through custard apple intervention in their area.
Earlier Jivi Bai's husband Mana Ram used to work in stone carving in Chittorgarh. He has stopped stone carving work for the last 2 years and helps her in farming.When his health deteriorated, out of the money she earned, Rs 6000 was spent to cure him. Along with this, she spent some money in farming through which she is earning by planting and selling vegetables from her small field.
Gramshree showed her the way which helped her and her family to move forward and she learnt a lot by joining Van Dhan Shakti Mahila Producer Company. Earlier, she did not even go out of her house. Now, she also got a chance to meet the collector to invite him for the inauguration of processing units. She feels incredibly happy and will continue to be associated with the organization.
Rangi Bai Garasia is a resident of Suran, a tribal village of Gogunda Tehsil. There are 11 members in her family. Her eldest son is studying BA in arts stream from Udaipur, Udayalal is studying in class 12th in Ravach hostel, Om Prakash is studying in 8th and Bhagwati is studying in 6th class. Her daughter Lakshmi Kumari is studying in 11th class in Gogunda - 10 km away from Suran andDurga Kumari is studying in 6th class (Nandeshma Hostel).
Devi Singh and Vikas from Gramshree visited her village, gathered all women, and added them to the Suraj Mahila Producer Group. There are a total of 14 members in Suraj group. She has 4 bighas of land in which she is cultivating maize, wheat, and gram. She has 1 buffalo, 2 cows and is also doing goat farming with 11 goats.
This year, with the help of Gramshree, a Custard Apple collection center was established in her village. During the month, she, her daughter, and daughter-in-law together used to collect two or three carats of custard apple daily from the forest. In this season, they all together earned Rs 18,000 by selling custard apples.
Her elder son, whose name is Goma Ram, became the Resource Person for managing the documentation of fruit collection unit at the village opened with support from Gramshree. Training was provided on how to do the collection which included proper weighing of fruit, documentation of sale done at center by everywoman and payment records. He earned Rs 5,000 for managing the center. Her daughter went tothe processing unit for Custard Apple processing and earned Rs 5,000 during the season. The family earned additional income of Rs 28,000 in this custard apple season.
Rani Bai is living in the village of Ukliyat. Her father's name is Bheraram, and theyare a tribal family of Garasia community. She studied till class 10th.Before processing Custard Apples, Rani Bai did not have employment, so she did not earn.
Rani Bai's husband lives in Surat and works as a cook in a small Dhaba there. Rani Bai's in-laws house is in Bhimana, but she lives with her parents. Rani Bai is accompanied by her mother, her father and her two brothers named Goparam and Ruparam with their families and children. Ruparam is olderand doesfarming work and Goparamlives in Surat. Rani Bai is associated with Jai Hanuman Women Producer Group. All the women of the group together have saved more than Rs 35,000 in their group till now. Whenever they need money or support,the group is the only option in their difficult circumstances from which they could borrow money at a nominalinterest. During Covid times when no one got employment, everyone withdrew the savings made in the group and ran their household with it.
Vandhan Shakti Mahila Producer Company got support from SIDBI's Swavalamban Challenge Fund, to set up processing unit of custard apple, Jamun and Amla. When Rani Bai was told about Custard Apple processing, she was happy and was instantly ready to work in the processing unit along with the women of her group. The enthusiastic women of this group were given 2 days training of processing and maintaining hygiene and they came to Jaswantgarh unit to extract the seeds of Custard Apple. Rani Bai came to work for 33 days and earned Rs 200 per day. She earned a total of Rs 6600 within 1 month. She kept on coming to work until custard apple stopped coming. She does all the work in Custard Apple processing. Being educated, she used to weigh the pulp of Custard Apple and keep it in a 1 kg bag. Rani Bai bought goats with her earning during processing, and she wants more opportunities to work in fruit processing units throughout the year so that she could get rid out of poverty and countless problems. She has been provided with leaders training every month. She is very eager to expand her producer company.
Bhuri Bai is a resident of Eton Ka Khet village in gram panchayat Jhadoli. Her husband's name is Ram Lal Garasia. They belong to the Garasia community of tribal society. Bhuri Bai has studied till 5th grade and Ramlal has studied till 8th grade. Due to lack of funds, Ramlal could not study more, and Bhuri Bai did not get complete education due to early marriage. Yet, they are counted among educated people in their village because 80% of the villagers are illiterate. They have two children: Sunil and Prakash. Sunil is 6 years old now and is studying in first class. Prakash is 2 years old. This year, Bhuri Bai and Ramlal together collected 2 carats of fruit per day selling each carat at Rs 250. This enabled them to earn Rs 500 per day and 15,000 in the month from this work.
Being educated, Bhuri Bai made a village level collection center by collecting fruits from her Producer Group of women. She collected the Custard Apples, kept an account of them and sent them to their producer company Van Dhan Shakti Mahila Producer Company Ltd. It was a dream for themto give good education to their children. With the income from Custard Apple, they got Prakash admitted, got him the uniform, books and stationery and their child now goes to study.
Earlier, they used to grow one season crop only due to lack of water. They collectively invested money earned from Custard Apple, to set up a solar irrigation system. Earning from Custard apple was timely as 3 families invested Rs 45,000 to get the set-up installed whose total value was Rs 4.5 lakh and they had to deposit the 10% contribution. This was made possible through the support of the Gramshree team. Now they can cultivate in both the seasons and even grow vegetables and earn money by selling them. They have small land in which they grow crops like maize in kharif and wheat in rabi season. They also grow vegetables in other small parts of land.
Posi Bai is a resident of Salaria village and belongs to a tribal Garasia family of 3 members. Her husband's name is Usha Ram. They have one son Kalu Ram who is 8 years old and studies in class two. Posi bai has 5 bigha land and most part of her land comes under mountain and forest region. They grow custard apples in the boundary of their land. When there were no processing units, the fruits ripened and got wasted within 2 days. They could not get any benefit from that but after setting up units, they could sell custard apples at a fair price. Posi Bai and her husband used to collect 5 carats daily and sold at Rs 250 per carat earning Rs 1250 per day. In the whole season, they earned Rs 25000.
They invested this money in purchasing diesel engines to fetch water from wells. Earlier they used to fetch water by Rahat driven by Ox which requires more time and energy. Now they do it with the machine.Posi Bai also sent her children to school and used some money to build their home and buy goats. She is eager to plant vegetables this year with the money she has earned by selling custard apples. She also wanted one Processing Unit in her village so that the villagers of Salaria village could also increase their income by working in the Processing unit.