Aruna Borah is a hardworking woman from Brahmanan. She is married to Manek Borah and they have two children. Like many men in their village, Aruna’s husband is an alcoholic and she also suffered domestic violence from him.
Aruna became a member of the Kokila Vikas Ashram (KVA) and her joining the organization was instrumental in changing her life. The incidents of physical abuse have considerably reduced as SEWA-KVA sisters regularly visit her house thereby creating a feeling of shame and fear in her husband.
In 2015, Aruna joined 40 other SEWA members for a three-month Food Processing Training in Ahmedabad. Before leaving Assam, her husband gave her some money for her personal expenses. But being a practical woman, she did not spend the money. Before returning to Assam when the training was over, she used the money to buy a papad manufacturing machine. Papad is a thin crispy cracker made of flour.
However, her husband was not pleased with the item claiming it was rather worthless. Aruna patiently explained to her husband how she will make use of the machine to roll out papads and sell these so she can earn money for their household expenses. SEWA tied up with KVA for marketing and selling papads made by their members. Her husband eventually agreed that Rina do it on a trial basis.
Aruna was able to roll out 400 papads daily and gets a labour charge of 50 paise per papad. Gradually, her income from papad making has increased and the number of utilitarian items she was able to purchase has also multiplied. Witnessing all these, her husband became interested in the papad business and has started helping Aruna in her microenterprise.
“Whatever happiness there is in my life today is simply due to KVA and SEWA. Thank you for making me independent,” Aruna says.
KVA welcomes the improvement in the living standard of Aruna’s family as well as the change of her husband’s attitude towards her wife and her initiatives to make their life better.
Established in 1986, the Kokila Vikas Ashram (KVA) operates on the lines of Gandhian principles and values on rural development, livelihood opportunities, employment generation and self-reliance. The organization aims socio-economic transformation by creating awareness, capacity building, organizing the rural people, skills training of youth and women, and educating the children. KVA works in Gahpur Sub Division of Sonitpur Districts and focuses on the empowerment of the Boro Tribal Community living in the North Bank of Bhramaputra. KVA is one of the farmer organizations under the MTCP2 Programme in India.
SEWA is a member of the Asian Farmers’ Association in India.
About MTCP2
The Medium Term Cooperation Program Phase 2 (MTCP2), a five-year capacity building program supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the European Union (EU), has been implemented in 19 countries across three sub-regions—Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific—engaging 1,544 sub-national farmers organizations (FOs) with a total membership of around 22 million farmers. The funding support (total budget of $ 5 million for the whole duration of the project across 19 countries) serves as a catalytic fund that will allow FOs to enhance their capacity to be effective channels of economic services to farmers. So far, the program has contributed to the formation of strong national platform of FOs with improved capacity to engage in policy processes and mobilize resources from mainstream agricultural development programs like extension services, credit, and pre and post harvest facilities. The program also helped in transforming farmers associations into commodity-based cooperatives to strengthen the role of small-scale farmers within an inclusive and sustainable value-chain. The program is being implemented by the consortium Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and La Via Campesina (LVC).
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