Flying in a Flock
Authors : Sunil Garg and Nishant Kumar
The Madhya Pradesh Women’s Poultry Producer Company Limited, a tribal women’s collective, is today among the largest suppliers of broiler chickens in the state.
In small hamlet of Chokipura, there is nothing which is distinguishable from other villages of the Kesla block except that the village is abuzz with the cackling sound of poultry birds. Each of the houses situated on both sides of a concrete road have a poultry shed standing in the backyard. Their day starts early to take care of the poultry farms the tribalfolk have built with so much resilience. This small innovation of poultry breeding by the community has helped them overcome constraints and realise a better living standard for themselves and their families.
Till the 1990s, a general air of wellbeing had permeated through the settlement. Hoshangabad and, especially Kesla, had good forest area cover; however gradual deforestation depleted this natural resource and the forest-based livelihood of the people was taken from them. They had to face the trauma of displacement due to construction of several projects such as the Tawa dam, the Ordnance factory and the Bori sanctuary. Owing to the fact that the tribal community here had depended on the forest for generations, depletion of forest resources due to these constructions left them vulnerable and pushed them to the brink of poverty. Their only source of living was now the wage labour in neighboring areas where the agricultural intensity was high and on sale of minor forest produce like Tendu leaves. Migration coupled with loss of jobs in the vicinity led to women being the worst affected. They were either left in the villages to manage the children and the livestock or forced to migrate seasonally to support their family. People became vulnerable in the hands of local traders who would exploit them by lending at high interest rates. Consumption of liquor was also on the rise which led to other social and economic hardships for the villagers.
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