Excerpted with permission from The First Responders, by the Reliance Foundation and the Observer Research Foundation, this article shares the story of Sartama Devi. The 58-year-old from Patara, Uttarakhand has dedicated her life to protecting Mother Nature by taking the battle to climate change. This excerpt focuses on Devi’s work, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the years, Patara has been heavily dependent on natural springs and rainwater for its survival. Massive deforestation, climate change, and land conversion have caused half of these springs to dry up, or else become 20 seasonal. During the dry months, women undertake the back-breaking labour of walking far distances and carrying water back for their homes, fields, and livestock. This is true for Sartama's own family of five, who rely on agriculture like most of Patara's households.
Since her husband's death over 30 years ago, Sartama has been tending to their fields, where she grows their family staple, millets and green leafy vegetables such as spinach. She was not even 30 when she became a widow. 'People thought I would not survive. They wondered who would earn for my children.' But she stepped up and ploughed her field. A few years ago she received training from NGOs, and she has since been able to diversify her crops—to include cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli—and increase their production, too. The income from farming has helped Sartama make ends meet and ensure that her children—three daughters and a son—received an education. Two of her children studied till class eight, the third till 12th, and the fourth completed her Bachelor's degree.
Today, Sartama extends a helping hand to those in need. When counselling them, she often recounts her own experiences and tells them, 'Do something—it will benefit you.' The first opportunity to help others came with the State Rural Livelihood Mission, the implementation arm of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission launched by the government in 2011. The scheme aims to create self-sufficiency through Self-Help Groups (SHGs) as 21 vehicles of development. Ten SHGs were initially constituted, and Sartama was elected Head of the 22 Hem Patara Gram Sangathan, which oversees the SHGs. Some 94 women from Patara are members of these groups. Under her leadership, each of these SHGs was given a community investment fund of Rs 55,000, and a revolving fund of Rs 10,000 to be used for livelihoods and development activities.
The SHGs' efforts have been bolstered by training from various civil society organisations and development foundations such as Reliance Foundation. These trainings impart specific skills in community leadership, nutrition, water conservation, commercial vegetable cultivation, animal husbandry, and mushroom cultivation skills. Mushroom cultivation, for example, has provided jobs and economic empowerment to many, allowing them opportunities to earn income in their home village and not 23 have to migrate for economic reasons. The concept of 'nutrition gardens' has also been introduced to Patara: in simple backyards, edible gardens are set up for fruits and vegetables, intended both for sustenance and commerce. These nutrition gardens help address many of the health issues facing Patara's youth, such as anaemia.
As Sartama notes, 'Ever since we joined hands with civil society organisations, the water from our taps that would otherwise go to the livestock are now being conserved. We 24 have been able to restore chal-khals which are now ready water sources for animals and contribute to soil moisture.
For their efforts, Sartama and the SHGs have received awards and recognitions. Sartama has been recognised as a 'Women Water Champion' by the United Nations Development Programme. The Him Patara Gram Sangathan has also been awarded the 'Earth Day Network Stay Women's Group' by Earth Day Network, an environmental NGO for their easy-to-implement strategies on water conservation.
And Sartama is delighted. 'Earlier, because I had no man in my life, no one even sat beside me.' She credits her own growth to the trainings she received from NGOs. 'Thanks to their efforts, I have learned and taught others. Knowledge is being shared, and many have benefited.'
But just as Patara overcame its most significant challenge of access to water, a new one arose, and not just in the village. The Covid-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020, and in March, many found themselves without a job and in a city that was not their home. Like migrants in different parts of the country, many of Patara's own had no money to travel back home. This was not a small number, as estimates say 30 percent of Patara's youth have migrated 25 elsewhere to find some income. Patara's SHGs lent money to three persons ranging between Rs 15,000 and Rs 50,000. 'We sent money from our groups, from our bank accounts, to bring them back home.' In all they managed to help 90 of their villagers to come back home, supporting them with food, water and other arrangements at the village quarantine centres.
Showing foresight even when the country was yet to come to terms with the pandemic and its related protocols, all returnees to Patara were made to stay in a school building away from the village. The Anganwadi and SHGs in Patara brought them water to drink and food to eat. Twenty-one days after they arrived, the returnees were allowed to leave the school and go home to the village. Sartama organised meetings in her SHGs. She insisted that everyone should wear a mask while outside their home and sit at a distance while in a group. They managed to keep the virus at bay, and no one in the village got infected. Sartama's relief is understandable, given how Uttarakhand has been badly hit by Covid-19. As of December 2021, more 26 than 350,000 residents have been infected. The rural districts, in particular, given their lack of health facilities and the return of migrants, have fared poorly.
Facilitating the return of the migrant workers would have been the first pandemic-related challenge for Sartama and her SHGs. Today it is about battling vaccine hesitancy, which is borne of two reasons: the absence of an easily accessible vaccination centre, and a general fear of vaccines. The vaccination centre closest to Patara is more than 10 kilometres away. 'I went myself and got myself vaccinated,' Sartama recounts. Using herself as an example, she tried to convince the villagers to get inoculated. 'I went from house to house, door to door urging everyone to get vaccinated.' Their work paid off, and Patara has achieved complete adult vaccination.
(Written by Sitara Srinivas. For more on Devi and the other women heroes from around the country, read: Jayashree B, Sunaina Kumar, Anirban Sarma, Vanita Sharma, and Shoba Suri, Eds., The First Responders: Women Who Led India Through the Pandemic.)