A resident of village lodhani, Pachli Didi's family is consisting of 8 members. labour was must for her as she was unable to make both her ends meet since she has a small piece of agriculture land. She used to migrate to Gujarat every year due to lack of work at her village.
Pachli Didi, a righteous woman always used to think about the development of the village and women empowerment. But she was not able to figure out how to attain thisIJ
When Pachli Didi linked herself with the self-help group through MP livelihood Mission, not only she learnt to save money by curtailing expenses but learnt to put forth her views beside listening and developed decision making competency. Besides, her awareness towards other social issues increased by visiting bank and other Government offices. When she was imparted training and taken on educational tour then she started realising how to overcome the poverty. After the visit to Andhra Pradesh, she linked 44 poor and poorest women beside widows of her village to 4 SHG’s.
Group has almost completed 2 years after its formation. All the members of the group have taken loan for conducting livelihood activities which has increased their income. Pachli Didi herself has taken a loan of Rs 10,000 and has added her personal saving of Rs 5,000 to start a flour mill. The flour mill has provided an employment to her husband and has added an amount of Rs 6,000 in her family's monthly income.
Pachli Didi has established a tailoring shop for her trained daughter-in-law. Her good image, reputation and relations helped her daughter-in-law getting more tailoring work. Now her daughter-in-law is also earning a sum of Rs 5,000 per month. She has also started a small grocery shop recently which gives her an additional income of Rs 3,000 approximately. Besides, a hammer machine costing Rs 10,000 has been purchased by Pachli Didi for manufacturing Dona (leaf bowl) which made her to earn Rs 240 to Rs 300 wages per day at home itself at an average of 8 hours work daily. The raw material is supplied and purchased from the trader of Gujarat.
Taking Pachli Didi's enthusiasm and interest in account, she has been selected as community master trainer at district level and was imparted training. Now, Pachli Didi visiting other villages and encourages women to link themselves with the group. Recently, she arranged an awareness rally together with 100 women (Group Members) to spread the message of environment, education, health and sanitation. A demand for toilet was made by the women in the rally. An amount of Rs 10.20 lakh for construction of 85 toilets has been received by the gram sangathan through samagra swachchta abhiyan, the construction of 68 toilets have been completed and their use is ensured. The construction of remaining toilets is underway. Pachli Didi has also been honoured with Utkrashta Mahila Puraskar for her excellent social works.