Muniya Devi, Urmila Devi, Gudiya Devi, Sarita Devi, Geeta Devi of Jamtara along with thousands like them are able to earn their livelihood and ensure nutritious food for their family through the Jharkhand government-run initiative, ‘Didi Badi Yojana’(Poshan Vatika) under JSLPS.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren has said, “Our government is committed towards eradicating malnourishment in the state. The Didi Badi Yojana is a step towards the same, it will help provide nutrient-rich food to the children and at the same time provide employment to women.”
Additionally, to win the battle against malnutrition, the State government is planning to establish approximately 5 lakh kitchen/home garden/anganwadi garden in the rural areas with an estimated budget of Rs 250 Cr.
During the pandemic outbreak, the Government of Jharkhand came up with this innovative idea which helped create a sustainable source of livelihood for women in the state and at the same time ensured nutritious food to the children in predominantly rural areas of the state. The government formalised this idea through the initiation of the scheme ‘Didi Badi Yojana’ and further converged this scheme with MGNREGA.
Under this scheme, the government supports rural women of the State in cultivating green nutritious vegetables in their personal tracts of land or house campuses. In order to generate awareness and promote this scheme among the rural population, the government provides them with the seeds of seasonal vegetables, fruits, flowers etc. Apart from this, the beneficiaries are also provided with 100-day wage per year under MGNREGA for working under this scheme. Along with the 100-day wage, these women from the rural areas are also able to sell the surplus yield in the markets and earn an additional income. At present 1, 96,721 projects have been sanctioned under this scheme, out of which 1,33,443 projects are in progress.
Apart from Didi Badi Yojana, the government in the recently presented budget has also announced other initiatives like the 1000 Day long SAMAR project which targets eradication of anaemia and malnourishment from the state.
Women like Muniya Devi, Urmila Devi, Gudiya Devi, Sarita Devi,Geeta Devi and others thank the government for providing them double benefit through a fruitful scheme like Didi Badi Yojana.