The contribution of women in agriculture is often ignored or underestimated. Most of the time they are not even considered farmers whereas they are equally involved in various stages of agricultural operations starting from the sowing of seeds, hand weeding, harvesting, post-harvesting activities and seed preservation.

They not only share work in the field but also shoulder the responsibility of home, well-being of children and elders, food and nutrition of the family. However, the true picture of the contribution of a female in enhancing the family income has never been portrayed properly or given any importance. In Assam, out of 80% population engaged in agriculture, 26% are women.

The Karbis inhabiting the hills of Cachar District of Barak Valley in Assam are not economically sound and still have a long way in terms of economic and social development. The community wants to come out from this poverty and deprivation, but the challenges are manifold.

Kache Engtipi, a resident of Ailatal Karbi Punjee village in Kalian block, Cachar District faced challenges to manage her family of five. She faces difficulty in sustaining the family due to the limited income of his husband and decided to take some bold steps to contribute and plan for some income generation activities.

During this time in 2016, Seva Kendra Silchar (SKS) a partner of Caritas India under the under FARM Northeast program came to her as a blessing. The program work towards empowering women by involving them in the Farmers club so that they can contribute their views and ideas. It also gives them confidence in participating in decision-making at the group activities. The program also linked them with government and line departments to avail several schemes for their betterment.

Funded by Misereor, Germany to support the marginal farmers the program sensitized the community for collective action, help to identify social and economic issues, sensitized on the ownership and optimum use of available land and community resource through trainings and capacity building.

Kache started participating in the awareness programmes conducted to disseminate different ways of improving livelihood and agricultural processes. Over time she started actively attending the programs conducted by Seva Kendra Silchar.

The program work towards empowering women and providing equal access to productive resources. It is proven that when women are given an equal share of resources, they reinvest their income back into their families to improve education, nutrition and health.

In 2018 Kache took the courage to start the innovative business of sapling preparation by investing Rs.4,000 in purchasing the seeds. She prepared 2,000 betelnut saplings and the survival rate was 1,800. In 2020, she sold them for Rs.10 per/sapling and earned Rs.18,000. In this way, she started to contribute to the family financially.

Most importantly, the success of Kache Engtipi is being seen as a model by other women in the village and they have realized that women can also help in the financial development of the family, and they too started the same. Now women in almost every family are engaged in some activity to improve the financial status of the family and the standard of life.

Kache expresses, “I am happy that I have taken this step, and now I can contribute and help my husband in maintaining and sustaining the family.”

These changes are taking place among the women community and now they are playing a positive role in their families and their development. SKS hopes that these changes will be a movement for change and development in women’s life, communities and society as a whole.