Geeta Devi overcame every barrier to ensure forest rights for her community

Geeta Devi overcame every barrier to ensure forest rights for her community

Sharelines

Geeta Devi overcame every barrier to ensure forest rights for her community. Read how. http://bit.ly/1HKPK27

Geeta Devi is weaving a better future for her family and community in #Jharkhand. Read more. http://bit.ly/1HKPK27

As a member of Turi caste, in the Mahadalit community, Geeta Devi did not have it easy. The Turi community faces discrimination everywhere -- in schools, temples, and workplaces.

But that did not deter Geeta Devi from standing up for the rights of her community. Geeta is educated till class VII but she is the secretary of Forest Right Committee and Treasurer in Bajrang Mahila Mandal.

A resident of Dhargaon village, Domchanch block, Koderma district, Jharkhand, Geeta Devi lives with her husband, two daughters and two sons.

She weaves baskets made of bamboos to support her family.

People from her community faced unemployment and lacked access to cultivable land. Basic needs like clean drinking water and education are still not available. The community was also struggling for its forest rights.

Geeta Devi raised awareness in her community about the provisions of the Forest Rights Act 2006 and helped her community prepare and file 42 Individual Forest Rights (IFR) applications under Forest Rights Act 2006.

She trained other women in making baskets from bamboo and other goods from forest products to get economically empowered. 

“We need to unite and demand out rights under government schemes to give education and health facility to our children”, said Geeta Devi.

She linked the self help groups with the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) scheme and made credit available  to them to start basket making. 

So far, her efforts have gotten 20 families involved in basket making and sustained their livelihood.

 

Written by: Oxfam India staff

Photo credit: Oxfam India

 


Others

Find out how Oxfam India is enabling communities by working to provide a life of dignity and equal opportunity for all.Get to know more about Oxfam India`s latest projects.

Read More

Related Stories

Essential Services

13 Sep, 2023

Kalahandi, Odisha

Solar-based IRP: Providing Clean Drinking Water

As the round of introductions was in progress at the meeting of the water users committee in Deulsulia village, one couldn’t help but notice the discoloured teeth of the men, women and children.

Read More

Women Livelihood

29 Aug, 2023

Kalahandi, Odisha

Goat Rearing To Supplement Income

“Goat rearing is not an additional burden on us. In fact, it is our source for additional income,” says Rukha Jani of the Ma Janaki SHG in Nunpur village in Odisha’s Kalahandi district.

Read More

Women Livelihood

22 Aug, 2023

Nalanda, Bihar

Sprinklers For Nalanda Farmers Ushers Improved Yields

सब खूबी में सबसे

Read More

Women Livelihood

21 Aug, 2023

Nalanda, Bihar

Vermicompost Pit | Our Gift To Mother Earth

“The field with the big mango tree” is how one finds the way to Sanju Devi’s field in Lodipur village in Nagarnausa block in Bihar’s Nalanda district.

Read More