Business Line : Features / Life : Seaweed that feeds families
Ishika Mondal, 34, works two hours every day in waist-deep water, trying to keep the fragile Gracilaria or Seola (seaweed) seeds alive at the small experimental seed bank in Harekrishnapur village in Sunderbans, West Bengal. “This is our hope for the future. Selling the seaweed every 40 days will bring our families money,” she says.
Raushi Singh, 45, on the other hand, wakes up at 4 a.m. and treks for about one-and-a-half hours along the muddy banks of the Bidya river in the delta region, searching for crab marks. She plunges her hand deep into the crab holes and pulls out these crustaceans. “It's risky and crab bites are common, but most women in our village forage for crabs like this. We then walk to the market, about two hours away, to sell them and buy essentials for our family,” she says.
For her, an alternative such as the seaweed cultivation project would definitely provide some relief from this dangerous and exhausting struggle for sustenance — a way of life for hundreds in the Sunderbans.
Women hold the fort
The continued impact of Cyclone Aila — which hit parts of Eastern India and Bangladesh in 2009 — has taken a heavy toll, both on the environment and the local communities in the Sunderbans. Men in large numbers have migrated to the bigger cities in search of work, leaving the women to fend for the family.
Panchanan Das, Chairman, Forest and Land Committee, Basanti Panchayat Samiti says, “There has been almost no rabi or kharif cultivation since Aila owing to the salinity in the soil caused by the receding floodwaters. Forget paddy, even fruits and vegetables refuse to grow. Prawn and fish cultivation is also at a standstill, as the bheris and ponds are filled with saline water. There is increased incidence of viral disease in fish. Nearly 90 per cent of the young men and about 20 per cent of the young women have moved to cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, and even to the Andamans and Gujarat. In most villages, only women are left behind with young children.”
The women quickly realised that the money sent home was uncertain. “With no men around, finding work became a priority for us. The panchayats have been unable to find us employment through the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). Whatever little work was offered involved hard manual labour like building embankments — impossible for women to do. We suggested poultry, goat-rearing, handicraft, but nothing materialised. Self-help groups (SHGs) and NGOs have provided some alternative means of livelihood,” says Uma Deb Sharma, 45, of Thakurgheri village under Basanti block.
A nutritious lifesaver
At this point, the Nature Environment Wildlife Society (NEWS) initiated the seaweed project on an experimental basis on four plots in three villages. “We had seen a similar project at Mandapam, in Tamil Nadu, which has a seaweed processing factory as well. Seaweed needs both saline and sweet water to flourish and the Sunderbans is ideal for this, as saline water regularly flows in during high tides,” says Barnita Dasgupta, Project Coordinator, Community Development, NEWS.
Adds Aparna Mondal, 35, Secretary of the Saradamoyee SHG under the Jyotispur gram panchayat, which runs the seaweed project at Harekrishnapur, “Seola offers a nutritious dietary alternative and is extremely beneficial for pregnant women. It's excellent food for the people in Sunderbans. We can also sell it to baby food and diet supplement manufacturers. There will be a yield every 40 days if the experiment works.”
If things go according to plan, each woman can harvest 15-30 kg of seaweed from a plot every 40 days. “One kilo will fetch Rs 20. We aim to involve about 800 women in this project,” says Rajnarayan Mondal, 42, Local Project Coordinator, NEWS.
Besides the seaweed initiative, the mangrove nursery project is proving to be a source of livelihood for women in Basanti block. Anjali Sardar, 45, a widow whose two sons are away in search of work, says excitedly, “We are cultivating kalobain (Black Avicenea) saplings, which we'll sell for one rupee each to the NGO. We also plan to plant them along the riverbanks to earn extra money. In fact, we got paid 35 paise for every jute bag we stitched, which are used to collect clay from the riverbanks and the kalobain seeds from the forest. The seeds have now been planted in the clay. That was hard work. These days we spend two hours every morning and evening watering and caring for these saplings.”
The NEWS project is also helping address environmental concerns such as the protection of mangroves in the Sunderbans. “After Aila, the realisation dawned that areas with greater density of mangroves had remained relatively unscathed. Now, these women are not only involved in planting new trees, they also take a keen interest in protecting them,” says Ankita, Project Trainee, NEWS.
Help, or no help…
Thirty-two-year-old Kanondolai's house was submerged when Aila hit the delta. Earlier, her fields yielded about 10 basta (each basta equals 60 kg) paddy per bigha. Now it is less than three basta. Her son is a pipeline worker somewhere near Mumbai and sends home about Rs 300 a month, which is hardly sufficient for Kanondolai, her husband and a school-going daughter. She works diligently at the nursery now.
“Many girls have gone to work as domestic help in cities. I fear many are being trafficked. I don't want the same for my daughter. The nursery project is my safety net. I made money from the jute bags I stitched; and once the saplings are sold, I will have money in hand. My husband is ill but he does odd jobs. We will manage somehow,” she says.
Most families in the Sunderbans say they have received no post-cyclone compensation for building/ repairing their houses, let alone any other monetary help from the Government. Basanti block authorities say that of the Rs 52 crore due as compensation for repairing dwellings, they have received only Rs 24 crore till 2010-11. Even the sanctioned fortification of embankments has not taken place. At the most, only some superficial work has been done.
It is, however, heartening that the residents, particularly women, are trying to mitigate the financial, social and environmental impact of Aila to some extent, and doing this themselves.
© Women's Feature Service
posted by Poobathy @ 12:57 PM
