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KALYANI
KHATUA
Dhinkia
Everyone in Dhinkia village in Ersama block of ]agatsinghpur
district was surprised when Rabi , a poor but idealistic
young man came forward to marry Kalyani. The marriage was
solemnized in July 1999. Three months later, Kalyani's hope
of setting up a new home was shattered, for the super cyclone
left her and her in-laws utterly destitute. Their thatched
hut was razed to ground and all their belongings were blown
away. They narrowly escaped death. Her husband's small patch
of land was covered with sand.
In order to renovate the village tank, repair the road and
to create community assets, Action Aid India undertook a Food
for Work programme in Dhinkia village. Kalyani's husband found
work but what he earned was not enough to support a family
of five. Her old father- in-law did not allow his newly wed
daughter-in-Law to go out to work, for, he said, it was better
to starve than to do such a thing. But Kalyani was determined
to do her bit. Her physical deformities did not stand in her
way. The villagers recall that her pace of work was faster
than that of any physically fit young man.
Besides taking rehabilitation measures, government and non-government
agencies started various programmes to create self-reliant
villages, where the economic condition of the poorest of
the poor would improve. To this end, Action-Aid India (AAI)
and Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS) began micro-level planning,
community mobilization and individual income generating
projects in this Gram Panchayat. Swabhiman, a disabilities
information and resource center based at Bhubaneswar, took
up a project to identify people with disability and introduced
livelihood programmes for their benefit. Kalyani Khatua
was one of the hundred and three persons identified by Swabhiman
in the Dhinkia Panchayat of Ersama Block in ]agatsinghpur
district. Depending on their needs, Swabhiman arranged different
kinds of loans for them. Initially, Kalyani's family members
did not encourage her to take out a loan.
But Kalyani, for her part, did not want
to miss the opportunity. She asked for a loan to start a
grocery shop. Swabhiman-BGVS helped her get the loan. In
the mean time, Swabhiman began the process of building special
cross disability self help groups for empowering physically
challenged persons. Today, Kalyani is not only an active
member of a Swabhiman Self Help Group; she has also volunteered
to become the President of the Self Help Group in Dhinkia
village. She has opened a grocery shop from which she earns
R5 200 to R5 300 per day; Kalyani is a woman of substance,
who has not just fought the stigma of being disabled; she
has turned herself into a breadwinner, a homemaker and a
positive example to the society that once ridiculed her
for her deformities. She remains grateful to all the government
and non-government agencies, especially Swabhiman, who helped
her rebuild her life. Recently, Kalyani has been blessed
with a daughter.
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