KVIC comes to rescue the tiger-troubled ‘Sunderban’
Bali Island of Sunderban – the land where tigers have mauled the men widowing women. Life of 30-year-old Sumitra Midha was torn to rags by the claws as she bore the intolerable pain of losing her husband in tiger attack.
The Bag-bidhoba (tiger-widow in local parlance) was fighting the aftermath of the fateful incident, while she was coping with the consequent discrimination, deprivation, and social rejection, and the impact on her mental health, something just changed in the area for good.
Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman, KVIC visited the Island to understand the pain and agony of the tiger-widows on July 21.
“We want to bring down human deaths due to tiger attack to zero. Keeping this in mind, we will help villagers in taking up apiculture and weaving in all possible forms right in the villages so that they do not need to venture deep into the forests,” Saxena said on the visit.
After studying the impact on the survivors in terms of health, both physical and psychosocial, disruption of livelihoods and food insecurity – the commission led by Khadi planned to provide a new lease of life in form of Gandhian Charkhas and bee-boxes for Bag-bidhoba Sumitra and many others like her, to eke out their livelihood.
Besides giving 50 Charkhas, KVIC selected 75 women among all victim widows for training in the first phase.
Named as ‘Tiger Victim Khadi Katai Kendra’ Bali – the programme will start from July 30 until the last week of August, training the selected women in spinning and bee-keeping.
It is likely that the Kendra inaugurates during the first week of September this year.
Consequently, it would be a significant stride by the KVIC to encourage the villagers to take up apiculture and Khadi activities right in their native villages. The programme will also stop villagers from collecting honey and fishing in deep waters of the Sundarban forest for eking out bread for their families – risking their lives – prey to tigers, crocodiles and poisonous snakes.
It is not something new for KVIC to successfully provide dignified ways of eking out the livelihoods to the victims/ sufferers across the nation.
Initially, the women of Nagrota village in Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the training from the centre developed by KVIC, where the migrant women of terrorisminfested villages there were rehabilitated in the Napkin Stitching Centre.
As a result of which, the handkerchiefs made by those women are being used as gifts to the noted national and international dignitaries by many government and nongovernment organisations.
Continuing with the practice of making a good change, the KVIC derived a novel way to cut out illegal poaching and maintain flora and fauna in and around Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Started with a new training-cum-production centre set up in association with Assam forest department, giving 25 charkhas, five looms to the village – artisans of Silimkhowa village under Karbi-anglong district.
Following that initiative, on May 20 which is celebrated as World Honey Bee Day, under a programme of KVIC, it distributed as many as 1,000 bee-boxes among 100 Mishing Asamese tribal people in Kaziranga – for rebuilding their lives and secure their future.