Women take part in grass cutting competition
RUDRAPUR: A grass cutting competition was organised at a village of Almora district to create awareness about hill migration and people moving away from farming.
Besides hill migration and agriculture and animal husbandry, the initiative was aimed at giving respite from the monotony of pandemic life.
“As our hill people are moving away from agriculture and animal husbandry, we wanted to bring more awareness on this issue, as this is one of the main reasons why people are migrating from the state. Agriculture is suffering due to loss caused by wild animal and animal husbandry due to lack of fodder. In such a situation, we held a grass cutting competition to raise awareness and organise some activity to cut through the monotony of Covid lock downs,” said Kishan Rana, an officebearer of Hiteshi social organization working for development in rural areas.
The “Ghas Kato Pratiyogita” (grass cutting competition) was held in Pachchisi village in Almora on Monday.
Women from more than six villages participated in the competition with their sickles. The time of the competition was fixed for two minutes. The woman who would cut maximum grass with her sickle was declared the winner.
Hema Negi, Pachchisi village head, said, “It was a wonderful competition and women participated in the competition with enthusiasm. Most of the time women in our area collect fodder for their cattle. There are hardly any recreational activities for women in the interior areas so participants, as well as villagers, enjoyed it.”
Collecting fodder and firewood are the main routine work of the women of the hill areas. Fodder for their cattle and firewood is for their kitchens. Notably, sometimes they lose their lives to wild animals like leopards and boars while collecting fodder or firewood from their agricultural land or nearby forests.
Pushpa Devi of Pachchisi village was declared the winner in the competition. Geeta Devi and Hema Negi captured second and third positions, respectively.
Village head Negi said, “Since collecting fodder is routine work for the women, they didn’t do any extra arrangement. So it was a comfortable competition for them and they enjoyed it a lot. Before the competition, they were made aware about the conservation of the environment and natural resources also.”