Empowered Puspha – Sustains family and also fights discrimination

Pushpa a young mother of three lives with her husband in Arunumdram, a village with about 300 families. Pushpa, has come a long way from living a life of poverty and with an alcoholic husband to being the sole bread winner of her family.

A very dynamic woman, Pushpa played a key role in bringing to end a ‘caste system’ based issue in her village.

It was a practice that the people from the Backward Community (BC) in the neighbouring village used to cremate the bodies of their dead in a ground in Pushpa’s village. This caused great discomfort to the people in Pusphpa’s village. “And we being Scheduled Castes (believed to be a lower caste than the BCs), we could not do anything about it. And neither were we allowed to cremate the bodies of our dead,” says Pushpa.

Inspite of their repeated attempts to stop the practice, they failed. So Pushpa along with a Self Help Group (SHG) and the Village Development Committee went and submitted their complaint to the district collector asking him to bring an end to this.

As a result of this, the government has now constructed a separate cremation place, where both the BCs and the SCs can cremate their dead at the same place. And the ground that once used to be the cremation ground is now a play ground for children of the village to play.

Pushpa says that her active involvement in the development of her village and the confidence is a result of World Vision’s intervention in her personal life.

Pushpa remember the time when the whole family living in utter poverty. In spite of both Pushpa and her husband working as daily wage labourers, most of the earnings were squandered away by her husband who was addicted to alcohol. And as a result of his addiction, Pushpa’s husband now suffers from a kidney problem that has made him incapable of earning and supporting the family.

World Vision gave her family a cow whose milk she started selling and making some money to support the family. She later got a loan of Rs. 6000 from an SHG and started a petty shop of her own. She now earns about Rs.300 per day. She has repaid back the loan and also earns some income from the ‘Group Farming’ initiative that SHG and World Vision out together for the village.

Pushpa’s three daughters studied at the tuition centre that World Vision had conducted in the village, because of which they were able to do well in their class. They are all now studying in an English medium school. “I’m an illiterate, and I know my condition now. So I want all my children to be well educated and learn to speak English,” says Pushpa.

“World vision takes care of the community as a mother cares for the child,” says Pushpa. She may forget her parents but not World Vision”.

All these benefits have transformed her life from poverty and most importantly has given her a sense of confidence in her life.