The Report - North 24 Parganas

and that has helped improving the health status of the people. People also havealternative options for doing fish rearing and vegetable cultivation.”NREGA has offered about 30 to 4 days of work to Subol and his family members.But the issue is that the work is not available on need basis, he thinks. “If we couldwork in the rainy season, then our scope for work would also increase.” Subolhopes that everyone in the village gets the benefits of NREGA. “We all havebank accounts due to the NREGA program and this is really an advantage.” Atotal of 28 ponds have been excavated in the village, Subol confirms.After cultivating one bigha and six kathas of land, the yields on Subol’s landhave been substantial – he has been able to produce about 14 bags of rice. Butthe yield has not been the same on other pieces of land – for the others therehave been only 5 to 7 bags of produce per bigha.Last year, Subol had to purchase rice worth Rs.10000. But this year, due toadditional supplies of water from the excavated ponds he has not had to thesame. Besides, food for the two cows at home could also be arranged for thepond. Ducks and fishes were also reared on the household premises.Subol hopes to use his land for multiple cropping as he plans to use the returnsform one of his crop yields as investment expenditures for others. With the aid offarmer’s training, Subol thinks he can build on his crop yields as well apart fromfish rearing and mat selling business opportunities where he feels there areadequate chances of returns.He also wishes to use some of his wife’s SHG sanctioned loans for investment inpiggery. “Despite lot of efforts, I have not been able to start doing business onAustralian pigs. I had to be satisfied working with local pigs. However, if we areable to qualify for some loans, I would definitely start working on gettingAustralian breeds.”Subol says, “NREGA had helped in development of fish rearing and cultivation.Water supplies have also improved in the village. In all, the village people areexperiencing an improvement in well-being and much of the labor migrationthat was taking place in the past has stopped right now. Villagers have stoppedmoving out to Delhi, Bombay and Haryana because of the benefits renderedthrough NREGA. Although the wages are lower compared to remunerationsoutside the village in other bigger cities, comparatively this is far better as wecan stay closer to our families and lead a happy and healthy life. We have beenreimbursed for our work in no time and within 15 to 20 days. We hope to receivework not just for 100 days but for the entire year on this program.”