The Report - North 24 Parganas

9. MAMATA SARDARNREGA has made villagers self sufficient with vegetable produces in thebackyard and with fish rearing, both of which also generate additionalearnings for householdsMamata Sardar is 40 years old. 11 years ago she had lost her husband to cancer.Not until recently, she had been the principal earning member of the family.Mamata has two children – one daughter and a son. She got her daughtermarried very recently and her son works in Tamil Nadu as a ‘thekadar’. Shehowever sustains her living by working as a house maid in several people’s home.Mamata’s life has always been full of struggle. Ever since she was married, herhusband was sick and she had to take care of the family. Without working as ahouse maid, it would have been hard for her to arrange for two square meals aday, she says. However, she feels that after her husband’s death she has hadmany losses. The house and the land were lost. “My husband’s death was thebiggest misfortune in my life. At that time, my son was in class V and my daughterin class one. But my satisfaction is that now both of them are doing well. I donottake their money however. I save the money they give me and try to maintainthat as their savings.”Mamata owns 15 kathas of cultivable land and 5 kathas of shallow land (bilen).The cultivable land is used for multiple crop production – mostly rice and dal.Setting aside for expenses that she earns from selling the produce, Mamata isable to keep about a ‘mon’ of dal and two bags of rice for herself after sellingthe rest for earnings. But that is not sufficient for her year long sustenance. Heronly source of drinking water is in the nearby supplies of vat. So economically,she has to always depend on her monthly earnings without any alternatives.“After the death of my husband I was supposed to get about 10,000 Rs. Until veryrecently, I had only received about Rs. 5000. Only a few days ago, I received therest of the money.”However, Mamata does have some advantages with the land as it is very fertileand variations in the climate do not have a gross negative affect on her yields.Mamata makes her living with her earnings as a housemaid. She has alsoproduced lot of vegetables in her backyard. Brinjals, cauliflowers and potatoesare some of the vegetable produces she has and selling them does generatesome additional earnings for her. She also has the responsibility of selling thevegetables of the people she works for. And for this she is generallycompensated in terms of her labour and time. Mamata says that she has littlecapacity to do other things and has never qualified for a government loan.