In a dusty village called Umerda, in the Zirniya block of Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme - India (AKRSP-I) works to resolve the subtle yet impactful problems that were plaguing the livelihoods of the villagers.
Animal husbandry has been an important secondary source of livelihood for most small and marginal farmers across India. However, mortality rates amongst small and marginal farmers, especially in tribal areas is high, due to improper feed and shed management, fluctuating fodder availability, and lack of any formal last-mile veterinary service providers. Animal husbandry provides a relatively stable income as opposed to the risk-ridden and sporadic agricultural income. Apart from being a secondary source of income, livestock provide an important source of nutrition through their milk, and a significant savings mechanism. Buying land and livestock is popular among farmers as a way of investing surplus money into productive assets. Thus, mortality risks in livestock do not just result in income reduction, but in lowering of nutrition, and the capacity of risk absorption for small and marginal farmer households.
AKRSP-I works on providing farmers ways to strengthen their animal husbandry activities including getting loans to purchase livestock, ensuring last-mile delivery of insurance services through convergence, providing training in feed, fodder and shed management and even training farmers on how to use livestock waste like cow dung & cow urine to make low cost and highly effective agricultural inputs. But across all this, livestock mortality is a persistent issue, and AKRSP-I's Pashu Sakhi model is aimed at targeting exactly this.
What is Pashu Sakhi?
Pashu Sakhi, which means 'friends of animals', is a woman from the village trained to handle routine medical requirements for animals in the village, including cows, buffaloes, bulls, poultry and goats. While they are not trained to handle surgical interventions, they can identify diseases, provide medication, vaccinations, and suggest remedial or preventive actions.
In Umerda, Kanchan Baviskar is the first trained Pashu Sakhi. Kanchan was married into this village four years ago. AKRSP-I noticed her enthusiastic nature, her ability to interact with people and her go-getting spirit, and asked her to become a Pashu Sakhi. She immediately agreed, but upon learning that she would be sent away to a training institute for veterinary services, she hesitated. Only after much persuasion did her husband and parents-in-law give their blessings, testimony to the fact that AKRSP-I had, over 10 years of work created a good standing in the village.
Kanchan went to Lucknow twice for four days each to learn about identifying, preventing and curing diseases, and administering vaccinations. She returned ready to start providing veterinary services in the village but still needed regular support. Now, Pashu Sakhis from a group of villages gather in the AKRSP-I cluster offices once a month to discuss issues, get guidance, stock up on medicines and learn more information on the veterinary requirements that come up.
Kanchan encounters dysentery, cold, cough and hoof infections and provides 24-hour service to the villagers to treat these ailments, and teach them simple preventive measures for these common yet fatal ailments, such as spreading lime powder on the ground to protect hooves from infection. Households practice these simple remedies themselves and call Kanchan when a condition doesn't get better, in which case she administers the required medicines.
Now there are 144 trained Pashu Sakhis like Kanchan in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. More than 50,000 households are getting regular support from the model and outreach is increasing every year.
What has been the impact?
This simple yet effective support has drastically reduced animal mortality. While before, the monsoons would bring disease and fatalities on half the goats of a village, now a village might lose one or two goats per month, often caused by unavoidable incidents like snake-bite, which have a very small time-frame for medical intervention. Most other diseases are handled by the Pashu Sakhis. A single service provider for about a 100 households can bring down the mortality to negligible figures.
For their services, Pashu Sakhis charge nominal fees, like INR 10-20, and provide medicines without premium charges. They are also able to earn around INR 500 per month by providing these transformative services.
Presently, the model is active in 296 villages of MP and Bihar. The Sakhis are also engaged in improving management practices, creating awareness and even forming rearing groups at the village level to get better marketability.
Thousands of women like Kanchan are willing to work in their village, providing services by being ASHA workers, Aanganwadi workers, Gram Sevaks, etc., but receive improper training and inadequate remuneration. Simple models like this, not just for veterinary services, but for several other concerns, can build an empowered and energetic local service delivery cadre – with women at the center of this process. While most households would not allow women to do this for INR 500, the ones that do, just might be good enough to start a movement.
