Empowering India's Rural Poor through Poultry

Dear Friend of Shivia,

We launched our livelihood development programme in West Bengal five years ago and since then we have worked with over 7,300 very poor families, helping them to start their own back-yard poultry farming enterprise.  As you can imagine, over this time we have collected many stories of how this opportunity has changed the lives of our beneficiaries. In fact you could say that we have heard over 7,300 different stories as each family has its own unique story to tell.

There are some elements to these stories that are invariably the same - all the families we work with start with very little in the way of income and opportunity.  We work with people who fall below the international poverty line, living off an income of less than USD $1.25 a day.  We work with people who tell us that they desperately want the chance to work and earn a sustainable income so that they can better care for their family.  The majority of our beneficiaries tell us they want to give their children the chance of a good education, and for this they need money so that, at the very least, they can buy the books, shoes and uniform their children need to attend school.

We have found that our poultry farming enterprise (Poultry Development Services) is most likely to be taken up women and this is largely what makes our programme so successful. In rural India it is often the women who are most disadvantaged by poverty and historically they have been excluded from the laborforce.  PDS offers an ideal opportuntiy for women to work and earn an income from home and research has proved the positive outcomes of women’s economic empowerment:

In most parts of the world, including impoverished regions, women are a powerful force in their communities. So when they have opportunities to improve their lives, everyone benefits. When they are able to earn an income and control what they do with it, their children are more likely to finish school. Families eat better. They stay healthy. Communities thrive. And in the end, entire nations are in a better position to prosper economically.

• Where women's participation in the labour force grew fastest, the economy experienced the largest reduction in poverty rates.

• When women farmers can access the resources they need, their production increases, making it less likely that their families are hungry and malnourished.

• When women own property and earn money from it, they may have more bargaining power at home. This in turn can help reduce their vulnerability to domestic violence and HIV infection.

Source: International Center for Research on Women (www.icrw.org)

Our own social impact assessments bear testament to the above findings and we have heard the same story from our women farmers time and time again - they are thrilled to be earning an income, they feel empowered and respected by their families and their community.  They use the money they earn from selling eggs and chickens to give their children a better, healthier life.  They feel more confident and more positive about the future.  And with this new confidence and knowledge they often start new enterprises. 

We can't possibly write all the stories we hear in one report so, for now, here are just some of the messages we have received from our poultry farmers.....

 “Shivia has helped a lot to improve my family’s life and means of income.  Now I can buy many things for us and we eat good food regularly.  I am very happy that I can earn some extra money to pay for private tuition for my child and keep her in school and give her nutritious food to eat.  I am very interested to start another farming enterprise and I want to start raising goats one day.”

”Thank you Shivia. I have finally been able to afford to send my children to school and I am now important to my sons which I wasn’t before. I feel empowered.”

“I am happy, really happy with the programme. Your support means I am able to look after my large family.”

“I am very proud of my wife who manages all this.  She is now a self-employed lady and the neighbours look upon her as their role model.  We are very happy. Thank you Shivia!”

So thank you for supporting Shivia and for empowering the women who are changing lives and fortunes in rural India.