Pashu sakhis' innovative way of providing essential health care services for goats at a very affordable rate to villagers

By Bharat Dogra

Goats are generally at the margin of rural development efforts, but thanks to a well-planned initiative in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, efforts related to better care of goats and improved livelihoods based on these have progressed in very creative and useful ways, including progress of an endearing concept of giving goat kids (babies) a more protective childhood in the form of memna nursery (memna is the local word for goat babies or kids).

This program emphasizes five aspects of goats based livelihoods. Firstly, there is an effort to provide better living place or ‘housing’ to goats, including protection from weather extremes and improvement of cleanliness. This includes a special effort for goat kids or memnas so that they can escape from getting caught in occasional fights of bigger animals and otherwise also can be getter protected.

Secondly, an attempt has been made to provide better and more nutritious feed to animals. In several villages women are members of farmer producer organizations and they have also taken up the preparation of better feed. Even while feeding the staple of tree leaves, some women here explained how simple changes in feeding practices can ensure that goats can avoid a lot of dust on leaves and eat cleaner food.

In addition attempts have been made to improve marketing as well as breeds, opting not for cross-breeding but instead for improved breeds from close to this region.

Perhaps the most emphasis has been placed on improving the health of goats and protecting them from various ailments as well as arranging for early treatment.

The health initiative in turn has placed a lot of emphasis on training of selected rural women to provide basic health care to goats in villages. Keeping in view the large number of goats in any village here it is difficult to call a veterinary doctor from a city or a government center every time a health problem is reported. However if someone within the village can be trained adequately to take care of some of the most common health problems relating to goats, then more timely care and treatment can be provided, leading to reduced mortality among goats. At the same time, many women can earn respected and very helpful part-time livelihoods as goat doctors serving the village community. Such a woman serving as goat doctor is given the honorable name of pashu sakhi, translated as friend of animals. While pashu sakhi primarily treats goats, to a lesser extent they are also equipped to provide some care and treatment for bigger animals like cows and buffaloes.

Pashu sakhis are trained first at local level, and then they can go for more advanced training to places like Lucknow and Munger where such facilities for training relating to care and treatment of goats exist.

Pashu Sakhis keep careful record of the work they do. Somvati said that thanks to her new responsibility as pashu sakhi, she had an additional incentive to improve her literacy skills.

A pashu sakhi provides essential health care services for goats at a very affordable rate to villagers, charging much, much less than what a veterinary doctor called from city would charge.

However despite their low cost care, a pashu sakhi can on average earn about two to three thousand rupees per month from this work. In addition she may be able to keep more goats than the average village household, thereby adding to her income from goat sales as well. The services of the best among them are also obtained for training programs, and there is some additional income from this too.

This program of goat based livelihoods in these villages of Shivpuri district, concentrated more in some blocks like Pichore, has been taken up by SRIJAN voluntary organization with the support of Axis Bank Foundation and Azim Premji Foundation. Nearly 40 pashu sakhis are active at present. They can seek the help of two cluster level managers who have access to higher training.

A question may be raised here regarding the excess work burden on many women who in addition to their earlier household as well as farm or other work now have to visit several village homes and organize goat health camps as well. However none of the nearly a dozen pashu sakhis to whom I talked to during a recent visit to these villages complained to me about any excess work burden. They did not deny that they are working very hard and sometimes face very difficult situations, such as going to attend to a very sick goat in torrential rain or even having to cross a small flooded river for this. However they spoke of such incidents and difficulties more in terms of something brave they did than in terms of anything they wanted to avoid in future.

Indeed what some of these women are achieving all in a day’s work is awesome. Seema Jatav is one of the more senior pashu sakhis and her services are regularly obtained to train others. She has also grown a nutrition garden. She is a keen follower of natural farming and is involved in training for this too.

Manisha Lodhi is another Pashu sakhi combining several duties. Earlier she worked hard to get a master’s degree in social work. She runs a bio-resource center on her farm to support natural farming. She takes up sewing work at night, and devotes some time to a family managed shop too.

But is she complaining? No, not at all. In fact all the pashu sakhis I spoke to appeared to be quite happy with their life, enjoying the wider social role they had entered in recent times and the social respect they were getting now.

This then is women’s empowerment, Indian village style, combining household duties and responsibilities with increasing social roles and activities.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Man over Machine, Planet in Peril, and A Day in 2071

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