Axis Bank Foundation (ABF) in partnership with The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India (AKRSPI) has spearheaded the Dangi Vikas project since January 2013 in the Dangs district of Gujarat. The project supports 22,000 families to enhance their incomes by creating enabling opportunities.

Dangs has hilly forested terrain. It’s a high rainfall region with low water storing capacity. People depend partially on agriculture, micro business and migration for labour as a source of livelihoods. The project aimed to create local income generating opportunities by enhancing the access to water for irrigation and improve agriculture productivity for people with land. For people without land, the project promoted livestock as a source of income. Hemuben is one such example of transformative change in Dangs.

Hemuben Ramesh Bhai belongs to one of the nine surviving ‘Kotwalia’, a primitive tribal group of Kesvandh, a village in Dangs. Low literacy rate, limited skills, the landless community relies on income generated from weaving baskets from bamboo that they harvest areas.

Hemuben’s family was leading a hand-to-mouth existence and depended on her to provide for them. In the absence of any other skills or training, she took to weaving bamboo baskets and would journey from village to village to sell the bamboo baskets to farmers. Her earnings were paltry and insufficient to provide for basic needs like nutritious diet, proper housing, education and healthcare.

In 2013, through the programmes run by ABF and AKRSPI, Hemuben, along with few other women of her community, were trained extensively in the skill of livestock rearing to supplement her basket weaving income and taught how to monetise both businesses so that she could earn more.

Over four years, Hemuben is the proud owner of two cows that yield 12-15 litres of milk each day, giving her a steady source of income. With a better understanding of economics, her annual income from traditional bamboo products has also increased. She is now able to adequately provide for the well-being of her children and has savings. Her children are now getting quality education. With steady income stream, a pucca house and steady savings, Hemuben has plenty of reasons to smile today.

Axis Bank Foundation (ABF) in partnership with The People’s Rural Education Movement (PREM) is empowering women in Orissa through capacity building, access to micro enterprise ecosystem and access to finance.

Through training programs, hand holding support, over 15,000 women have been supported to start one or more micro enterprises, individually or collectively for locally marketable products and produce.

Thirty-five-year-old Panchali Nayak lives in a small village called Balchandrapur in Puri with her family. Her husband, though educated was unemployed, leaving the burden of running the household to Panchali. With two small children and a dependent parent, she relied on the yield of a coconut and banana plantation to give them an income. She supplemented this income with selling ‘Polang’ a locally procured oil seed. All her efforts bore little fruit and the family struggled on a day to day basis.

In 2011, PREMA selected Panchali to participate in a workshop where she was exposed to different skills that could help her create another source of income. Panchali selected flour milling and set up her own mill with machinery and began selling flour in the market. Over a period of time, she invested her income to start a small tailoring unit and a poultry unit. Panchali is classical example of rural entrepreneurship and a role model to young women in her village.

Axis Bank Foundation (ABF) in partnership with Dilasa Sanstha is working to create sustainable access to water and financial capital to sustain and enhance income from farm and non-farm livelihoods. The project supports 90,000 families 10 districts in Vidharba and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra.

The region is known for its water scarcity leading to long periods of distress for farmers, especially farmers with small land holdings. The projects help farmers build small and medium water conservation structures to ensure regular supply of water of irrigation. The project also supports women from Self-help groups to inculcate the habit of savings, access micro loans from financial institutions.

Vikas Aditya Gharami is a farmer from Shantigram, a village in Maharashtra. Like most farmers in the region, Vikas grew traditional cash crops groundnut, cotton, sugarcane, turmeric and tobacco which require higher quality water to cultivate. With increasing dry spells in the region and lack of irrigation, the crops failed leading to significant reduction in his income year after year. He incurred high debt and was filled with uncertainty about his future and that of his family.

In 2013, Dilasa initiated work in the village. The area was surveyed or its potential to harvest water. A locally engineered technique like ‘Bodi’, a water harvesting method was discussed with several farmers like him. Several small structures were created to retain water, create small reservoirs to irrigate farm land. Several thousand of trees were planted to ensure retention of water and soil for a long period of time. This simple and effective intervention brought about change in the agriculture.

Over four years, Vikas has been able to bring more land under cultivation. He now cultivates a high yielding, superior quality paddy which he sells for an increased profit. Financially stable, he is able to send his children to a good school, own a motorcycle and live comfortably. After years of struggling against a bleak future, Vikas is on the path of prosperity.

Axis Bank Foundation (ABF) in partnership with Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action (SRIJAN) in water scares areas of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh to help people generate incomes from cultivation of vegetables, fruits and dairy.

While farmers meet their food security from cultivation of paddy, they depend on labour for cash incomes. Lack of sustained source of water for irrigation restricts their ability to cultivate crops through the year. Horticulture is therefore found to be of immense remunerative value for the farmers. Sustained incomes can be assured if appropriate technology is applied and market linkage can be forged.

Yashwant Singh is a farmer who lives in Jamuniha village in Madhya Pradesh. With a large family to provide for and limited resources and opportunities, Yashwant was forced to supplement a meagre agricultural income with a labourer job to support the family financially.

About five years ago, Srijan supported him for cultivation of Pomegranate trees. Pomegranate was found suitable for the local agro climatic conditions. He further interspersed with vegetables. While Pomegranate trees would start generating income in few years’ times, vegetable generate regular cash incomes. He was also supported to learn skills and techniques to increase production and participate in collective marketing.

Today, Yashwant is the proud owner of over 70 pomegranate trees and has installed a pressurized drip irrigation system as a technological intervention for assured irrigation. His family lives in relative better conditions and have opportunities for a better future for themselves.