[Monday Motivation] Married at 16, this tribal woman became an animal health expert. Now, she is a police constable

The story of 26-year old tribal woman Babli Bai is one of challenges and roadbloacks, of determination and rewards.

Hailing from Malaap village in Pindwara block of Sirohi district in Rajasthan, Babli was married off young. She was 16. Her husband, 19 years old then, started working as a ‘pathar gadhai mazdoor’ in one of the 200+ factories in Pindwara where marble, sandstone, soapstone and redstone are carved out into pillars and statues that adorn temples across India.

Around this time, Babli learnt about a Tata Trust initiative – the ‘Pashu Sakhi’ programme, which aims to empower women farmers across villages in Rajasthan through livestock-based livelihood practices.

“Many villages in Rajasthan's remote regions are far from veterinary hospitals and veterinarians. Even when veterinarians are available, it is usually too late by the time they respond to a call. Cattle mortality is high, and diseases are common in our areas,” she says.

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Learning her way up

Babli found the idea interesting, and in 2017 joined as a Pashu Sakhi in the Centre for Microfinance (CmF), the Tata Trust’s livelihood programme in Pindwara. She had a son by then, but she was keen to start working and support her family.

She quickly learnt the basics of animal health care and under the supervision of Mahaveer, Livestock Assistant (LSA), was able to extend preventive and primary health care to 120 goat-rearing households in her village.

“Being a Pashu Sakhi made me take the first step towards financial independence. At the same time, talking and connecting with strangers increased my confidence,” she recalls.

During her work as a Pashu Sakhi, she interacted with Hemlata, CmF’s project manager, who recognised Babli’s potential and encouraged her to enrol for Class 10 through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

“Subsequently, I cleared the Class 10 exams. However, my happiness was short-lived as my husband had got affected by silicosis, a fatal disease that has affected thousands of young men working in the stone-carving factories of Pindwara,” Babli says.

The disease left him unable to work and Babli ended up taking charge of all family responsibilities. This was around the year 2019 and the couple also had another child (a daughter) by then.

However, the young woman was determined to overcome all the problems and took up the Pashu Sakhi role for four villages, covering 500 goat-rearing households. She also combined her savings with a loan from her Self-Help Group to buy a two-wheeler.

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Overcoming challenges

In the interiors of Rajasthan, especially in Babli’s village, it was not common to find women working and travelling on their own.

Her in-laws took great objection to their daughter-in-law going alone to other villages, and that too “riding a two-wheeler”. Babli’s mother was supportive and helped take care of her two children, including a year-old daughter, but her brother did not like her staying at her mother’s place and threw her out.

The project team changed her operational area so that she could avoid the ire of both sides of her family. Meanwhile, she had also cleared her Class 12 exams from Open School.

Babli she was doing well as a Pashu Sakhi, but being a tribal woman faced a lot of discrimination from her landlord when she had to shift to Pindwara due to the absence of family support.

She told Hemlata that without family support she would be unable to work for long in the area. Hemlata and the CmF team helped Babli Bai apply for the police constable examination. She cleared the written examination, which was to be followed by physical tests which involved various kinds of drills and races.

“I was very determined to clear the tests and practised running every morning for the next three to four months. I was fortunate to have successfully cleared the physical test too.”

Babli started the nine-month police constable training in September 2021 in another district, Jhalawar, after her mother stepped forward to look after her two children. The training ended in May 2022, and Babli is now a police constable in Sirohi.

“If it was not for the support and love of the 500+ women of the goat-rearing households and the CmF Trust project team, I would not have come this far. I wanted to stay in the village, work as a Pashu Sakhi, and set up a goat farm myself, but I had nowhere to go. The training of police constable has been strenuous, and I had to leave behind my little children, but now I am looking forward to a new phase in my life,” Babli says.