With veterinary clinics being miles away, livestock healthcare was difficult for villagers in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. Trained women pashu sakhis now treat goats locally, getting financially independent and empowered in the process.
It was 5 o’clock on a regular morning in Mohammadnagar village in Uttar Pradesh, when 27-year-old Radha Devi got a call from a distressed woman. She packed her bag quickly and left home immediately. The call was from her neighbour whose goat had a throat infection. Radha Devi checked the goat and provided the crucial medical treatment in time.
“The infection on the throat had become so bad that the goat was in excruciating pain. I treated the infection. It took about one-and-a-half hours to do the entire procedure, and the goat recovered fully in a week,” she said with a sense of accomplishment and joy. This was one of the 100-odd such cases she has attended in and around her village.
Radha Devi does not have a background in veterinary science. However, she is well equipped to cater to Goat Health Management’s almost all medical requirements of goats. She is trained as a pashu sakhi (friend of animals) under the flagship aspirational district programme of Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) supported by IndusInd Bank.
Radha Devi was 18 years old when her family got her married. She had to drop out of college. Though she wanted to do more with her life, she got busy with household responsibilities.
“We were struggling financially. My husband has a medicine shop but income was not enough. We had to make one of our kids drop out of school since we didn’t have money,” she recalled.
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The couple was struggling to arrange even nutritious food for their two children.
“I had already lost two children when they were only a few weeks old. I wanted to do the best for my remaining two children,” Radha Devi said.
She wanted to complete her studies and also wished to support her family financially. But juggling between multiple responsibilities, she just didn’t know how to go about it.
In March 2023, when Radha Devi got an opportunity to get trained as a pashu sakhi through the livestock programme of AKF, she grabbed it with both hands.
She got trained in Goat Health Management. She learnt how to deworm, vaccinate and perform castration on the goats, and look after their overall health. She learnt how to make goat feeders too. Now she offers these services in her village – the only one in her village to do so.
Before Radha Devi became a pashu sakhi, the villagers had to take the goats to a clinic located 3 km away from the village. They would carry the animals on a motorcycle or a rickshaw and the treatment often got delayed.
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Thanks to Radha Devi, the goats now get timely treatments at home.
The situation is vastly different from 2022, when all the goats in Mohammadnagar caught an infection and died. Not even a single goat survived. Villagers faced huge losses since all their livestock was gone. For three months no one reared goats in the village.
“Gradually everyone started buying goats. After I became a pashu sakhi, I haven’t seen a single death due to lack of medical treatment in my village,” said Radha Devi.
Radha Devi earns from the community for the services she offers. In addition to treatments, she helps in building goat sheds. She also helps in preparing nutritious feed from azolla grass, so that the goats are healthy and fetch a good price.
Once struggling to put healthy meals on the table for her family, she now earns approximately Rs 5,000 a month as a pashu sakhi.
It is not just the financial independence that she has gained, but also the respect in the community.
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“Initially people would taunt me and ask uncomfortable questions. But now the same people call me didi. They respect me and listen to me. Not just the villagers, even my family has started respecting me more,” Radha Devi said.
She has also managed to complete her graduation and wants her children to pursue higher studies. She dreams of her children becoming doctors.
Radha Devi is just one of the hundreds of rural women who are now making livestock healthcare in villages more affordable and accessible. There are 140 pashu sakhis currently working in Uttar Pradesh, each catering to about 250 households under the Aspirational District Programme.
“The idea behind having women on board was mainly to empower them. Women can attend to such medical emergencies on time,” said Anand Pal, Programme Coordinator, Livestock Development at AKF.
Pal added that the personalities of these women have changed after being trained as pashu sakhi. Those who were once reluctant to even step out of their homes are now spokespersons of goat healthcare. They now train other women and have become more confident.
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“I’m happy that I’m not only financially independent but I also play a very important role in my village. But my dreams are not limited to me. I want to do more,” said Radha Devi.
This story has been covered as part of a special collaboration between Village Square and Aga Khan Foundation to highlight stories of change in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh.
The lead image shows Radha Devi trained as a pashu sakhi, holding a goat in her hands (Photo by Shreya Pareek)
Shreya Pareek, a Uttarakhand-based solution journalist, is a Village Square Fellow ’23.
