Kaushambi woman breaks farming stereotypes, drives tractor to success

Prayagraj: Women have always been integral to agriculture, handling the toughest, most skill-based, and time-consuming tasks from sowing to reaping since ancient times. Yet society rarely recognizes them as field workers. Breaking that pattern, Kalpana Mishra, 40, from Chhimirchha village in Kaushambi takes the steering of her tractor every morning and heads out to harvest farmers’ crops with a thresher.Driving her tractor in the fields all day, she earns Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 daily. After returning home in the evening, she grinds wheat for villagers, earning extra income by running a flour mill she set up with the same tractor using govt financial support.Kalpana says her household has five members. Her husband does temporary data-entry work. With three children to raise, she bears all their education expenses despite limited financial resources.But she didn’t loose hope and courage, and took a loan of Rs 5 lakh from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yuva Self-Employment Scheme to start her business in which she installed a tractor and a flour mill. This tractor and flour mill have now turned her identity in the village.Kalpana says that in her remote village, women had no earning options beyond household work. They were left idle all day after finishing chores at home. To change that, she joined other women to form the Jai Maa Durga Self Help Group.Divyansh Singh, district mission manager of National Rrural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), says that Kalpana took the training of running a flour mill along with the women of the village and after this, she got a loan of Rs 5 lakh from the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Self-Employment Scheme from the District Industries Department.Under this scheme to promote micro enterprises, loans ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh are provided with 25% subsidy. This effort of Kalpana has brought awareness among other women of the village and those women have also shown interest in many micro industries and work. They are being given training for the same.Currently, there are 9,500 women self-help groups in the district in which more than 96,000 women are associated.