This heroic teen has helped 452 Vidarbha farmers
At the very beginning of our conversation, 17-year-old Aarnav Aggarwal makes it clear that he has an ambitious streak. And by the end of our conversation, we feel thankful for it because if it weren’t for his ambition, 452 farmers would have been depressed due to crop failure. It was, after all, for the farmers that Aggarwal started UjjBhav.
And to get to the root of the problem, he visited Vidarbha, a place we have come to associate with farmer suicides. “Through a survey, we found out that there are too many problems and there is no single solution,” says Aggarwal who is a class XII student of Bal Bharati Public School, Pitampura, New Delhi. One thing that Aggarwal understood was that technology was not the immediate answer as farmers often take time to adapt to new technology like smartphones.
Speaking to The Better India, the 17-year-old recalls the beginning of his journey, “I still remember reading a newspaper article three years ago. It spoke about how farmer suicides constituted 11.2% of the total suicides in India. It rattled me.”
But he figured that retired or senior farmers and agriculture professionals could help the distressed farmers if they are connected. So, in 2015, the idea of UjjBhav was born.
What does UjjBhav do?
With over 452 farmers and agricultural experts in its network, UjjBhav has created a mentorship programme where deprived farmers are connected with successful farmers and professionals in agriculture, who handhold them through day-to-day field-related issues.
Whether it is creating awareness about government schemes or enrolling them to them to avail the benefits or guide them through the process of crop selection to crop realisation, small and marginal farmers receive support throughout. All of which is done, as a voluntary support, completely free of cost.
When they first started interacting with the farmers, Aarnav realised that their problems were too many with no single solution. From degrading quality of soil, low yields, loss of crop due to pests, interference by middle-men and increasing debts, the farmers were stuck in a never-ending circle, where death looked like a better option than tackling their issues.
Known as the cotton-belt, most of these farmers were suffering losses after the pink bollworm pest attacks and solely because the process of growing cotton was so slow that they weren’t getting returns even on their initial investment.
“The digital divide and the literacy gap are making marginal and small farmers vulnerable as they are unable to utilise the resources around them,” says Aggarwal, who is trying to bridge this divide with UjjBhav’s programmes and the app.
As of today, UjjBhav is helping 452 farmers.
Aggarwal is in touch with the core team in Vidarbha on a daily basis and discusses weekly and monthly reports over Skype.
The idea is to now extend the initiative slowly, he says, from the seven villages they currently work in, to the rest of the country.
“While the purpose is to make farmers aware of the resources available at their disposal and teach them to be self-reliant, as farmers, we must have each other’s backs at all times than rely on third party support. Even in the deepest of debts, we shouldn’t have to wait to be rescued but be our own heroes.”
Ketto & Community Upliftment
Since its inception, Ketto has been a champion of the oppressed and needy in this country. Click on the links below to view crowdfunding projects it has been involved with for poverty alleviation efforts. If you feel inspired, you can start your own project with Ketto as well.
Ketto Blog remains committed to inspiring and compelling social change to India’s most pressing problems through the power of great stories and engaging our audiences to take meaningful action.
