Turning the tide on migration

Bhuvaneshwari Kamble has empowered 400 women and their families with local livelihoods, curbing work-related migration in the villages of Vijayapura

As a child growing up at Babalad in Vijayapura’s Indi taluk, every time Bhuvaneshwari’s neighbours packed their bags to migrate to the bigger cities for their livelihood, she would sense a rising bubble of excitement. Typically, the neighbours would migrate for over six months every year to find work as canal diggers and labourers in sugarcane fields, brick kilns, and on construction sites. 

Bhuvaneshwari Kamble wished her father would follow the neighbours’ footsteps and save some money so he could bring home lots of new clothes. Neither her father, Kallappa Harijan (who recently passed away), nor her mother, Bayaza Bai, was in favour of this yearly rigmarole. 

At one point, Bhuvaneshwari’s mother had worked as a migrant labourer in the grape fields of Vijayapura and Bagalkot districts, and knew what it meant.

These early experiences shaped Bhuvaneshwari’s choices later on. She would go on to establish ‘Odaladhwani Mahila Okkuta’, a federation of 15 self-help groups in Indi taluk, to help women attain financial independence and change the social and educational landscape for the next generation. The 400 women of the Okkuta are now able to earn a livelihood in their village, and their families have stopped migrating.

They rear livestock, grow organic food grains, and sell homemade products, with financial assistance from Bhuvaneshwari’s research guide, Hemalatha.

Looking back, 33-year-old Bhuvaneshwari says, “It was a privilege for our family of seven to have even one meal a day. We eked out a living from the seasonal cultivation on three-and-a-half acres of government land as my father’s contract job with the forest department for a salary of Rs 2,000 per month was never enough.”

Despite her family’s financial struggles, her passion for learning remained undeterred. With her parents’ encouragement, she completed a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies at the Akkamahadevi Women’s University in Vijayapura. Although she wanted to study economics, she could not afford even the subsidised fee of Rs 2,500, back in 2013-14. Late Prof M B Dilshad, who was associated with the Department of Women’s Studies at the Women’s University, Vijayapura, offered to sponsor her studies at the same institution.

Her personal struggles shaped her doctoral thesis. As part of her research, she interacted with over 1,000 women from the border regions of rural Vijayapura and Solapur in Maharashtra who had migrated for work. Prof Hemalatha H M, Bhuvaneshwari’s research guide and former faculty member at the Women’s University explains, “Women who migrate face untold hardships, often performing work that is nothing short of bonded labour. Even then, their annual earnings barely reach Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh.” Bhuvaneshwari, a gold medalist in Women Studies, has highlighted these aspects in her research, points out Prof Hemalatha.

From research to real change

After completing her PhD in 2021, Bhuvaneshwari guided the women she met during her research to take up livelihood activities aligned with their skills and available resources. 

“Bhuvaneshwari interacted with scientists at the Vijayapura Krishi Vigyan Kendra and helped us access seeds for sowing, along with techniques to boost yields and reduce production costs,” says Rajeshwari Hosand, a farmer from Savalsang.

Rajeshwari believes that organic farming not only improved soil health in their tur field but also offered better returns at a lower cost than chemical farming. Most importantly, the Kendra ensures that buyers come directly to her field to purchase the organic produce.

After learning improved cultivation techniques and reaping successful harvests, some women have begun making value-added products. For instance, Mahadevi Shivashur, who grows groundnuts, makes Shenga Holige and sells them at Ragi Kana, a weekly farmers' market in Bengaluru. 

“Our products, such as jowar roti, groundnut powder, and bitter gourd and lemon pickles, sell like hot cakes. Every week, each entrepreneur earns between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000,” she says, adding that this income has transformed their lives.

Bhuvaneshwari has supported women who have taken up dairy farming by providing information and facilitating networking opportunities.

She has also empowered the women of the Okkuta to advocate for change. As Babalad resident Bhagyashri Poojari explains, “Till 2022-23, none of us had stepped into a gram panchayat (GP). It was only with Bhuvaneshwari’s encouragement that we demanded our GP president and panchayat development officers (PDOs) to provide us drinking water, roads, houses and work under the national rural employment guarantee scheme.” Last year, after persistent demands, the women were offered lake rejuvenation work as part of the employment guarantee scheme.

As part of her efforts to curb migration and support rural education, Bhuvaneshwari launched Kalika Kendra in 2020, a learning centre for underprivileged children, especially those from migrant families. Such centres, where children get to learn from women graduates of the village, function in the evening in four villages.

“Covid forced many migrant families to come back to their villages. Many children were finding it difficult to cope with demands of schooling. Bhuavenshwari asked us to start a Kalika Kendra, where we teach basic Kannada, English and Mathematics. The two hours of classes are helping many students perform better at schools even today,” says Pavithra of Savalsang. Eight graduates in four villages, who were struggling to find a paying job, have now started earning Rs 4,000 a month from the Okkuta.

Basavaraj Hattalli, an assistant teacher at Babalad Government High School, says that a majority of migrant students find it difficult to understand lessons due to interruptions in their education. “The Kalika Kendra bridged the learning gap for these students. Now, they have begun actively participating in extracurricular activities and competitions.”