UTTARAKHAND: Ever heard of 'Iron Laddoos', 'Ragi Barfi' or ready-to-use energy powder, ‘Urja’? Ask Kirti Kumari, a food scientist at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), in Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand.
Well, the 'laddoos' are made of iron-rich ragi and barnyard millets and were distributed to rural health workers (Anganwadis). The 'Ragi Barfi' is so famous that the state government has recommended a GI tag for it. And 'Urja' is a therapeutic food meant for undernourished children.
28-year-old Kirti is an M. Tech. in Processing and Food Engineering and a B. Tech. in Food Technology. She belongs to Bharatpur in Rajasthan and teaches at Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry in Tehri Garhwal.
At her young age, she is instrumental in empowering over 1,000 hill women ever since she started working in the region a few years back. Her self-help groups (SHGs) train rural women to become food entrepreneurs.
"It took me over three years to study and understand the socio-economic issues of Uttarakhand hills, especially Tehri. I decided to do something with my knowledge and experience," says Kirti. The block-level processing units that Kirti helped set up have now led to a turnover of over Rs 1 crore.
She persuades rural women to use indigenously available fruits, crops, vegetables, flowers and other farm products such as malta, plum, peach, apricot, rhododendron flower and others to make jams, flour and various other edible items which can be sold in markets across the country. "In Uttarakhand, over 80% of farming is done by women, but they don’t get the benefits. It took a lot of effort, and soon they responded by following the instructions," says Kirti.
At present over 1,000 women through 10 SHGs manufacture various items such as squashes, jams, multi-grain flour, formula food based on traditional and scientific amalgamation for pregnant women, babies and adolescent girls, jams, jellies, pickles and a lot more.
The products are reaching various cities, bringing money to these women, and improving their standard of living. Last month, Kirti was given the 'Virangana Tilu Rauteli Award' for her contribution to changing the lives of hill women living in remote areas.
A fervent advocate of women empowerment and gender equality, she convinces people as well as government authorities to change the name-plates of houses that bear only fathers’ names to include the names of their daughters.
After coming across a report that more than 42 per cent of girls studying in government schools in the state were anaemic, she decided to request women to make 'Iron Laddoos' with locally produced nutritious ingredients.