Aman Zutshi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with beneficiaries of govt schemes during ‘Viksit Bharat Viksit J&k’ at the Bakshi stadium in Srinagar city and lauded their achievements.
Interacting with PM Modi, Nazim Nazir of Pulwama, a beneficiary of govt schemes & Honey beekeeper said, “My name is Nazir and I’m from Pulwama. My journey started in 2018. I was in class 10 when I kept two boxes of honeybee in my house and when I used to revert from school I used to tend them, gradually I learned about beekeeping on the internet. In 2019 I thought of expanding my business and I asked govt for aid, then I got 25 boxes on 50% subsidy”.
“I extracted 75 kg of honey after getting 25 boxes for the first time. I used to sell the honey in my village and earned Rs 60000 as my first income, my family became very happy and it motivated me. After that I bought 200 boxes and further expanded my business after getting Rs 5 lakh with the help of PMDP (Prime Minister’s Development Package) and launched my website in 2020. I have sold 5,000 kg of honey through my website in 2023 and now I own 2000 honeybee boxes and also helped local youth with beekeeping”,he added.
He said, “In 2023 I joined Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) and was worried how to make marketing connections because we earn 1 lakh for putting a honey stall in exhibitions, earlier we used to face troubles for transactions but now with upay we can easily get and transfer money anywhere. We are also moving forward with the whole country.Thank you”, he told PM Modi.
“My kashmir is leading sweet revolution with the help of Nazir like youth”, PM Modi replied to Nazir after hearing the advantages he got from govt schemes.
Replying to PM Modi’s query how beehiving help in farming, Nazir said,” Yes, local farmers are helping and coming forward in giving me some portion of their land for beekeeping and even when we go to states like UP, Rajasthan the locals tell us to install boxes of honey bees on our land as it also helps their crops”.
A group of Bakers Ehtija Majid from Srinagar’s Rawalpora, Farina Bashir of Baramulla, Syed Rafia of Kupwara & Sakina Nazir from Bandipora interacted with PM Modi through virtual mode, said, “We belong to lower middle class families and we were passionated for bakery since infancy. When we got admission in Food technology and Skill development we realised that our passion have got a direction. We had an idea to start a bakery as food technologists we wanted to make innovations in this field, which can be easily consumed by anyone be it sugar patient, health conscious person or any normal person.
“So to execute our idea of bringing innovations into bakery we needed support. The Govt polytechnic for Women and skill development gave us an incubation center where we worked for six months. During this incubation period, we got passion, support, marketing skills and received the confidence to go ahead”, Ehtija Majid who was speaking on the group’s behalf told PM Modi.
Ehtija Majid & Bakers group responding to PM’s question how they tackle the predicaments they faced in establishing their bakery unit, said, “We thought of opening our bakery’s manufacturing unit after completing our incubation period but some experts advised us that the paper work for the same will be hectic and time consuming. After 2019, when govt started single-window system it cleared all our paperwork online when we were in our home as it saved our time from running pillar to post, we also have no brothers to help us. Now, we are running a ‘BAKE O’CLOCK’ manufacturing unit and earn approximately 2 lakh monthly. We make fresh products on order basis and we won’t compromise with quality “.
“We have not make use of any govt schemes till yet as we want to start our business on our own but we got skill development, where we got space and equipments for our venture and whatever we earned during our incubation of eight months we bought tools through it and this was major support for us from the govt. We want to establish our manufacturing units in all districts of J&K to help underprivileged girls like us”, she claimed.
A beneficiary of National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), Hamida Bano of Ganderbal which is a poverty alleviation programme, apprised PM Modi, “In 2013, I joined with NRLM scheme which reached every house and made woman financially independent. Through this scheme I bought a cow and then I realised that some of our milk get wasted and in 2019 I opened a manufacturing unit, where I make curd, cheese. I also employed 5,6 persons in my business with me. We don’t add any preservatives in our milk”.
