In early 1980’s, when Dr. Manibhai Desai, Founder of BAIF, proposed to promote Orchard Development for rehabilitation of Scheduled Tribe families in South Gujarat, all the tribal families having one acre, were invited, provided they were willing to give up consumption of alcohol. Out of thousands, only 42 families came forward and Babanbhai was one of them. Today, he has developed over 15 acres of mango orchard on barren land newly purchased from his income from the old orchard and built a lavish cattle shed to expand his dairy business with home-born crossbred cows. He has built a new 3 storied bungalow adjoining his wadi with a modern kitchen. His granddaughter is appearing this year for final year of MSW degree. Babanbhai is earning Rs.25000 to Rs.30000 per month from sale of milk and hence the dairy animals maintained by him have proved to be an asset. He is also earning Rs. 70000 to Rs. 80000 per year from sale of his mango crop from his earlier wadi plantation which has led to the prosperity of the family and enabled them to invest in gold as well.
Transforming Lives and Livelihoods
It is a pleasure to present the first four editions of the collection of case stories from the HDFC Bank Parivartan project initiated with the support of the HDFC Bank CSR and implemented by the BAIF Institute…
