A woman and her daughter- in-law from Karnataka’s Gadag district have scripted a heartwarming story, pooling in their Gruhalakshmi dole from the past 11 months and boring a well for their extended family of 13 members. The initiative has won appreciation from CM Siddaramaiah, who expressed happiness that the scheme was empowering the family, fulfilling its basic aim.
Under the Gruhalakshmi scheme, the woman head of a family gets a monthly handout of Rs 2,000 from the state govt.
Mabubi Maldar, a farmer, told TOI: “As we started receiving the Gruhalakshmi amount about a year ago, I told our eldest daughter-in-law Roshan Begum to save the money for a good cause. When we faced drought, we thought of digging a borewell in our fields. When we collectively put together Rs 44,000, we got a well dug on our land for Rs 60,000. My two sons contributed the rest.”
Until now, the Maldar family was growing jowar and cotton since their land was not irrigated, depending on rain. From now on, the family is looking at growing planned commercial crops.