Krishi Sakhi Transforms Village | Boosts Government Schemes and Livelihoods in J&K I have been associated with UMEED since 2017. I have been continuously working since then. I am working as a Krishi Sakhi. I have taken loan of Rs 20-25 lakh for my village. The members have taken a loan of Rs 4 lakh, one lakh, three lakh or even Rs 55,000. Someone started a carpet shop, or somebody gave a push to the Pashmina work, someone took a car. When I myself started my mushroom unit then I was scared in the beginning of losing money. I was worried about marketing. I was under tension. Then my CCA told me to go ahead and they will support 100%. It has been three years now and I am continuing mushroom cultivation. I have got marketing opportunities too. Now I have less of mushroom and too many marketing options. The demand is more than the product. I can even run three-four units. We are seven members in the family. We are grateful to NRLM scheme. We started in March this year in 2023. We begin at six am in the morning. The machine helps in assessing quality. In our village came automatic collecting machine, said Maqsooda. Since then we are getting a good rate for 1 kg milk. Earlier they used to get Rs 26 for 1 litre milk. Now with machine installation, the rates have jumped to Rs 40-Rs 49 so their interest has increased. Then we decided that we will not raise cows that give only 5-6 litres of milk per day. We labour hard so why not raise cows that give 20-25 litres of milk. There are seven households in the village which are interested in starting dairy farm with just two or six cows. Maqsooda’s husband said, when my wife first said that she wanted to associate with NRLM UMEED scheme then in the beginning we were apprehensive. But later we realised that it is a very beneficial scheme. The whole family supported my wife. She is working as a Krishi Sakhi. In the beginning when I started work, people used to taunt that she is not going to be the DC that she goes in the morning and comes in the evening. I am happy and I feel fortunate that I have helped so many people. In this village there was only Aadhar Card and no other government scheme was available. I used to ask the Aadhar team members to come to my house and then ask the villages to join to get their cards made. I motivated the youth, men, women, and girls to get their PAN card, Golden Card, Shram Card and Artisan Card made. I also saw to it that farmers got their money via PM Kisan Yojana in their account by first asking them to fill forms. I made sure that 50 households fill that form so that they get the assured money. I used to go alone, walk 5km with the forms to their houses. There may be no life tomorrow but people should remember that because of her we got benefits, said Krishi Sakhi Maqsooda.