Sowing hope

Nothing unusual about it,except that the ‘first-time farmers’ working here have all come after completing their de-addiction programme at the Society for Service to Urban Poverty (Sharan). A part of the work-therapy-based rehabilitation project of the NGO,this farmland is now home to 12 such people. The project has completed its first year.

Their backs facing the hot afternoon sky,the ‘farmers’ pluck vegetables. The second season of harvest hasn’t yielded as much as the first one,they complain. Yet,this time they are wiser,having learnt a trick or two about marketing and selling their produce. The satisfaction of hard work yielding results is evident in their smiles.

Gopi left his home near Kolar in Karnataka as a teenager. “From 1986 onwards I stayed on the streets of Old Delhi,pulling rickshaws,doing odd jobs,and started doing drugs. The situation worsened over the years and I turned into a ganja-smoking baba with entangled hair and flowing beard. I was also using injections,” he says.

He came in contact with Sharan’s volunteers near Yamuna Bazaar and soon,life changed. Today,he feels ‘rehabilitated’. “I would have never visited my home. But last year I went home,met my mother and sisters,” he says,adding,“but now Sharan is my home”.

The story of Israil,in his late 40s,from Thane in Maharashtra is similar. “I was into drugs,bad company. Now working on this farmland,I hope to atone for all that I have done in the past,” he says.

Sanjay came here four months ago and Charanjeet has been here for a year. Both in their late 20s enthusiastically show off their produce. “We have to find out how to sell our garlic,we have lots. But otherwise this season the overall produce is low — only 4 quintals per day,” they say.

For Rajiv Shaw,the project director of Sharan,it’s been a learning experience too.

“We had no clue about farming and it was a complete no-no initially to take land on rent and make people with such background do farm-work. What if there’s a problem,we thought. But our Dutch donor agency insisted that we see a similar project named Nai Zindagi in Islamabad,Pakistan. In Subz Bagh,we have replicated Nai Zindagi. But things were not easy. We found that there’s a mafia in the wholesale vegetables mandi and it’s better to deal with local wholesalers,” he says,adding so far it’s been a success. “Initially,we had 25 people here and at least half of them have left to be integrated into mainstream.”

It’s time to click a group photo and Rajiv jokes with a reluctant Sanjay: “They will send this photo to a filmstar.” Some local women open the gate; looks like prospective buyers and everyone becomes business-like.

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