She gradually convinced them by reiterating that ‘managing the household’ also meant supporting the husband by augmenting the income and cash flow of the family.

With the gradual savings from the income earned as a Sakhi, she could afford to buy a scooty to visit beneficiaries and government offices for her work.

The regular interaction with her fellow villagers also bolstered her confidence to help them.

Seeing the community response, her family also encouraged her to contest the panchayat election in 2018, which she won. TheRectangle 56, Textbox experience and learning gained through her role as a Sakhi has helped her in carrying out her responsibilities as a Panchayat ward member.

Bina Das, a villager in Moirapur (Kamrup district of Assam), lost her parents at an early age and thereafter her brother in an accident, leaving her and her sister to fend for themselves.

In 2018, she became a Sakhi and within no time she became one of the most active and highest-earning Sakhis in Assam.

Her work not only provided income, but also enabled her to avail her own house.

In 2019, she was designated as a “Krishi Sakhi” under Assam State Rural Livelihoods Mission (ASRLM) umbrella, and thereby regularise her monthly incomes better. 

 am Dilbul Hoque, and I am 65 years of age. I work as a daily wage labourer and my wife works as a caretaker in a private school.

My son is physically challenged due to which we have faced a lot of difficulty and struggle.

My life took a U-turn when the CRISIL Sakhi from our village met us.

With her help, I was able to apply for all the eligible schemes - namely, my son’s disability certificate, and thereafter disability pension schemes.

As an illiterate person I did not have any knowledge on these schemes. There are many people like us in our village which our Sakhi have helped. 

Archana Rabha is a Sakhi of Khakhapara village of Kamrup Rural district. She was highly active towards her role and thus she was introduced to the Areca nut Livelihood Project.

She actively collects sheaths by riding her bicycle from her village. Sometimes she herself gathers sheaths household from her bicycle.

Later on, she became one of the prominent areca sheath collectors of her village and within a time period of three months she was able make a savings of Rs. 8000/-; from which she later purchased a smartphone.

It also helped Archana to do her work more efficiently as now she can easily coordinate with the village people through her phone instead of visiting each and every household asking for areca sheaths making her work easy.

I am Nur Muhammad Ali, and I am a ward member of Tulkuara Part 2 village in Fofonga Gram Panchayat.

We have taken a lot of steps to improve access to various developmental schemes of the government.

In this regard, the Sakhis have been instrumental in driving this awareness at a community level.

We have noticed them proactively working in their villages and providing handholding and documentation support on various govt. schemes and services.

They are of great assistance in helping the beneficiaries avail correct information regarding schemes and also helped in collecting the documents required to avail themselves of the schemes.

In many cases, to ensure smooth end benefit, we require a lot of support in creating demand and awareness among the community. In this aspect, the Sakhis have been extremely supportive as they not only work towards driving financial awareness but also social welfare and awareness.

We hope that the community will receive their help and benefits also in future.