This 12-Yr-Old Social Activist Adopted Three Farmers To Help Them Improve Livelihood

Shazana Shariff is a young social activist who has been passionately working for the upliftment of the farmers. She believed that farmers, the annadata responsible for bringing food to our tables, would be living a happy and content life.

However, a visit to one of the farms during her childhood proved to be a reality check for Shazana, when she witnessed the farmers struggling to make ends meet even after spending time cultivating and harvesting the crops. This motivated the young girl to step up and be a part of the solution in her own special way.

Shazana started 'Save The Farmer' mission to create awareness about the impoverished state of the country's farmers and raise funds to improve their lives. Educating farmers on technical know-how and new agricultural methods to increase productivity have been a few other ways she uses to make a change.

As per data pertaining to 2018, agriculture employed more than 50 per cent of the Indian workforce and contributed 17–18 per cent to the country's GDP. However, the sector is still filled with extreme challenges including climate change concerns, farm households under debt, and farmer suicides.

Shazana felt that the illiteracy of any farmer should not be a barrier to strengthening their livelihood opportunities.

Diving In To Help

Once, Shazana visited a village where she met a woman farmer, mother of three children whose husband had died. She owned an acre of land and had to work day and night to feed her family.

The young activist was taken aback after knowing the woman's situation and wanted to help through any possible means. Shazana decided to adopt the farmer and help her understand the benefits available through the government schemes.

"Farmers usually suffer due to illiteracy and lack of awareness. They usually follow old farming methods due to which they suffer issues of bad crops. Farmers also suffered a lot because of climate changes activities. I want to help them at my level. Soon after helping my first farmer I adopted two more farmers and have been actively working with them in their farming activities," Shazana told The Logical Indian.

"What we can do is, at the initial level, if one wants to help farmers, one can join somebody who is already working with them. We can help them by making them aware of new farming techniques, by making their legal documents so that they can take advantage of the government schemes. A small step can make a big change but we need to take the step first," she added.

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