Have you ever listened about the ghost villages of Uttarakhand or visited them? These are villages where you won’t find even a single man or woman around. The whole village has abandoned the place in search of livelihood.
In the absence of humans, these little birds have also stopped visiting the villages. Often you will find a pinching silence there, not even the chirping of birds let alone humans, reminding you of a task that has to be done with foremost priority – to rehabilitate the people who had to leave for any reason.
We have to bring the humans back to villages and birds will follow
As fellow humans, we cannot let these desolate hamlets remain ghost villages. We have to bring the people back and the birds will follow suit. This can be done only by providing employment to the residents right in their homes and this is what Hemp Foundation has been doing.
A turnaround valley is happening
Organized production of hemp, otherwise local natural products, is slowly bringing the turnaround in remote villages of Kedar Valley in Uttarakhand. Banned across the world at a time under the false impression of it being a psychoactive plant, hemp is now lauded as a marvel plant with hundreds of uses. No wonder that the demand for hemp has shot up all across the world.
Empowerment of women; a transformation in the making in Kedar Valley
Through hemp cultivation, they have now connected with the world economy. Moreover, we have trained their women to handcraft masks, which has enabled them to earn and, in the power, gain a position in their households to stress themselves. At Hemp Foundation, we believe that empowering women is like empowering the whole community, and this is what we are trying to achieve in Kedar Valley.
