For Nazia Bashir, an MSc in Zoology, from Gund Kaiser in Arin village of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, the dairy unit has given her ‘financial independence’.
When Nazia, who is in her early 30s’ returned from completing Zoology from Dehradun University, she could hardly find any stable job to move ahead with her career.
Eventually, she enrolled herself for a B.ed programme, and after a wait of over three years, she couldn’t land herself into a government Job. “I felt frustrated as nothing seemed to move ahead. I remained stuck in time,” Nazia said.
However, after some time she got an opportunity for a teaching job in a private school in her local village, but it didn’t meet her expenses and kept her dependent. “Soon after, I got married and also had a kid. I felt my career had a full stop,” Nazia said. However, a chance conversation with someone sparked her interest in dairy farming.
“I got to know about this scheme and went to the Animal Husbandry officials in the district, they guided me till I came up with the unit in my village,” Nazia said.
For four months now, Nuzhat says she has been running the unit successfully and to her entire satisfaction.
“I am feeling satisfied with the decision I took. The venture has given wings to my career and made me financially independent,” visibly elated Nazia said. She said that apart from the financial independence, the unit has given her a confidence boost and that she feels proud to be a job provider rather than a job seeker.
“No job is big or small, what it requires are dedication and passion, success will follow naturally,” she said. ” The job has given me huge confidence and I feel all educated youth especially women can avail the opportunities to help themselves financially independent.” For Nazia, the support from her family, especially her in-laws has been a backbone to take the dairying task upfront. “My family and especially my in-laws have been very supportive and they gave me all the freedom to choose my career as I wished.”
She said that their family was associated with traditional dairying, but with new avenues and technology, the job has become easy and financially sustainable with the association of processing, packaging etc.
However, as she looks forward to expanding the business, there remains one hurdle which is marketing. “I am looking forward to better marketing options from the department,” she said.