Pratima Mondal, a member of the Geetshree group from Boga Khali Paschim village, has experienced significant positive changes in her family life and awareness through nutrition gardening. She lives in a four-member family consisting of two women and two men.

Using just one katha of land, Pratima developed a nutrition garden where she cultivated 13 varieties of vegetables and leafy greens, including spinach, radish, coriander, red amaranth, piring shaak, carrot, beans, cucumber, pumpkin, tomato, brinjal, and bottle gourd. She adopted organic farming practices by using vermicompost, cow dung manure, amrit pani, and four-leaf solution in her garden. Bamboo fencing was also installed to protect the crops.

The garden produced a healthy yield, allowing the family to consume fresh vegetables daily. Pratima also shared vegetables with her parental home and daughter’s family, while earning around ₹80 through sales. She preserved seeds of spinach, coriander, beans, pumpkin, and bottle gourd for future cultivation and plans to contribute some seeds to the community seed bank.

Through this nutrition garden, Pratima’s household expenses on vegetables have reduced considerably, enabling the family to spend more on other essential needs. She believes that consuming organically grown vegetables helps families remain healthy and reduces dependence on market produce.

Her entire family actively supports the garden by helping prepare vermicompost, maintaining organic cultivation practices, and regularly clearing weeds. By joining the nutrition gardening group, Pratima learned sustainable organic farming techniques and understood the importance of reducing plastic waste. She became aware that plastic pollution in ponds damages water quality, harms fish and small aquatic organisms, reduces pond depth, and contributes to water scarcity during extreme heat, ultimately affecting vegetable cultivation and livelihoods.

Alongside environmental awareness, Pratima also gained knowledge about the harmful impacts of child marriage. She learned that early marriage deprives girls of education, recreation, and personal growth opportunities. She is now aware of the legal marriage age — 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys — and knows that incidents of child marriage can be reported through Childline 1098.

Pratima’s journey reflects how nutrition gardening not only improves household nutrition and income but also strengthens environmental consciousness, family participation, and social awareness within the community.

Pratima Mondal has gradually transformed herself from a homemaker into an active community leader, nutrition gardener, and social awareness advocate through her involvement in community groups and collective activities.

Over time, she developed skills in year-round vegetable cultivation and organic farming practices. Alongside farming, she actively participates in cultural programmes by reciting poetry and singing during small community events. She also learned to create awareness through wall writings in the village on organic farming, vegetable cultivation, climate change, and prevention of child marriage.

As part of social awareness initiatives, Pratima participated in rallies against child marriage and campaigns promoting climate action and environmental protection. Through these activities, she reduced the use of plastic in her own life and encouraged others in the community to avoid plastic waste and adopt environmentally friendly practices.

Her role as a group leader strengthened her confidence and leadership abilities. She learned how to guide others, speak in meetings, and raise issues related to women’s rights and social justice. Through various training sessions, she became aware of the harmful impacts of child marriage and has since warned and counselled many families in her locality. She also gained the courage to protest whenever incidents of injustice or violence occur in neighbouring households.

As a member of Angra Muri Nab Diganta Joint Forum, Pratima became more confident in interacting officially with Panchayat representatives, police stations, and block-level offices. Participating in collective forums helped her overcome hesitation and improved her communication skills with government institutions.

During programmes organised on women’s rights and prevention of violence against women, she performed poetry and songs collectively at Chandrahati Health Centre ground, helping spread awareness through cultural expression.

Pratima shared that her family’s economic condition was once very difficult, especially during the lockdown period. During that time, she received support in the form of essential food items through relief and control systems. She also received five chicks, guava and lemon saplings, which contributed to strengthening her household livelihood and nutrition.

Additionally, she learned mushroom cultivation and preparation of nutritious food using wheat, peanuts, and chickpeas through Nutrimix training. These learnings helped improve her family’s nutritional intake and enabled her to better meet household nutrition needs.

Today, Pratima’s journey reflects not only economic and nutritional improvement, but also increased confidence, environmental awareness, leadership, and active participation in community development and women’s rights initiatives.

Change Story of a Nutrition Gardener – Pratima Mondal