By: Aabid Hameed
Srinagar: As the world is going to celebrate International Women’s Day on Tuesday, Kashmir is set to recall the achievements made by the womenfolk in the field of education, business and others for which they have earned their name and even paved way for others to start a fresh and ensure the women empowerment within the society.
Similarly, a young girl from South Kashmir’s Shopian district has fought all odds to become a successful dairy farmer and support her family financially.
Asiya Bashir, daughter of Bashir Ahmad Zai of Aglar village in Zainapora Tehsil of Shopian district has six cows in her daily farm, which she has established last year near her residence.
Asiya is pursuing Bachelors degree and in order to support her family financially, she started dairy farm with the help of Animal Husbandry department Shopian under Integrated Dairy Development Scheme (IDDS).
After successfully working in the farm for around a year now, Asiya has six cows, giving around 100 litres of milk on daily basis, which she sells through the Jammu and Kashmir Milk Producers Cooperative Limited (JKMPCL).
She said that she has kept a local labour there as well, who helps her in taking care of the cows and their calves and is hopeful that in coming time, she would be able to increase the number of cows there.
The young lady thanked government for keeping such facilities and schemes available through which unemployed youth are able to start their own units and earn livelihood.
“I have worked day and night from day one and during initial period, I faced many challenges but it was possible only because of the active support, guidance and training of Animal Husbandry department to overcome all challenges,” she said.
She added that with the help of automated milking machine, milk cooler and other machines provided by the department has made her job convenient, adding that educated youth of J&K shouldn’t remain idle and waste their time in search of government jobs only but they should consider starting their own units with the help of different departments, which can help them to earn their livelihood and help their families financially easily.
Her father, Bashir Ahmad also said that unemployed youth can easily start any unit with the help of government at an earliest so as to earn livelihood easily.
He said that at present her daughter is supporting her family financially and in coming time she will earn more as she us going to implement new technologies that will help in reaping more benefit with reduced input.
Asiya is not the only example from Kashmir, but there are several women who earned their name in different fields while the government too is focused on ensuring complete women empowerment within the society.
