“A year ago, I had a snake bite at the place you are sitting right now and was about to die,” recalled Biswajit Ruidas while showing me his newly built house with his three year old daughter. “It was then that I promised myself that I would build a safe, secured and clean house for my family so that such incident doesn’t happen ever again.”
The 35 year old is a resident of Kalyanpur Dangal village of Birbhum, West Bengal. For a living, he provided tuition to school children of his village and earned nearly four thousand rupees per month.
Biswajit always harboured an interest in for animals as his family had buffaloes. At home, he often took care of them and used various indigenous methods to treat them when they were unwell.
Never in his dreams had he imagined that he could turn his hobby into a career, until he found out about a Green College, run by Welthungerhilfe’s partner Development Research Communication and Services Centre (DRCSC) in his area that provides training in various rural and agricultural skills.
“Without a second thought, I got myself enrolled into a half yearly course,” he said. Over a period of six months (June 2015 to December 2015), he received a mix of residential and practical training on animal health care practices. Besides that, he got a chance to work as an intern with a practicing doctor who was also a trainer in the course. This experience helped him gain confidence and hone his skills in health care practices for cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, rabbits, ducks and hens.
Treats and raises awareness
Currently Biswajit treats about 90% cases in his locality and provides services to 5 villages. There are 9 such animal health care providers in his area, but most of the cases are referred to him. “I think it is because I do not just provide treatment, but also additional support to my clients such as raising awareness on preventive health care issues and feeding practices,” said Biswajit, who feels very proud when people refer to him as ‘doctor’.
In a day, he treats at least 9-10 cases and the number increases to 20 during rainy season because of outbreaks of viral diseases such as Peste-des-Petits Ruminants (PPR) in goats. Today Biswajit earns around 15000 INR per month, which is three times higher than what he was earning a year ago. He has recently bought a motor bike, which he uses to get to his clients.
He keeps a stock of basic medicine at home for emergency. Since he doesn’t have a refrigerator yet, he doesn’t keep those that require cold storage.
Motivated by a desire to learn something new, Biswajit now wants to get trained in more sophisticated technologies such pregnancy testing and blood testing. He also wishes to save money and buy a liquid nitrogen container (Cryocan) required for storing animal semen for artificial insemination, a process used to improve the breeds of local cattle.
