Devastated by floods, Mandeep, Kanwaljit inspire with tale of grit

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, March 7

“Kirat karke guzara kar sakiye, enna hi chauhnde haan,” says Kanwaljit Kaur, a single mother with three kids.

Where Mandeep Kaur’s 1.5 kile of land used to be at Baupur Jadid village in Sultanpur Lodhi until 2023, today a river flows there. While most people lost crops in the 2023 floods, for Mandeep, the floods took away her land, her husband, cattle and all means to sustain a livelihood. Fellow farmer Kanwaljit Kaur from the same village had her 2 kile of land taken over by sand deposited by the floods. She too lost her husband in 2022.

Robbed of all means of sustenance and livelihood, the way these women battled insurmountable odds to keep their families afloat, has become an inspiration for village folk and fellow women.

Already marginal farmers, the women took to farming all by themselves and sold milk to ensure a better life for their little kids.

Following the 2023 floods, the river took over the 1.5 kile of Mandeep Kaur’s family land. Unable to sustain the shock, her husband Parvinder Singh died of a heart attack in July 2023. Mandeep alone was left to bring up their two kids, a son and a daughter.

Mandeep Kaur said, “Where our fields were, today there is an ocean. I think of the river as an ocean because it devoured my family (husband) and land. We had four cattle, two of them died during floods, two cows are left. My husband died of shock because of the loss of land. My father-in-law too died a month ago. My daughter has one kidney smaller than the other and is in constant pain and under medication. After the loss, I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to bring up our kids.”

Mandeep (28) began selling the milk of her two cows and started farming on half an acre of land taken on contract to keep the hearth burning. She alone does the sowing and harvesting of crops on her land.

She says, “I plant and harvest wheat myself. The kids are too small to help. Our bore (to supply fresh water) and motor in fields were both washed away. Good Samaritans helped me get a new motor. We eat what we plant in the fields and use a bit of the land to grow animal fodder. My only dream is that my kids grow up to do decent jobs.”

As Kanwaljit Kaur tends to her three cattle, she narrates a similar tale.

Her husband died of kidney failure in 2022 and in 2023, floods deposited tonnes of sand on their 3 acre of land of which only 1.5 acres is now fit for cultivation.

Kanwaljit Kaur said, “My brother-in-law and my own brother both had their own families to care for. I was left all by myself to look after the kids. The milk from our three cattle is sold in the village and I sow crops in the remaining land, including fodder. I lost hope after the tragedies that took place one after the other, but my kids are my hope. I thought I have two hands and will do whatever possible to keep my family afloat. I dream of them having a prosperous life.”