Along with household chores, Nirupa Sahu now flies drones, she is called Drone Wali Didi in the village

Women are no longer limited to household chores. They are constantly trying to become financially self-reliant by learning new modern work day by day. One of these efforts is Nirupa Sahu, a resident of village Lahod in Balodabazar development block, who is now known as Drone Wali Didi in the village. Nirupa Sahu says that her original home is village Karda. But we live in Lahod itself. My husband Mr. Nakul Prasad Sahu works as an operator in Lavan District Cooperative Society, we have two boys. Both boys are currently studying in class 4th and class 2nd. I have also studied up to 12th. Since childhood, I wanted to go out and do some work so that I could work shoulder to shoulder with my husband and become his support and contribute to the household expenses. I am associated with Vaibhav Laxmi Self Help Group under Bihaan, one day the officials of the Agriculture Department told me about the work of operating drones. I immediately agreed to this work seeing the future prospects. After that, with the help of IFFCO company, I went to Gwalior Institute to get training as Namo Drone Didi. Where I was given 15 days of training. After the training, I got the RPC license. After coming back to the village, I am working as Drone Didi. 

Nirupa further says that I got this drone in April and since then she has been spraying medicine in the farmers’ fields through drone. She charges Rs 300 per acre. So far, she has sprayed medicine through drone in about 80 acres of the village’s fields. Due to which I have earned 25 thousand rupees. Not only Nirupa Sahu has benefited from the drone, but farmers have also got direct benefit from it. Farmer Parmeshwar Verma says that earlier medicine spraying was done with a spear, which took a lot of time and cost more. But through drone, this work is completed in just a few minutes and medicines are sprayed in a better way.

It is worth noting that the Namo Drone Didi scheme has been started by the central government. Under this scheme, drones will be made available to 15 thousand self-help groups in the coming four years and women will be trained to operate drones for spraying fertilizers in the agricultural sector, fertilizing crops, monitoring crop growth, sowing seeds, etc. So that new livelihood opportunities can be created for women by providing skills in the new technology sector.