Ranchi: Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, today went to Sondari village in Khunti, some 60km from Ranchi, asking village women how farming helped empower their lives.
Around 10am, before they pushed off to their haats, fields or got bound to their family kitchens for the day, village women found Melinda in their midst.
As the women spoke a mix of Mundari and Hindi and Melinda English, an interpreter formed the bridge. But, the conversation included many animated smiles and gesticulations.
Many women, part of small self-help groups, were growing seasonal crops, including vegetables and fruits in tiny kitchen gardens.
Melinda, who according to Gates Foundation functionaries wanted to see for herself how village women could prosper and get proper nutrition in an agro-based economy, heard out the rural women intently.
"She was very interested about how women made decisions about crops, land use patterns and so on. She wanted to understand how small self-help groups made a difference," said Sarah Lewis, a communications officer of the Foundation.
The Gates Foundation will design a software programme for the Indian government’s proposed National Nutrition Mission.