Gurpreet Kaur drives through her field in Doda village of Muktsar. (Express Photo: Raakhi Jagga)
GURPREET KAUR can be seen regularly in the villages around Gidderbaha driving a Tata Ace ‘Chhota Hathi’, while her brother Hardeep Singh sits at the back weighing the fresh vegetables loaded on their mini-truck.
“I always like being in the driver’s seat and letting him to do the weighing part. And everyone here knows me,” states the turbaned 32-year-old, in a matter-of-fact tone that goes easily with her trademark kurta pyjama and pagri.
Kaur, who is from Doda village in Gidderbaha tehsil of Muktsar district, won the Union Agriculture Ministry’s Krishi Karman Award for progressive farmers, carrying a Rs 2 lakh cash prize, which she received from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function in New Delhi last month.
Kaur and her brother farm vegetables — cauliflower, carrot, cabbage, spinach and turnip during winters and lady’s finger, green chilli and bottle and bitter gourd in summer months — on their 2.5-acre family-owned land and also another 20 acres taken on lease. These they lug — along with produce procured from the sabzi mandi in their area — for selling in villages near Gidderbaha.
Kaur’s is a story of a woman who started farming as a 15-year-old assisting her father and grandfather. “As a child, my mother used to take food for them and I would accompany her. Gradually, I developed an interest and started spending more time in the fields after school hours. We were marginal farmers. Being in no position to employ labour, it was only natural that everyone in the home pitched in,” she recalls. In no time, she was not only helping her father but had also learnt to drive a tractor and also run straw reapers and combine harvesters without having to engage outside labour.
The real test came when Kaur was in the second year of college and had to quit studies, after her father Baljeet Singh developed a severe lung infection. “He was bedridden for about three years. I was then forced to take over and decided to go for intensive vegetable farming, so as to generate more income for the family. Currently, my parents look after the two cows that we have and also the home’s day-to-day running. I am most of the time outside, either in the field or on my mini-truck,” she says.
Her Class XII-pass brother, who is five years younger, aids Kaur in managing the farm and marketing their produce. “But he wants to do a salaried job and is looking for one. I will continue with agriculture, as it is my passion. I haven’t even thought of marriage,” she adds.
For Baljinder Singh, chief agriculture officer of Muktsar, Kaur is an example for all young rural women to follow. “In Punjab, we have cultivated an image of farming being a man’s profession. Gurpreet defies that stereotype and I feel honoured seeing her receive recognition for what she has achieved,” he says.