On a warm morning in Maharashtra, 47-year-old Jayashree Gorakh Mali bends over a small vermicompost pit on her farm, carefully lifting a handful of dark, crumbly soil. Beside her, her daughter watches closely, helping arrange the organic waste that will soon turn into nutrient-rich compost.

For Jayashree, this simple process represents something much bigger — confidence, independence, and a livelihood she once never imagined for herself.

“Earlier, I was scared even to step out and speak to people,” she tells The Better India.“Now I manage the entire farm. My family asks me before making decisions. That makes me very proud.”

Jayashree lives in Ter village in Maharashtra’s Dharashiv district, where her family owns just 1.5 acres of land. For years, she spent her days managing household work and helping on the farm, but without much say in how things were done.

That began to change in 2018, when she joined Sakhi Unique Resource Enterprise (SURE) — a network that trains rural women to become local entrepreneurs and leaders in climate-smart livelihoods.

Through SURE, women receive hands-on training in sustainable farming practices, clean energy technologies, and rural enterprises. The idea is simple but powerful: when rural women lead solutions in their own communities, both livelihoods and the environment benefit.

For Jayashree, those trainings opened the door to a completely new world, one where she could learn, experiment, and slowly transform both her farm and her confidence.

From hesitation to leadership

For most of her life, Jayashree’s world revolved around her home and the small family farm in Ter village in Maharashtra.

After completing her higher secondary education, she got married and moved into a household of five members with her in-laws. The family owned 1.5 acres of agricultural land, where they practised conventional farming using chemical fertilisers, a method that often brought uncertain results.

Jayashree spent her days managing household responsibilities and helping with farm work whenever needed. But stepping outside her comfort zone was never easy.

“I used to stay at home. I didn’t do any work outside,” she recalls. 

At the time, her knowledge of farming was limited to what the family had always practised. Chemical fertilisers were commonly used, but they often increased costs without guaranteeing better returns.

Things began to shift in 2018, when Jayashree first heard about training programmes organised SURE in her village.

Encouraged by her family, she decided to attend.

The training sessions quickly became a turning point. Several times a month, Jayashree and other women from nearby villages would gather for day-long sessions that ran from 8 in the morning until evening.

“There were many trainings about organic farming,” she says. “We were taught how to make vermicompost and how to use it in farming.”

For Jayashree, these sessions were not just about........

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