Sushma Netam

If you look at mahua, people gather and sell it in May to local traders because they can’t store it, two months later they buy it back at a higher price to use in their festivities. If the Van Dhan scheme is strictly monitored, this situation will change.

The setting of a minimum price has meant that middlemen and traders have to pay a fair price. Family incomes have gone up.

We have more than 200 village groups in the region now, 49 haat (local market) groups and 10 processing centres.

I walk to work and get paid 8,000 Indian rupees ($108) a month. It’s so much better than going to (the western state of) Gujarat to repay an advance and toil on someone else’s fields.