Three professionally successful friends had been running a community kitchen for a group of people who were surviving on alms.

The three have now scaled up their project with the same group and started a small farm in Birbhum.

Some of the farm’s produce Telegraph picture

The beneficiaries of the project, who used to beg on the streets of Gangte village, about 12km from Birbhum’s Suri, will now have earnings from selling the produce of the farm.

As day breaks in the village, the men and women can be seen ploughing the land, sowing seeds and adding water to grow pumpkin, gourd, eggplant, ladies finger, spinach and other vegetables on the piece of land that the three friends have bought to start the farm.

Having grown up in the village, basic farming is not new to the group.

They began work in April and have already started getting the yield, with which they now cook their own meals.

They no longer depend on alms for their food. A pond has been dug on the land for pisciculture and a piece of fish may soon be added to their lunch.

Lakshmi Sardar and Sanjay Majhi are part of the group that works on the farm, which measures two-and-a-half bighas, a little less than an acre.

Villagers have lunch at the community kitchen Telegraph picture

An alumnus of the erstwhile Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, Debendra Narayan Chattopadhyay, one of the three friends, has been running a consultancy firm specialising in civil infrastructure since 1989. He has been carrying out philanthropic activities over several years.

A voluntary organisation from the village had approached him late last year and told him about the plight of some 65 villagers, whose only mode of income was begging in nearby towns, which ended with the onset of the lockdown last year.

Sumit Chakraborty and (right) Dipankar Roy Telegraph picture

“In January, the three of us — myself, Dipankar Roy, a mechanical engineer from BHU and Sumit Chakraborty, also from BE College — pooled resources to help the organisation launch a community kitchen to feed these people. Gradually, we realised if the community kitchen has to be sustained, we have to adopt a different approach. This gave birth to the farm,” said Chattopadhyay, 69.

Roy retired from an Indian multinational company last year. Chakraborty worked at a PSU and retired in March last year.

Together, they bought land adjacent to the voluntary organisation at a cost of Rs 3.50 lakh.

Of the 65 people, most were fit enough to work, a few were physically weak.

“Many of them gained strength after eating at the community kitchen. We have started getting the yields and so, we are increasingly buying lesser volumes of items. Now that the monsoon has set in, we will have the full yield soon. A part of it that will not be consumed, will be sold in the market and the earnings will be shared among the group,” said Roy.

He said they wanted to ensure the group no longer had to survive on alms.

“By giving doles over a period of time, we won’t be able to give them a respectable way of living. Besides, helping them through the year may not always be possible amid a health scare. So, we will continue supporting them for two years to make them self-reliant,” said Chakraborty.

Debendra Narayan Chattopadhyay Telegraph picture

Before the travel restrictions following renewed Covid cases, the three friends would visit the farm to oversee the work.

With the help of a fourth friend, who is in the medical profession, a permanent shed has been built to run the kitchen safely.

“We have so far spent over Rs 15 lakh and are working on a plan to start poultry farming, too,” said Chatto-padhyay.