Raipur— In Matwari, a modest village in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district, Jagriti Sahu once imagined herself standing in front of a blackboard. With postgraduate degrees in two subjects and a B.Ed., she spent much of her youth preparing to become a teacher. But when those plans fell away, she built an unlikely career instead — one that has made her a symbol of rural innovation, women’s empowerment, and technological adoption in Indian agriculture.
Today, villagers no longer introduce her as “Jagriti.” She is “Drone Didi.”
A New Future Takes Root in Mushrooms
In 2019, Sahu began experimenting with mushroom cultivation — a modest home venture that she hoped might supplement her household income. What followed was far from modest: her first major harvest earned her lakhs of rupees, turning her into what local administrators admiringly call the “Mushroom Lady of Durg.”
Her success quickly spread beyond her own backyard. Women from neighboring villages came seeking guidance, and Sahu made a deliberate choice: she would treat her business not just as an enterprise, but as a platform. She trained women in cultivation methods, helped them set up production units, and taught them how to enter local markets. Many of them, she says, earned profits for the first time in their lives.
“I couldn’t become a classroom teacher,” she told local officials recently, “but I feel I’m teaching more now than I ever imagined.”
Turning Flowers Into Color
Sahu’s next experiment emerged from a deceptively simple question: Could festival colors be made without chemicals?
After researching and consulting experts, she and a small group of women began producing herbal gulal using homegrown vegetables and flowers. Their first year was modest — sales totaled ₹35,000. But last year, their orders surged, and the women sold ₹8.25 lakh worth of herbal gulal, a remarkable leap in a region still stretching to diversify beyond traditional agriculture.
India’s Newest Drone Pilot
Sahu’s rising profile attracted the attention of the district administration and, eventually, the national government. She was selected for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Namo Drone Didi” initiative, which trains rural women to operate agricultural drones.
The training altered her identity yet again. Now a certified drone pilot, Sahu flies over farmlands spraying pesticides, a job traditionally done manually and often under harsh sun. With her drone, the work finishes in minutes — saving farmers time, reducing their costs, and cutting exposure to chemicals.
Villagers still watch in awe as she maneuvers the buzzing machine across the fields, a silhouette of modernity against the rural skyline.
A Teacher After All
Though Sahu never became a teacher in the conventional sense, her influence now reaches far beyond one classroom. She is training women in drone operations, mushroom cultivation, and home-based product manufacturing — skills that generate income and independence.
Local officials describe her as one of the region’s “Lakhpati Didis,” women who have crossed the symbolic threshold of financial independence. For many in Matwari and beyond, she represents something more profound: a reminder that rural innovation in India increasingly comes from women rewriting their own narratives.
“People call me Drone Didi now,” she often says with a smile. “But what matters is that I’m helping others fly too.” (Source: IANS)
