Miyasa village is situated in the hilly region of Ghatol block in Banswara district, lying on the Aravalli Plateau. The area is known for frequent droughts and labor migration, but many problems contribute to the crisis that the local Bhil tribal community is facing. Being faced with adversity, some tribals have started turning to the traditional practice of Halma (community collective action), with the help of which they are planting castor, khakhra, and Timaru on community land and sowing and harvesting crops all throughout the village.

For the tribal communities of Banswara district, low agricultural yields and water shortages are the main issues. The two are linked as, beyond the most acute concern for drinking water, a water shortage also leaves less water available to irrigate crops outside of the rainy season. Thus, many farmers are limited to one crop per year- during the monsoon. Because this does not cover their needs for food, let alone income, many are pushed into a vicious cycle of labor migration, exploitation, and hunger.

But these days in Miyasa village, the tribal population has saved lakhs of rupees by sowing and fencing their fields with the help of the community. This village of Bhil tribals may have found a solution to the problems they were facing in farming and other aspects of life.

Mrs. Amri Devi Ninama, a member of the Gram Swaraj Sangathan formed by Vaagdhara, tells us about Halma: “Halma is an ancient tradition of our Bhil community. When a person is trapped in a crisis in the village and even after applying all his strength, he cannot get out of that crisis, then he invokes Halma. The people of the village get that person out of trouble by fulfilling their social responsibility of participating in Halma.”

Mrs. Jamana Ninama, a member, recounts: “We had called Halma to deal with the crisis of non-availability of field workers in the village. With this Halma, under community participation, about 15 farmers sowed their fields with each other’s help and without spending a single penny. Around 25 people helped on each farmer's field. Accordingly, we can say that over 300 people did HALMA in each other's fields, saving a lot of time and money for the farmers.

For the last 20 years, Vaagdhara has been giving training to the tribal people in this area, including on constructing dams and ponds, the adoption of organic farming systems under true farming, benefiting from government schemes, their rights and participation in Panchayat-level politics, community development, and much more.

Devi Lal Ninama, a member of the Krishi Evam Adivasi Swaraj Sangathan, tells us, “The Bhil tribe lives in these villages. It is a hilly, semi-arid area prone to intense rainfall during the monsoon. The average annual rainfall here is usually around 900 milliliters, while the temperatures range from a maximum of 45 degrees Celsius to a minimum of 7 degrees throughout the year. Red, black, stony, loamy soil is mostly found here. The tribes living here depend on the biodiversity here. That's why these tribes keep their ancient traditions and natural knowledge within themselves. Due to this, the forests are also preserved, and the tribal communities are maintaining their existence.

Keshav Ninama, a youth of Miyasa village, frequently migrates to Gujarat for wages. Keshav and his father have three bighas of land without access to irrigation, from which they grow only rain-fed maize and tuvar. Maize is useful only for eating at home. They are not able to sell it in the market and there is no profit from the crop. Cash is always tight at home. That's why half of the family had to start migrating to other states for wages because laborers were not available to do farming and our on-farm expenditure was also very high. But now, he stopped migrating outside thanks to the help he got with sowing and harvesting the crops after invoking Halma. We have now solved our own needs in the village by helping each other and we will make community participation through Halma our way of development.”