At 4.30 am, two ‘mehnati kudiyan’ rise to milk cattle, and push a thriving dairy business

At 4.30 am, while most of their classmates and peers are asleep, Jashanpreet Kaur, 19, and her sister Supandeep Kaur, 17, are in the cattle shed outside their home in Ladhuwala Uttar village of Fazilka. They start the day by feeding the animals, cleaning the shed and milking the buffalos before attending to household work and their studies.

There is also the daily milk supply to manage. Their working day often stretches until 11 pm. For the sisters, this has been the daily since they were 11 and 9 respectively. Growing up in a financially constrained family, the sisters grew up watching their parents struggle to make ends meet.

Their father Gurvinder Singh had about 2.5 acres of inherited land and, until a few years ago, also drove a school van to supplement the family income. Watching them struggle, the sisters encouraged and motivated their parents to continue with dairy farming and gradually expand it.

The dairy began with a single buffalo around seven or eight years ago. Today, the family has 22 cows and buffaloes, with the livestock valued at around Rs 30 lakh. They sells nearly 100 kg of milk a day, earning about Rs 5,000.

The income is supplemented by sale of calves and young animals. The family puts its profit margin from dairy at 40-50 per cent. The change has gone beyond the cattle shed. A loan taken in the initial years to build the shed and buy animals has been repaid.

The family now owns a tractor, farm implements, a house and a car, and has begun taking additional agricultural land on lease. For Gurvinder and his wife Simarjeet Kaur, however, the expansion of the dairy has another story — that of their two daughters, who became part of the family’s effort to make it work.

“They were just 10 or 11,” Simarjeet recalls. “At an age when most children depend entirely on their parents, my daughters began taking responsibility for household work and helping with the animals. Because of their support and motivation, we could think of continuing and expanding our dairy,” she says.

The family’s first attempt at livestock farming did not go smoothly. Gurvinder had inherited two cows, but both died. The family started again with a buffalo given by a relative. Simarjeet says the family now earns not only from milk but also from the sale of calves and young animals, which can fetch between Rs 70,000 and Rs 1.25 lakh, depending on the animal.

The dairy has also changed the choices available to the children. Jashanpreet is pursuing a B.Sc. in Fashion Designing and is learning boutique-related work. She hopes to open her own boutique. Supandeep, who has completed Class 12, is pursuing graduation through open education and wants to join the police.

There was a time when Jashanpreet was preparing to leave the country. She had taken the IELTS examination and her parents had considered sending her abroad. The plan was eventually dropped as the family’s dairy business expanded.

“We are earning well here. What is the need to send our children away from us when they can earn more than dollars here, build their lives and careers here as well?” her parents say.