If there were a sustainable source of livelihood, communities would gain the voice to reach the right channels to advocate for themselves.

In Rajasthan’s Thar desert, an enterprise built around camel milk, traditional livestock practices and locally grown produce is attempting to create a new economic model for pastoralist communities by linking producers directly with premium markets.

Bahula Naturals, founded by Aakriti Srivastava, works with more than 4,000 households across Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jaipur, developing food products while placing local communities, particularly women, at the centre of production and value creation.The idea for the venture began in 2017, when Srivastava travelled to Bajju, a village near the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan, while working on environmental documentaries and media projects.

She had been asked to cover the lives of 71 migrant families settled in the region.The journey from Bikaner into the desert exposed her to the challenges faced by communities living in a remote landscape, including limited access to resources, basic services and stable livelihoods.

The experience led her to examine how economic opportunities could be created in a region where traditional livelihoods remained vulnerable. Five years later, that effort developed into Bahula Naturals, described by the organisation as a community-owned and community-run enterprise.Srivastava, who grew up in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, pursued journalism before moving to Delhi.

Over several years, she documented the lives and challenges of desert communities through films, articles, research and policy work.Bajju, located in the Thar desert, has around 8,000 households that follow a dual housing system.

Families spend part of the year in the village and move for other periods with their livestock and households to settlements known as dhaanis, located near their agricultural land.This movement pattern has affected access to public services, education and government programmes, according to Srivastava’s observations from her work with communities.

She said the challenges included water availability, service delivery, education, women’s rights and access to information. Her research found that multiple institutions were working on these issues, including government agencies, academic organisations and philanthropic groups, but efforts often lacked long-term coordination.

The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need for economic systems that could help communities sustain themselves, she said.Srivastava said pastoralist communities became the focus of her work because of the contrast between their cultural importance and economic position.

Camels, livestock and desert-based livelihoods are closely associated with Rajasthan’s identity, but many pastoralists have faced difficulties in gaining recognition and market access.The name Bahula comes from the Sanskrit word “Bahulata”, meaning plurality, according to the organisation.

The concept was based on bringing together communities, markets and institutions through a shared platform.Bahula Naturals operates through three broad stages. The first involves working with agro-pastoralist producers to support chemical-free farming and livestock practices. This includes access to seeds, animal feed and other inputs.

The enterprise has also introduced household biogas units, with the resulting slurry used as a natural fertiliser to reduce dependence on chemical alternatives.The second stage focuses on processing products across three categories: camel milk and related products, indigenous Rathi cow milk products, and agricultural produce.

The company produces camel milk products including artisanal cheese varieties and a freeze-dried camel milk nutraceutical supplement. It also sells products made from Rathi cow milk, including Bilona ghee and desi paneer prepared using traditional methods.Its agricultural product range includes black wheat flour, black wheat porridge, and cold-pressed mustard and groundnut oils.

Bahula’s largest business segment comes from premium business-to-business markets, where customers pay higher prices for products based on quality assurance, according to the organisation.The enterprise also supplies consumers directly through doorstep delivery in Bikaner and through online sales channels.

Its product range includes dairy items, oils and flour.The organisation operates from Bajju, with a separate office in Bikaner city handling warehousing and distribution. Around 95% of its team members are young people from villages connected to its operational network.Women’s participation is a central part of Bahula’s approach.

Srivastava said her decision to place women at the core of the value chain came from observing their role within rural households and production systems.Women are involved in different stages of the enterprise, from processing activities to community-level operations, creating opportunities for participation in income generation.

The model combines traditional desert livelihoods with market-oriented food production, aiming to improve the economic value of products originating from pastoralist communities.

Bahula Naturals continues to work with households across Rajasthan’s desert regions, focusing on building supply chains around locally available resources and connecting producers with consumers.

On a recent afternoon outside a library in Kashmir, a brief exchange between a student preparing for one of India’s most competitive examinations and three migrant balloon sellers from Rajasthan offered a quiet illustration of the economic realities that continue to drive internal migration across the country.

The scene unfolded near the library entrance, where three young men sat beside a cluster of balloons they were attempting to sell. Their presence was not unusual. Seasonal and temporary migration from economically vulnerable regions to other parts of India remains a common livelihood strategy for thousands of families seeking work opportunities unavailable in their home districts.

Among those leaving the library that day was Fawad, a student preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the entrance examination for medical education in India. According to witnesses present at the scene, Fawad paused after noticing the three balloon sellers and began speaking with them.

The conversation initially appeared routine. Fawad asked the young men where they had come from and how long they had been in Kashmir. The sellers responded that they had travelled from Rajasthan in search of income opportunities. They described economic hardship, limited resources and difficult living conditions as factors that had pushed them to leave home and seek work elsewhere.

The interaction drew attention because Fawad showed interest in their circumstances beyond a simple commercial transaction. Although he had no apparent need for balloons, he asked to purchase three of them. Witnesses said he paid more than the asking price and encouraged the young men to use the additional money to buy food.

From a purely financial perspective, the amount involved was modest. Yet the exchange highlighted a larger question about how individuals respond to visible signs of economic vulnerability in public spaces.

After the sellers left, an observer who had watched the interaction asked Fawad why he felt compelled to help strangers he did not know.His response was measured rather than sentimental.

“I am relatively well off,” he said. “I can skip one meal. They struggle for every meal. The matter is not always hunger.”

The remark shifted the discussion away from charity alone and toward a broader consideration of economic insecurity. For many informal workers, particularly migrants engaged in street vending and seasonal employment, the challenge extends beyond immediate food needs. Income uncertainty affects access to shelter, healthcare, education and social mobility. Small disruptions in earnings can have disproportionate consequences.

India’s internal migration patterns have long reflected these realities. Workers frequently move across states in search of seasonal employment in construction, agriculture, tourism, retail trade and informal services. Street vending, including the sale of balloons, toys and other low-cost items, often requires little capital investment but offers highly unpredictable earnings.

Daily income can depend on weather conditions, tourist activity, local demand and competition.The encounter in Kashmir illustrated these dynamics at an individual level. The three balloon sellers were not engaged in a formal employment arrangement. Their livelihood depended on persuading passers-by to purchase inexpensive products, making every interaction a potential source of income.

The image of brightly coloured balloons against the backdrop of economic hardship also carries a symbolic dimension that has long appeared in South Asian literature and poetry.

Balloons are often associated with celebration, childhood and temporary joy.

Yet their existence is inherently fragile, lasting only as long as the air within them remains contained.

That contrast finds resonance in a famous couplet by the eighteenth-century Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir:

“Hasti apni hubab ki si hai,

Ye numaish saraab ki si hai.”

A commonly accepted English rendering is:

“Our existence is like a bubble;This spectacle of life is like a mirage.”

The couplet reflects Mir’s recurring meditation on impermanence. A bubble appears briefly before disappearing. A mirage seems real from a distance but vanishes upon closer examination. Together, the images suggest the transient nature of worldly status, possessions and human circumstances.

Viewed through that lens, the encounter between the student and the balloon sellers acquires a wider significance. The balloons themselves become a metaphor for lives shaped by uncertainty. Economic security, educational opportunity and social standing often appear stable, yet they can be fragile and unevenly distributed.

Fawad’s decision to buy three balloons did not alter the structural conditions that had brought the sellers from Rajasthan to Kashmir. Nor did it address the broader economic factors influencing migration and informal labour. What it did reveal was an awareness of the asymmetry between those who can absorb temporary hardship and those whose daily survival depends on continuous earnings.

The transaction lasted only a few minutes. The balloons changed hands, a small amount of money was exchanged, and the sellers continued on their route. Yet the conversation that accompanied the purchase left a stronger impression than the sale itself.

In public discussions about poverty, attention often focuses on statistics, government programmes and economic indicators. Those measures remain essential for understanding the scale of deprivation. At the same time, individual encounters continue to shape how people perceive inequality in everyday life.

Outside the library that day, three migrant balloon sellers were attempting to earn a living far from home. A student preparing for a future in medicine paused long enough to ask where they had come from and why.

The answers were simple: poverty, migration and the search for opportunity. The response was equally simple: the purchase of three balloons and a recognition that need is not measured solely by hunger, but also by the human desire to be seen.

It seems to be the biggest Zika outbreak in India. The Health Ministry claimed to curb the outbreak yet three new cases of pregnant ladies have been reported in Shastrinagar proximity of Jaipur.

Meanwhile, Bihar’s Siwan district has been put on high-alert after a youth who was travelling between Rajasthan and Bihar was tested positive.

According to NDTV report, Venu Gupta – the secretary of the state’s health ministry – said, “the government had taken efforts to destroy mosquito breeding grounds by conducting searches in 26,000 households.”

The first Zika virus victim was spotted in Sawai Man Singh Hospital of Jaipur on 23rd September 2018.

National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme of Central ministry offered medical support to Rajasthan.

Five testing labs have been set-up by the programme to collect the blood-samples to predict the possibility of the outbreak. Almost 450 people, including 168 pregnant women had been tested positive.

Zika virus is a flavivirus born from mosquitos. It was first identified in monkeys in Uganda in the year 1947.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), Zika virus infection in 86 countries.

Zika is transmitted same like malaria or dengue, that is through bites from the infected species of mosquitos. These mosquitos bite only in the daytime.

These mosquitos are also known to spread other diseases like yellow fever, chikungunya, and dengue.

Transmission is possible through blood contact, sexual contact, transfusion of blood from the infected person.