Ahmedabad: More men than women turn up for kitchen garden workshop

The organisers of the fourth edition of Kisan Swaraj Sammelan were in for a surprise. While a usual calculation would suggest that more women would turn up for the event, the real picture is very different. Yes, it was the men who outnumbered women with their impressive attendance.

A keen study of the registration data, that closed at 360 participants after five days, surprised the organisers. "Fifty-one per cent of the participants are males. Most of them belong to the age group of 40 to 60. We also have young participants," said Vivek Shah, a young organic farmer and volunteer for the programme.

"We thought more women would be interested. But, it was a surprise to see so many males eager participants for a kitchen garden workshop," said Shah.

"We realised that many urbanites are ignorant about the most basics of growing food. It was imperative to make those living in urban areas realise that despite the shortage of space and all they could grow many of their own food," said Shah.

Parth Shah, an architect from Ahmedabad who is among the participants, said he was always interested in gardening and farming.

"Since I live in a city and almost everyone in my family is into the business I have no background in farming," said Shah. He said all his efforts at the kitchen garden so far has been based on youtube videos. "This is the first time that I got to know of a workshop on the subject and signed up," said the 26-year-old.

The two-day workshop will provide three sessions, of two hours each. The participants will be divided into groups of 40 each.