Help Rural Women Gain Essential Business Skills

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

I would like to share the story of Kalpana who has selected innovative business-

After becoming a member of the Mann Deshi Chambers of Commerce, Kalpana has improved the branding, packaging and marketing of her cold pressed oils, uses digital transactions to improve her efficiencies and build her credit history, and has acquired thousands of new customers through Mann Deshi’s various marketing platforms. Kalpana could understand the market demand and improvising strategies in her work. She has also opened an Recurring Deposit account in the bank and started saving, She has availed a loan of 100,000 rupees to expand her business.

Little wonder that her profits have doubled!

Thank you so much for all your support !!

Links:

• Activities being taken up by the Mann Deshi under Covid-19
• Video of women entrepreneurs making Masks

Dear all,

I would like to share the story of Vanita, the inspirational lady.

Vanita came from a poor family of 10 who would work as daily wage workers at odd farm jobs. She was forced to drop out of school and get married at the tender age of 17. Her husband worked at a private bag manufacturing unit which was overloaded with an order backlog. Vanita started stitching and manufacturing bags at home to support her husband’s workload. She availed a loan of rupees 10,000 from the Mann Deshi Bank and bought a automatic bag making machine.  As their income improved, neighbouring women asked to be a part of this activity. So Vanita, industrious as she is, made a group with these women to collectively stitch bags at home. She has started designing and printing on her bags and now provides employment to 35 other women who assist her growing business. She has even purchased a scooter which enables her to additionally market her products. Her husband would often discourage her saying that a woman’s job was simply to manage the household and kids, not to work for money. However, empowered by the Mann Deshi network and business management workshops, Vanita is determined to prove him wrong. She is a regular attendee at training workshops, has taken several subsequent business loans, repaying each one as due. She now runs 4 manufacturing units with an aim to grow her business and employ more and more women. Vanita is a truly inspiring woman and stories like hers underline the vision and mission of Mann Deshi. At the Chamber of Commerce- organized Mahotsav stall in Satara, she made seven months’ worth of profit in only five days.

In 2016, she availed a loan of rupees 1,00,000  again to grow her business. She bought a printing machine to print beautiful patches on the bags. On the advent of the plastic ban in Maharashtra, the demand for the cloth bags has been increasing and Vanita is making a good profit and have created the income source for other women as well. She has recently bought paper bowl and plates making machine to start a side business. She is doing very well and she earns more than 30 thousand rupees a month. Vanita is an inspiration to many other women in the area.

Thank you so much for all Mann Deshi supporters.

Dear Mann Deshi Supporters,

I would like to share the story of our Deshi MBA graduate, Ms Sushma.  Our business school for rural women, provides a year-long Deshi MBA course. Hundreds of students enrol in the course every year and learn business skills. These are generally the existing women entrepreneurs who are able to expand their businesses whereby increasing the monthly income.   Aunty ki Tapari is one such example. Sushma Chaudhari is popularly known as a mess wali aunty in the college and industrial area of Silvasa. She has seen many ups and downs in her life. Her husband had to shut off his grocery shop due to the high borrowings. The day to day expenses was taken care by Sushama. She enrolled herself in the Deshi MBA course. She learned the skills to market her products, cash management, etc through the workshops. While she was undergoing the workshops, she thought of starting a snack centre in the college and the industrial area. She found a decent location. Due to the workshops, she got the confidence to invest 2,00,000 rupees in starting the outlet. She availed the loan from the Axix bank and Dena bank and started her business. The best quality food and her excellent marketing skills made her a favourite aunty in the area. She learned digital transactions through apps such as Google pay, Phone Pay, etc. She now serves 25 tiffins in the morning and 25 in the evening. She charges 3,000 rupees per month for tiffin of a person. She serves breakfast to around 100 students daily in the morning.  The work is so much that she has hired other 7 people to share the workload. She is earning around 1, 50,000 rupees a month now, keeping the record of all her transactions in a day.

Thank you again for all our Global Giving Supporters without which this cannot be possible.

Dear Global Giving Supporters,

I would like to share the story of Balutai-

Balutai had a large family to take care of, with five daughters. She, along with her daughters, used to work in other’s fields; earning about 7,000 rupees a month, which was barely enough to meet expenses. Balutai’s husband is an alcoholic and did not support them financially. One day, while working in the fields, her friends told her about the goat farming course offered by Mann Deshi, and convinced her that it could be a lucrative side business. She decided to enrol for the course. Balutai says that she gained a lot of confidence after she attended the workshop. There, she saw women like herself conducting the workshop and narrating their stories. Inspired, she decided to start a goat rearing business. However, she realised did not have the capital to buy goats. She then took a loan from a Self Help Group (SHG or Bachat Gat) of INR 20,000, with which she purchased two goats. Using the knowledge she learnt from the course, she decided to conduct AI for her two goats. Both goats became pregnant and delivered two kids each. Now, Balutai has 5 to 6 goats. She proudly relates that she doesn’t even have to go to the animal market anymore, as people come to her house to buy kids, which are always healthy due to AI. She has also taken up a job at the Anganwadi centre, and earns around 15,000 – 16,000 a month. Her children all go to school and her husband has begun to support her as well. Balutai says: “I am very proud that I am earning by myself. I not only do goat farming, but also have convinced many of my friends to go for the goat farming workshop offered by Mann Deshi. Earlier there was little awareness about goat vaccination and AI, and even government veterinarians did not come to this area. Now, thanks to Mann Deshi, people here are more receptive to vaccination and AI for goats.”

Thank you so much again for all your support !

Dear all,

I would like to share a transformative journey of Rupali.

Rupali lives in Bidal village with her husband and children. She lost her mother at a young age, and had to shoulder family responsibilities since then. Rupali could only complete her education up to Class 7, and was married off at the young age of 15. Her husband was a wage labourer, and barely earned enough to sustain their family.

Rupali wanted to contribute towards the family income. She decided to earn some money through livestock rearing and bought two cows. With the money she raised from selling their milk, she managed to buy two more cows. However, Rupali lacked capital to expand the business further and so decided to take a loan. She availed a loan of INR 30,000 from the Mann Deshi Bank. With this money, she decided to start a hotel business. She had heard about the programmes offered by the Mann Deshi Business School and decided to enroll her in the Deshi MBA programme. Through the workshops and exposure visits, she learnt about business management and expansion and gained business skills like marketing, building customer relations, accessing new markets etc. She also learnt about financial management such as budgeting, availing loans and maintaining savings, through the financial literacy workshops.

Today, Rupali’s hotel business is doing very well, and she has also recently opened a juice center. Before taking the DMBA course, her income was INR 6,000, while now she earns INR 9,500.

Rupali says ‘I am proud of where I am today, as I got here through my own hard work. I also gained the respect and appreciation of my family and community members. I am now more active within my community and participate in social events regularly.’

Thank you so much for all Global Giving supporters without which this would have not been possible !

Links:

• Lokmat Maharashtrian of the Year Award | LMOTY 2019
• Small Steps to a Brighter Future
• President of India presents Nari Shakti Puraskar, 2018 on Intern