Help Rural Women Gain Essential Business Skills

 Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

Stitching and tailoring was a favorite pass-time for  Sheetal, a home-maker from Nashik. Driven by a dream to be an entrepreneur, she decided to turn this hobby into a full-time business. Her customers bring her their old saris and she stuffs them with cotton and stitches soft, comfortable blankets out of these saris. This year was her first time at the Mahotsav and  Sheetal sold out ALL her Dulais, and got orders for even more! These traditional, hand-stitched blankets are hard to find in Mumbai so customers responded very well.  Sheetal made a profit of Rs. 18,000 in the Mahotsav, i.e. more than what she would usually make in a month. She was thrilled with this success and her confidence in her business idea and in her own entrepreneurial skill has grown exponentially. Despite a post-graduate degree, I was unable to get a job to my liking, so I decided to start a business of my own. I like stitching and tailoring, so I started asking women for their old saris, stuffing cotton and making dulais out of them. Participating in the Mann Deshi’s Deshi MBA program taught me to manage my time and resources, plan my finances and market my products better. Watching other women like myself, helped me identify myself as a businesswoman. At the recent Satara Mahotsav, all my dulais worth Rs. 45,000 were sold out and additionally, I received orders to which I couriered deliveries later. I am so excited about scaling my business thanks to Mann Deshi, and even employ 8 other women now. 

Thank you so much for all our supporters !!!

Links:

• http://news11marathi.com/2088/
• http://pmbmazanews.com/single.php?id=276

Rupali is an example of an entrepreneur who has displayed outstanding leadership during this pandemic time. After her tailoring business came to a standstill, and Mann Deshi proposed that she make masks there was no stopping her. She hired 30 women, many of whom knew only basic stitching. To train them Rupali made a video and circulated it on Whatsapp. Anyone who had a smartphone could contact her if they had any queries. She also set aside a room in her house where between 11 am to 1 pm, women working under her could enter, either to drop off finished masks or collect material. Since she had the machinery, she cut cloth for women who had bulk orders for masks, thereby earning more money. During the two months of lockdown, Rupali earned nearly Rs 70,000 from cutting cloth and Rs 60,000 from bulk orders. 

Seeing Rupali’s success, Mann Deshi provided cloth cutting machinery to women so that they too could take bulk orders. One of them is Anita. Before the lockdown, between her tailoring business and her husband’s work in a brick kiln, the Bhosale made Rs 6,000 a month. This dried up when lockdown was imposed. Anita then started making face masks on her own with the cloth she already had. She supplied these masks to medical stores, a hospital and neighbouring gram panchayats. It was then that Mann Deshi got in touch with her and gave her a cloth-cutting machine. Anita hired 20 women who now make 700-800 masks a day. During the two months of lockdown, Anita herself earned nearly Rs 50,000.  “Although the mask-making work has come down now,” Anita says, “the experience has honed my stitching skills and I’ve realized the importance of quality. I’ve also learnt how to lead a team. I will be using these new skills to expand my business.”

Links:

• A day in the life of: A woman entrepreneur

• A stitch in time: Mask story (PDF)
  

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.