Some years back, daily wage earner Kanchan Jhodia of Kashipur block’s Dwimundi village was struggling to meet her family’s daily requirements.
But life changed one day for Kanchan and her family when Utkal Alumina started promoting ‘Maa Ganga Devi’ a self-help group (SHG) to which Kanchan belongs. Kanchan not only got training to run a small business, she also got monetary assistance of Rs 18,000 to run a grocery shop. Today, Kanchan who earns Rs. 2,000 a month from her grocery shop, has already repaid her loan and is living a life of dignity.
like Kanchan, many women from Kucheipadar and Dwimundi villages of the block have benefited from the SHGs promoted by Utkal Alumina. These women were mostly illiterate and had neither the skill nor the courage to start something on their own. In 2011, a group of 15 women came together to form an SHG called Gruha laxmi with the objective of saving small amount of money every month. Within the next two years, these women found that they had managed to accumulate enough money to fuel their dream of running a small business and aiding their families. They could translate their dream into reality with the company aid.
Similarly, members of two other SGHs, Jay Jagannath and Jai Shriram, also changed their standard of living by running small business units with Utkal Alumina’s help.
As of now, the company is supporting 15 SHGs comprising 196 women across five villages. Initially, these SHGs were taught how to mobilise savings, maintain accounts, become familiar with inter-lending norms and establish credit linkages with banks. Currently, these 15 SHGs have a corpus of around Rs 9 lakh.