Meet Malti Devi (40), who has scripted a rare success story of turning a successful businesswoman from a lowly paid daily wage labourer amid the testing times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Presently, Malti is running a hardware shop in Pindrajora village under Chas block, around 15 kms from the district headquarter of Bokaro.
A few months earlier, she used to work as a daily wage earner in the nearby fields to meet ends. But now she is successfully running her shop— ‘Didi Hardware’.
“Earlier my earning was very little and it was very hard to run a household with such limited resources. I used to work as a farm labourer to meet our needs. But now my average daily earning is between Five to Eight hundred rupees from the shop,” told Malti.
“Now life is relatively easy in comparison to the past. The household wheel is spinning better than before. Hopefully, it will increase further in the coming days. With every step, I am also getting support of my family,” Malti added.
But all this would not have been possible without the support of Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), she said.
“I always thought of doing some respectable and better paying work so that I could easily fulfill all the household obligations. In this sequence, I joined the Udaan Aajeevika Sakhi Mandal being formed in the village and then joined the Pindrajora Aajeevika Mahila Gram Sangathan,” said Malti.
In collaboration with the village organization and JSLPS, she decided to open a hardware shop. Under the cash credit linkage (CCL) a loan of Rs 50,000 was made available to her.
“I noticed that there was no hardware shop nearby in the village. So, I decided to open a hardware shop.”
Malti said that she received the support of JSLPS in every step and the organisation played a pivotal role in making her what she was today.
“The people of this village also appreciate my initiative. Rural women are also inspired by me and are trying to walk on the path of self-reliance,” added Malti. Besides her hard labour and dedication, Malti got the support of JSLPS on every move. Officers motivated her time-to-time; they also provided her training and information about accounting too, said Kuldeep Choudhary, Deputy Commissioner, Bokaro.
“But all this would not have been possible without the support of JSLPS,” he added.