Agri–Business and Life Supporting Economic Activities

1. Successful Entrepreneur

Mohammed Hussian resident of maddukur village, maddukur watershed, Chandragonda mandal, Khammam District does not have any sort of financial support and the whole family goes for labour work. They don’t even have any land to cultivate. After the watershed committee identified him as a landless person, the committee planned to do something for him.

In the watershed committee meeting which was held in the month of Aug 2012, committee enquired about his interest. He asked the committee to give Rs.10,000/- as loan and with that he is proposed to put a chicken selling point. The committee also agreed to his proposal as they don’t have any chicken shops in the village.

The purchase sub-committee of the watershed went to the Mandal head quarters and brought all the implements which are needed and installed the shop. Sooner he got good business and he paid the loan amount regularly. After one year he repaid the entire loan amount and he got sanctioned for Rs.20,000/- as fresh loan. He is now paying it without any due. He brought a fridge and the equipments which are needed in the shop. This is one of the livelihood activities initiated in the watershed for landless persons.

2. Parvathi’ s Success Story

Parvathi Venkatesan is just 35 years old, but life has been too cruel to her already.  She is a single mother of a daughter studying in the tenth standard.  Her husband deserted her and she lives a lonely life in a small rented house, near her maternal home in Zuzuvadi near Hosur (Krishnagiri District). However, this brave woman, who has studied up-to Class 10, accepted life as a challenge and now leads an independent life, without waiting for help from her parents or from anybody else.

How does She Manage?

Without any savings or property to support her, Parvathi rightly choose to become a member of the SHG for she felt that would be the only way she could find a solution to the financial crisis. She started saving Rs.100/- to Rs.125/- per week with the SHG, regularly.  Seeing her financial credibility, the SHG sanctioned a loan of Rs.25,000/- from her savings and also arranged for a Bank loan of Rs.20,000/-, for her to set up some business under the income generating programme.

Right use of the loans for progress

Parvathi first purchased a sewing machine and started tailoring business on a small scale.  Since she was a matriculate, she became eligible to avail the District Industrial Center’s loan of Rs.25,000, to set up a small scale industry.  She availed this loan and got a shop on rent and expanded her tailoring business. In addition, she set up a telephone booth.  Her tailoring unit became very popular in the area and everybody encouraged her. She is a confident entrepreneur today, thanks to the intervention of OUTREACH.

Economics:

Parvathi earns around Rs.6,500/- from her tailoring business and Rs.2,000/- from her STD booth, per month. Out of this she pays the loan installment of Rs.3,500/-, saves Rs.300/- with SHG and meets the rent and electricity charges of Rs.950/-, thus left with a net income of Rs.3,750/- p.m. She can comfortably meet her family expenses, including the educational expense of her daughter, with this money.

What Parvathi has gained from OUTREACH?

Parvathi has gained self-confidence and acquired business skills.  She is no more a poor, helpless woman.  She is an efficient entrepreneur and a head of the family. She has learnt a lot from this experience and is today an able counselor of SHG.

3. Case Study

Anganwadi Teacher Turns An Entrepreneur

The lady with a slight limp wears a pleasing smile and she has a good oratory skill that jells well with her profession. Smt.Y.N.Rathnamma of Yellodu Village is an Anganawadi teacher, who has studied upto 10^th Standard and is in this profession since 1992. Her husband Sri.Ramalingappa is a farmer and owns seven acres of land in the Yellodu Kere Micro watershed. The couple is blessed with two sons aged thirteen & twelve years and one daughter aged seven years. Ramalingappa’s parents also live with them.Rathnamma’s eyes sparkle, when she proudly states that shortly they will be shifting to the new house which is under construction just on the side of Gudibande main road.

Here is the story of transformation of an ordinary, shy villager to a successful cloth merchant.

Rathnamma, the Anganwadi Teacher

Rathnamma started working as an Anganwadi teacher in 1992. OUTREACH had taken up the task of organizing the community of Yellodu and neighbouring villages into SHGs. Rathnamma became a member of Saraswathi Mahlla Sangha, the first SHG of Yellodu Kere Micro Watershed area. She was also selected as the representative of the sangha and later in Sarvodaya Maha Sangha. Rathnamma says gratefully, that the series of training programmes conducted by OUTREACH helped her very much to realize and harness her leadership and oratory skills. This boosted her confidence and as a representative of the sangha, she was able to take up responsibilities and function well. She was instrumental in mobilising Rs. 40,000/- from Aradhana Maha Sangha and Rs.30,000/- from Sarvodaya Maha Sangha under micro finance for her SHG and ensuring repayment of Rs.40,000/- & Rs.30,000/- respectively to the CLAs during her tenure as the representative. She along with her husband actively participated in the watershed activities. They took up earthen bunding, tank silt application and diversion canal on the seven acres of land. They also grew the improved variety of groundnut JL-24.

The Entrepreneur is Born

Rathnamma bloomed into a successful cloth merchant, after she started cloth business in 2001 in a small way with an investment of Rs.5,000/-. Today she is ready to open a small shop in the new building that she is constructing. A cloth merchant in Bagepalli, from whom she used to buy clothes for herself and her family, initiated her into this business. This merchant started supplying clothes worth Rs.20,000/- on credit at a time. Rathnamma used to sell the clothes for a small margin and repay the amount to the merchant before purchasing the next consignment. Once the margin amount she saved amounted to Rs.2,000/-, she started buying the clothes on cash terms. Soon, she learnt that the merchant at Bagepalli was making huge profit out of the clothes sold to her on credit terms as he charged less price for the purchases made on cash. This prompted Rathnamma to explore the possibilities of purchasing the required clothes at least at a lesser price and soon she started purchasing clothes from a wholesale merchant at Hindupur instead of the retailer of Bagepalli.

Here, she realized that she would get a better discount on her purchases only if the volume of purchase is high. Her financial resources being limited, Rathnamma took a loan of Rs.5,000/- in February 2003 from Saraswathi Mahila Sangha, Yellodu under micro finance scheme. With this loan and her savings of Rs.  3,000/- she could purchase a range of garments range of garments ranging from inner garments to sarees.  This gave her an opportunity to expand her business as the range and variety of garments available with her was no longer limited. As the business flourished and the profit margin was good, Rathnamma gave priority to repay the loan to the Sangha and by October 2004 she had repaid the entire loan of Rs.5,000/-

Rathnamma was ambitious and enterprising and was determined to achieve the dream of owning a cloth shop. With this dream and determination in her heart. Rathnamma took another loan of
Rs.5,000/- in her name and another Rs.5,000/- in her mother’s name who was also a member of Saraswathi Mahila Sangha in November 2004. She also succeeded in getting a loan of Rs. 25,000 at 12per cent interest per annum from State Bank of Mysore, Gudibande branch under Pradhan Manthri Rojgar Yojana simultaneously and another Rs.20,000/- during January 2005.

She now had a capital of Rs. 60,000/- to establish and expand her business. She started exploring the market beyond Yellodu village. She started taking the garments with her to CLA meetings and Anganwadi Teacher’s meetings. She began selling the clothes on credit terms on monthly instalment basis to some of the women who were reliable. But, she says she is very cautious in such dealings, as she has to take a calculated risk, though the margin of profit is slightly high. She is able to purchase a range of clothes like sarees, blouse pieces, petti-coats, inner garments, lungis, dhotis, shirting’s and suit lengths. She has repaid her loans.

Rathnamma’s Dream Come True

Rathnamma has now shifted her business to her dream new shop on the ground floor of the building she has constructed. She has also rented out one shop to a doctor and one shop to Aradhana Maha Sangha to open Agro Service Centre. She is proud and happy that her business turnover is Rs.2,50,000/- a year at present. At a time, she purchases clothes worth Rs. 25,000 from Hindupur. Each trip costs her Rs.500/-. But Rathnamma is very secretive about the amount of profit she is earning and she did not reveal the exact amount of profit she earned, but says she makes a profit of 20 per cent to 25 per cent depending upon the type of garment she sells. According to her it is not the profit she is earning which is giving her the satisfaction of achieving her goal, she is happy and satisfied that she is now able to support her family in all its activities, provide good education to her three children and purchase clothes for herself and for the family without depending on her husband. Her husband standing next to her nods in approval and administration.

4. Self-Employed Successfully

Charlie at the age of 13 came to Bengaluru from Anavara village of Yadgiri district along with his parents and five siblings. His parents came to work at Nagarjuna Construction Company at R.T.Nagar. Charlie had completed upto 7^th standard from his village Government School. The R T Nagar construction site had OUTREACH day care centre and was in operation from the year 1997. Charlie along with siblings were at the construction site. His parents were approached by the day care centre teacher and requested them to enroll their children at the centre. These six children were enrolled in the day care centre. Charlie was a shy, invert boy and was not confident to come to school as he found himself eldest in the group of children. He used to give lame excuses to attend the classroom. Therefore, the day care centre teacher approached him and told him to monitor ten children and be a class leader, which boosted his confidence and was able to attend the classes regularly.

His elder sister, Ms.Sujatha was going for construction work in the same site, where their parents were working. Onsite Community Organiser and teacher approached their parents and told them about the vocational training centre. They happily agreed to enroll her for tailoring classes and now Charlie also showed his interest for the two wheeler mechanic training and hence he joined for the mechanical training at Magadi road, Begaluru. He took training for two years. After his training, he came back to his parents at R T Nagar. He joined scooter mechanic shop as an assistant at RT Nagar. He was getting Rs.5 per day as wages. He worked for one year in the same garage. He moved to another garage for Rs.25/per day for two years. Later on for 8 years he moved to different garages for more experience and earned substantially higher wages.

He wanted to be a professional in his field. During the same time in the year 2006 his family moved from RT Nagar to Whitefield, Kunadalahalli. He joined a garage for a wage of Rs.400/per day. By this time he learnt engine fitting job which is a skilled work and many other garages approached him for the same, which was a part time job.

He became confident and got enthused to open his own garage in the year 2008. Along with his garage work he worked for other garages too. He got more clients gradually and opened another garage for his brother. He is married and has a child. Now he is the owner of two garages and earns his livelihood, looks after his parents, family and education of his youngest sister.

His mother proudly says ‘OUTREACH has helped him to show a path for his livelihood and success in life’.