Rural entrepreneurs in MP show how govt programmes do change lives

By Praveen Dwivedi

Bhopal, May 28 (SocialNews.XYZ) At a time when most youths take the route towards big cities in search of livelihood, there are some people who find their source of earning in their hometown in the rural areas, setting an example through their hard work and skill management.

IANS came in contact with three such persons, two of them women, one from the tribal dominated district of Jhabua and two from Barwani in Madhya Pradesh, who have set up their own businesses and have become a role model for the people in their village. Apart from being from rural areas, another thing common among them is that none of them have a degree beyond school.

Santosh Vasuniya, a 44-year-old woman, who has set up a business in beauty products and cosmetics at her village in Jhabua, said, "I have faced many challenges in my life, but my story is one of hope."

A mother of two children, Vasuniya could study only until the 10th grade and got married at an early age. Talking to IANS she recalls, "My father died when I was only four years old, leaving my mother to become a daily wage labourer and the sole breadwinner. I was able to study only until the 10th grade, got married and settled in Petlawad with my husband and two children."

During the Covid-19 pandemic when employment opportunities were few with deepening economic inequities, Vasuniya did not take up low-paying work for subsistence but found a way to build her own business.

She began to nurse the dream of opening her own shop of beauty products. "Luckily, I came in touch with Transform Rural India's (TRI) Entrepreneurship Facilitation Hub team, and with their help, I managed to work towards opening my own enterprise."

Sharing her story of becoming an entrepreneur, Vasuniya said she wanted to run a business but she had only Rs one lakh in savings. "It could happen because I got Rs 3.75 lakh as financial support under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme."

Like Vasuniya, the stories of Pawan Jamre and Laxmi Wani show how much human potential exists in the rural parts of Madhya Pradesh.

Pawan, a 20-year-old boy from Chitawal village in Barwani district, could not study beyond the 8th grade. He began his journey in life as a daily wage labourer, however, his interest in electronics made him an entrepreneur. At present he is running his own mobile repair enterprise. The Enterprise Facilitation Hub at Julwania, Barwani, helped him to attend the Accelerated Entrepreneurship Development Programme to empower him to expand his business.

"I began to work as a daily wage labourer at an electronics shop near my village and was making just about 150 to 200 rupees per day. Through a friend, I came to know about a training programme at the Rural Self Employment Training Institute, who helped me to enrol in it."

Similarly, 30-year-old Laxmi Wani had the same path to empowerment. A resident of Newali Bujurg village in Barwani, Wani studied till the 11th grade and got married early. As the wife of a daily wage worker and a mother of three children, she became aware of the urgent need for a second income.

"I joined a training programme in my village organised by an NGO. I knew the basics of computers and began to dream of running a Common Service Centre (CSC). Later, I did a course related to CSC ID training and certification, and today I am running my own CSC business. I would like to thank all those who helped me make my life better," Wani said while talking to IANS.

Source: IANS