For Rekha, from Belrayan village in Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, March 2012 changed her life in ways she didn’t expect. The then 15-year-old student got married a week before her 10th standard exam. “I didn’t understand much about marriage, but I loved studying,” she says. She had always wanted to graduate with a degree. Everything came to a sudden halt when her in-laws refused to let her attend the exam.
About 1,100 km away, 30-year-old Bhuri Singad from Gunawad village in Petlawad block in the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, was also forced to push aside her educational aspirations after being married off at 14 and compelled to work as a farm labourer. However, both these women quietly harboured a small dream for years: to start their own business. “People laughed at me when I said I want to start my own business. A woman harbouring such dreams is something my family couldn’t digest. But I held onto that dream very tightly,” 27-year-old Rekha tells DHoS.
In her early 20s, she saved up money for years to finish her schooling and knew it would take more money to get a degree. So, she set up her first enterprise, a ready-made clothes store, in 2021 and used her earnings to finish under graduation. Today, she owns four stores in her village’s market and recently enrolled for a master’s degree in Sociology and Hindi.
Breaking shackles
According to a July 2024 press release on the Press Information Bureau (PIB) website, there are 63 million MSMEs in India and women-owned MSMEs constitute 20.5 per cent. So, that’s about 13 million women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India. These MSMEs contribute 18.73 per cent to employment, employing over 27 million people.
For women like Rekha and Singad, starting a business is a surefire way of breaking the generational cycle of poverty and gaining financial independence. “While working as a farm labourer, I had to migrate to different states to look for opportunities. Income was not constant, which was always a worry,” Singad says.
In 2022, she met people working for Transform Rural India (TRI), a non-profit organisation that aims to provide equal opportunities to rural citizens by providing scalable solutions such as supporting new enterprises, at Gunawad village’s gram sangatan meeting. It was there she let herself consider starting her own home-based business — a dream that till then had not had an opportunity to be turned into reality.
Bhuri registered for TRI’s entrepreneurial motivational training (EMT) in Petlawad block where she was exposed to different business opportunities and available resources. “I didn’t know I could apply for a loan or the kind of businesses I could set up until then,” she says. The NGO organised visits to different factories including one to a dona-pattal-making unit, where she saw how dried leaves, specifically sal leaves can be turned into eco-friendly plates and small bowls. Armed with this knowledge, she decided to start her village’s first dona-pattal unit. “We have several functions and festivals in our villages and dona-pattal are constantly needed. But people were forced to travel to Ujjain or Ratlam to buy them, which is not an easy or affordable journey.” So, Singad decided she wanted to bring it to them. Instead of leaves, Singad uses paper to make dona-pattal.
She secured a loan of ₹70,000 from TRI to set up the business in 2022. Today, she earns ₹10,000 per month in profit and aims to increase it to ₹35,000 soon. “My daughter is 16 years old and still in school. My two younger sons are also studying. My biggest joy is that I could send them to a private school in Indore and give them opportunities that I didn’t have,” she says.
Sense of freedom
Like Singad, 26-year-old Myampi Devi from Pali village in Patratu block of Jharkhand also started her small enterprise to bring a service to her village. Devi depended on her husband, who works as a construction worker in Andhra Pradesh, to send money for the family’s monthly expenses. But she often had to travel through a forest area to reach the closest bank to withdraw money — a problem faced by many.
“It takes us almost an entire day to go to the bank and withdraw any amount, small or big. The journey to the bank is also exhausting. So, starting the Common Service Centre felt like solving a big problem,” Devi explains. Common Services Centres (CSCs) are the access points for the delivery of essential government services such as information about government schemes, utility payments, banking, healthcare, and more.
The closest CSC to Devi’s village was on the outskirts so she decided to set one up in her village in 2018 to make it accessible to all. Running a business was never really an idea that Devi chased. Forced to drop out after 11th standard due to lack of familial support for education, she didn’t know of a life where she didn’t have to think twice about buying something.
“All expenses depended on how much my husband was able to send me during the month. Sometimes, it was nothing. Now, I’m able to support the family and send my children to private school,” Devi says. She earns ₹16,000 every month and with it, she manages to repay the loans she took to start the CSC as well as manage household expenses. “I don’t have to ask anyone before spending money on anything. There is a sense of freedom for the first time,” she adds.
Over the years, she has accessed loans and support from TRI and Rang De, a peer-to-peer lending platform, to expand the CSC and add a general store. Devi was able to transform her initial investment of ₹30,000 into a turnover of about Rs 2 lakh in six months. Like Singad, Devi wants to make her business successful enough so that her children can take over one day. “I don’t want them to go to other cities looking for menial jobs. My husband and I have seen the struggle, we don’t wish that upon them,” she says.
For these two women, financial hurdles were the biggest barrier that made it difficult for them to even imagine starting a business. However, for Rekha, it was also the societal bias, her in-laws’ hostility and their attempts to confine her within her home. Her talks about starting a business seemed too far-fetched for them and “not fit” for a woman. But that’s all Rekha thought about throughout her fight to step out of her home.
In 2022, she got a loan of ₹40,000 to start her first store, selling readymade clothes in a steel khoka. As the business expanded, she rented two stores in her village’s market, dividing each into two smaller ones to run three other businesses — a beauty parlour, a cosmetics store, and a general store — along with the readymade clothes store.
Rekha extensively watches YouTube videos to learn how to provide services in the parlour and the different types of cosmetics that are trending. “I don’t like telling people we don’t have or can’t offer a particular service,” Rekha says. Earlier this year, she received a grant of ₹50,000 from TRI which helped her further upgrade her stores. “I never had any financial support from my family. So, all my savings and the loans I can access, play a huge role in keeping the stores running. I have had to do it all alone,” she says.
Problems persist
Despite the resilience shown by these microentrepreneurs, the lack of awareness about opportunities and financial support remains a glaring issue for women to start their businesses in rural regions. For instance, about 47 per cent of women entrepreneurs running MSMEs face significant challenges in accessing financial credit, the Bharat Women Aspiration Index Report by Tide India, published in April 2024, revealed. Moreover, 95 per cent of surveyed women said they didn’t know about government schemes that could help their businesses.
Like these three women, many often come across business opportunities through gram sangathans and self-help group meetings. “When you are married as a teenager and cannot complete your education, many doors close. You are left to depend on your husband and his family. If they turn hostile, it’s a difficult life. Knowing that there were ways I could pull myself out of such a situation was all the push I needed,” says Rekha.
These microentrepreneurs are not only opening doors for themselves but also for other women. For instance, Rekha employs a girl in one of her stores to help with the orders. She and Singad also hope their daughters can either take over their business or, better still, start their own. Devi is working on further expanding her CSC to include as many amenities as possible. Singad recently expanded her two-bedroom mud house into a six-bedroom one and finally fixed the roof. “I’m letting myself dream bigger now. It’s a different kind of hope.”