With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.

Reading heartwarming accounts in the days leading upto Mother’s Day earlier this month compelled me to think about my aunt.

A homemaker, she was left to raise two teenage sons after her husband passed away two decades ago. Although equipped with a college degree, she hadn’t worked in a very long time and only had her late husband’s pension to take care of her sons. Growing up, I would hear stories from my mother, her younger sister, about my aunt’s struggles and the great sacrifices she made for her sons.

Every summer I was in Leh, I would spend most of my time living with her. Although she barely spoke about her struggles, I saw a woman who had sacrificed her comforts to pay for her children’s education in Delhi. How did she accomplish this? By converting her home into a hotel in partnership with a businessman and carved out a small living quarter for herself and her two boys.

Despite the sneers, judgement for every mistake her sons would make as young people and callous exhibitions of ignorance from the rest of society, at no point did I see bitterness in her heart. Instead, she focussed on what was before her. She was determined to ensure her sons grew up right and today both are working professionals doing well for themselves.

So, when Mother’s Day came around, I didn’t have a heartwarming readymade story to share, but what I did was speak to three single mothers over a week to understand their journey into single motherhood. What I couldn’t ask my aunt, I asked them. Whether it was about the difficulties, challenges or the joys of raising a child on their own, I wanted to understand their experiences.

Challenges of Single Motherhood

Pooja Priyamvada: I see myself more as a co-learner, a facilitator to my daughter’s existence

An award-winning blogger, professional translator and social media consultant in her early 40s, Pooja got divorced in 2018. The journey of raising her now 11-year-old daughter has been both difficult and rewarding.

She suffers from a combination of high functioning depression and Fibromyalgia. This muscular-skeletal disorder has a lot of varied symptoms for different survivors, including muscular pain, bone degeneration and fibro fog, which can affect your ability to think and shatter your energy levels, leaving you with extreme fatigue. Both conditions intersect at times, and that makes normal functioning very difficult. Moreover, as the sole caregiver at home, she also has to look after her ageing mother.

“The process of raising my daughter Priyamvada all alone has been difficult, but rewarding as well. In her early years, she did not understand my condition or what I was going through. But since there was no one else at home, she had to grow up faster than most and was a default caregiver for me at times. It has also been rewarding because it made her more sensitive to physical disabilities, diversity, mental health and she understands much more about the human condition than other children her age. It has also created an empathetic bond between us which is not the conventional mother-daughter relationship,” she tells The Better India.

Does she feel the absence of her ex-husband, who has now gone onto remarry?

“How my daughter perceives her father’s absence from her life is for her to decide. I will not process that for her. There is a void left behind when you lose someone with whom you share a long-term emotional relationship. It would be an exaggeration to say I am enough to be her mother and a father. Nobody can. You can just be one parent. There are occasions when the child has to sacrifice everyday things because she comes from a single-parent family, and there are no two parents to fall back upon,” she admits.

Rashi Seth: Happy children end up growing into happy adults. No one nourishes in stress.

For Rashi Seth, a single mother and an entrepreneur who runs her lingerie store in Delhi and consults women about what to wear, the responsibility of raising Kahini, her 13-year-old daughter since she was two, has been made easier with her mother at home.

“If I did not have my mother to co-parent, I think it would have been a lot harder. Most of the single women are completely alone in the process of raising a child,” she says.

Suffering physical abuse, verbal abuse, and always getting into arguments with her husband, took a toll on Rashi’s mental health, and she went through a bout of acute depression. Finally, when the differences became irreconcilable, she filed for divorce in 2012. In February 2019 the divorce finally came through, and Rashi got sole custody of her daughter the following year, although she is now fighting for maintenance from her husband.

“Many women go through these dilemmas. Should we walk out of a bad marriage or not for our children? It’s always better to choose tranquillity over discontentment. When I ask my daughter how she feels, there are no complaints. Please don’t make children a reason to stay in bad marriages,” she says.

Nirupama S: Thanks to my daughter, I have become a better version of myself

Fortunately, Nirupama, a nutritionist, corporate wellness coach and fitness consultant based out of Pune, faces no such concerns because when she went through a divorce five years ago, her daughter was already 16 and well-adjusted. Today, her daughter is a 21-year-old college graduate.

“My daughter is already independent, and I get more time to focus on my work. We are happy and have the freedom to live our lives without any additional terms and conditions. During my marriage, I was a person with low confidence and self-esteem, but I am a better version of myself due to my daughter,” she says.

‘Log Kya Kahenge’ (What Will People Say?)

Pooja: I accepted my new realities as a single woman raising a child.

When Pooja separated from her husband and left with Priyamvada, she did suffer socially for those choices. Leaving a marriage isn’t still seen as very acceptable in India, and the toughest battles are closer to home. The most criticism she received about her decision was from her mother. A few friends also start behaving very differently since she didn’t fit into the roles society has defined for her.

“A lot of social stigmas are attached to divorce and single motherhood. For every challenge in life, whether it’s personal or social, the first stage is acceptance. Following this, I went into a mindset which believed that I am not here to live up to anybody’s expectations of me. My ex-husband and I made a decision which we thought was right for us and chose to live with dignity,” recalls Pooja.

She has encountered pressures of getting remarried and dated other men after her divorce. After her husband remarried, her daughter understood that her parents could have other partners once they had divorced.

“In larger social circles, it’s okay for a man to remarry after a divorce, but for a woman, the child has to be the priority. Those are the hypocritical differences that exist for men and women who want to remarry. I have no qualms about remarrying as and when I find a man who I would like to spend the rest of my life with. Priyamvada would be a part of that life,” she says.

Rashi: Judgements about your singlehood from other friends and relatives aren’t said openly to your face. It’s very subtle.

For Rashi, the situation wasn’t too different. Despite their best intentions, she believes family members and peers who have a stake in the marriage don’t often offer the best advice in these situations. Their answer to marital discord is ‘make a compromise’ or ‘this happens to everyone’ and ‘try to please your husband and make peace’. All she wanted was to raise her daughter in a harmonious environment.

“You’re invited to far fewer parties or get-togethers as compared to the time you were married. Social outcasting is very subtle, but you understand. Single males aren’t subjected to this sort of outcasting. You can see people’s eyes judging you. They will pose questions like ‘where is your husband’. If I respond that I am single, there is an awkward silence,” she says.

And her decision to become a single mother also affected her professional career. While working at different companies, she was always being judged at offices. “In my last job in Delhi, my boss, a woman herself, would often bring up situations where I would have to choose between family or work. This is a nonsensical stereotype of single and separated parents like us. That sparked my desire to find a work environment conducive to my needs. Besides my daughter, I have an ageing mother. I wanted to work in an environment where I could do justice to my domestic responsibilities and achieve professional satisfaction as well,” she recalls.

Nirupama: They would ask, ‘Log kya kahenge’ or pass judgements like ‘There is something wrong with her’.

Nirupama had given up her job while married, and there were multiple questions about her choice to divorce and raise her teenage daughter, single-handedly.

“I suffered socially for my choice. It was all about my family and friends. There was tremendous pressure from them to make this marriage work. These were some of the things I kept hearing when I divorced my husband. I was about to turn 40 when I got divorced and had left a career after my marriage. There were questions about what I was going to do with my life. There were questions about financial support, but very little about the emotional support I needed,” she recalls.

Instead, she took on the burden of convincing her friends and family, and they finally understood. Eventually, their support gave her more confidence to follow through.

Daughters To The Rescue

Pooja: As a parent, whatever you preach, you have to practice

“For instance, I believe in gender equality. When my father passed away, for example, I chose to perform his last rites myself. Both my father and I wanted it that way. Still, Priyamvada became a secondary motivation for it because I realised that if I don’t push this equality at home or where it matters, no matter how many feminist textbooks I teach her, it will not matter anymore. It does get emotionally taxing at times. As my late father would say, if you raise a democratic child, often the first rebellion is against you,” she adds.

Rashi: Kahini has grown up faster than most, seen the inside of a courtroom, and supported me by saying things like ‘I understand’.

It’s tough situations that often compel children to grow up much faster. Rashi believes her child is well-adjusted, happy and more mature than many girls her age.

She recalls a time when there was constant discord with her ex-husband.

“Now, there is always happiness and peace at home. In court, the judge once told me that I had raised a well-adjusted and beautiful child, who is respectful of her father despite the odds; hasn’t been brainwashed into saying anything, knows what she wants and has a mind of her own. That was a big win for me,” she recalls.

Nirupama: It was my daughter who encouraged me to live life on my terms from the start. She told me to stop tolerating a bad marriage.

“With her backing, I had the confidence to take the path towards single motherhood. I will always thank her for supporting me. She made so many adjustments while I was transitioning out of my marriage and finding my feet again professionally. She never demanded anything from me. Moreover, she handled this entire transition with so much maturity in communicating with her school friends about her changing living situation. Her position has been that my mother is doing this so we can live a happier life together,” says Nirupama.

After all, the reason why these women chose this steep path was that they wanted to find happiness within themselves and for their children. For the most part, they succeeded.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.

The Northeastern region of the country is a treasure trove for some of the most flavoursome and exotic ingredients. Be it the delectable bamboo shoot generously used in dishes to give them a unique taste or the spicy bhut jolokia which can pack a flavourful punch, once you have used these ingredients, there is no looking back!

Anyone from the region knows how invaluable these ingredients are!

Pushpita Sinha is one person who is passionate and fascinated with them.

The 39-year-old is a Manipuri by birth but raised in Tripura and married to an Assamese. Naturally, she has been exposed to indigenous ingredients and cuisines. She wanted to share this with people across the country and started a blog.

“I found that a lot of people with very little knowledge about the northeast were writing about the region’s food and ingredients. They were repeating the information that was already available and what they were writing lacked depth. Which is why I started my blog in 2014,” she says.

A cooking enthusiast, she also started trying different recipes in her kitchen. Of all of these recipes, she most enjoyed pickling seasonal vegetables, bamboo shoots, carrots, radishes, prawns, and chicken. In 2017, she sent some of these samples to a fellow food blogger in Odisha to taste.

“My friend was so impressed that she pushed me to pursue this as a business. She even shot some nice pictures of the products and put them up on social media. And I shipped around eight pickle jars by the end of the month,” smiles Pushpita.

This made Pushpita believe that she could set up a business from home. But, things didn’t go as planned.

In early September 2017, quite out of the blue, she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.

However, she took the diagnosis in her stride and battled her disease. Within a year, in October 2018, she began taking orders for her pickles again.

In July 2019, she set up ‘Pushpita’s Artisanal’, selling 100 per cent natural pickles and jams! These include bamboo shoot, bhut jolokia, naga chilli, bogori (Indian jujube), seasonal mango, along with non-vegetarian options like chicken, prawn, fish, and pork.

Gradually, she also started making preserves and sauces using fruits like blueberry, strawberry, apple, pineapple, raspberry, mulberry, and blackberry! Now, she has over 25+ products and sells a minimum of 50 jars a month, and the produce is sourced from about 12 farmers.

Pushpita shares how she overcame several challenges to embark on her entrepreneurial journey.

From an economist to a home-entrepreneur

Running a home business is not something she had imagined.

She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s University in Mumbai. After graduation in 2002, she wanted to pursue a Master’s in Econometrics, but since the subject was not available, she decided to go back home to Tripura.

Once in Agartala, she began preparing for competitive exams and realised that what she really wanted to do was an MBA. Later, when she got married in 2005, she moved to Mumbai with her husband.

In 2006, she got an opportunity to join a leading business channel as a market analyst, but she learnt that she was pregnant with her first child, and let go of the job offer. In 2010, she pursued her Master’s in Economics from Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University, Pune.

Later by the end of 2012, she began working as a content writer with a Canada-based publisher, writing articles on economics, foreign exchange, and lifestyle topics like food.

“My editor was very supportive and asked me to keep writing. So I decided to start a food blog since I was interested in the subject and wanted to highlight the cuisines of Manipur and other northeastern states,” she shares.

Overcoming her battle with cancer

Trying out recipes at home and having a close-knit network of friends encouraged her to start selling her flavourful pickles and jams on a small scale. But, her cancer diagnosis posed one of her life’s biggest challenges.

Towards the end of July 2017, after catering to her first few orders, Pushpita was getting ready to move with her family to Pune as her husband was transferred to the city.

“I started experiencing discomfort and decided to get myself checked. It came as a shock when I found that I had advanced-stage breast cancer. When the biopsy report came, it was unbelievable and overwhelming. I was new to the city and had only my husband and son by my side. I was missing all my other near and dear ones,” she recalls.

Pushpita then reached out to a friend who was previously diagnosed with cancer, who introduced her to the Oncologist at TATA Hospital in Mumbai.

“I remember sitting in his cabin, asking asked him to tell me what to expect. His response was positive, which gave me strength. On 5 October 2017, I had my first chemotherapy session,” she recalls.

She continued her Chemotherapy sessions once every three weeks and had surgery in January 2018.

Slowly and steadily, she started taking orders and resumed her business on a small scale. In late January, the doctor informed her of something else.

“After a few tests, my doctor told me that I was carrying a child. This came as a surprise, and I got to know about it very late. On 30 May, my son was born, and by October, since my treatment was over, I dove right into my business,” smiles Pushpita.

Serving authentic flavours straight from her kitchen

As Pushpita’s business grew, she needed to register the company. She did that in July 2019.

Sourcing all the spices to grinding them into a mix is done from scratch. Once the shipment of ingredients arrives from the northeast, it is sorted, cleaned and sun-dried for two days. She makes sure that they are grown without the use of pesticides. On the third day, she starts with the traditional pickling, mixing all ingredients with oil and salt and transferring them in sterilised barnis, which are then kept in the sun for about seven hours.

She carries out all the daily operations as she knows all the recipes. “I haven’t hired anyone as such, but my cook has been helpful. She helps with the baby when I am working in the kitchen. She has also seen me work in the kitchen and volunteers to make the spice mix or prepare the ingredients when I am busy with the baby,” she says.

“I have refrained from using any brine and try to keep the process as simple as possible for the best taste. After I follow all these processes, the pickle is ready in two weeks, and I transfer it into smaller glass jars,” she says.

Pushpita had also gotten in touch with a food technologist earlier on who helped her navigate the food business. She learnt how to standardise her products, apply for the necessary licenses, and how to maintain her kitchen.

She also got in touch with a food laboratory in Pune to get all her products tested and an FSSAI license. Currently, Pushpita does not have an official website but sells her products through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Some of the bestsellers include pickles of bamboo shoot, king chili, Indian jujube, Indian olive pickle, chicken, and prawns. The authentic taste has impressed quite a few people who now regularly order from her.

Take Pune-based bank executive, Suvra Chatterjee. The 28-year-old discovered Pushpita’s range of pickles and preserves while scrolling through Instagram. The options immediately caught her eye.

“They had such amazing flavours that you don’t get in Pune. So, I decided to try them and ordered the prawn and the chicken pickles. They were so delicious and light. The best part was that it was all preservative-free,” she says.

Later, she also ordered the bhut jolokia pickle during Christmas and got a jar tamarind chutney for free because of the festive season. Suvra recalls that she wanted to make some spicy Bengali chicken curry during the lockdown. She had run out of chillies and decided to use the bhut jolokia pickle; the dish turned out delicious!

“Pushpita is such a humble persona, and my experience has been amazing. In the case of small delays, she has always informed me. Each of her orders comes with a personal note and makes me feel so special,” she says.

Overcoming challenges to moving forward

Pushpita begins her days early, at 6 am. After her morning tea, she completes most chores before her baby wakes up. She then makes a list of tasks for the day. She also plans the photoshoot for the products and does all of it by herself.

However, the busy mom-entrepreneur faces quite a few challenges on the business front. Since her ingredients come from the northeast, improper packaging sometimes causes the produce to get spoilt in transit. In such cases, she is unable to make her products.

“But through local connections in the northeast, I have been able to explain exactly how to pack and process the products before they send them across,” she says.

Another challenge was in the safe delivery of the products. “I would avail the services of bigger courier companies, and because the jars were not handled with care, about 60 per cent of them would end up broken. I realised that going for small local courier services would be better since they have fewer orders and handled them with care. This change worked out well for me,” she says.

Pushpita shares a few words for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“If you have a business idea and feel certain that it will work, don’t doubt yourself. Research your market and figure out how your product is going to bring new value. There will be challenges when you follow your dreams. But, don’t give up,” she says.

So, what are Pushpita’s plans for her small business?

Well, she is working with a design team to make new labels for her jars. She also plans on selling her products in retail stores after scaling up on production. She also wants to set up small manufacturing units in Tripura for the skill development of the women.

“I started this business because I wanted to show the rest of the country that ingredients from the northeast are special. I wanted the local produce and the producers to shine. I hope that I can take my products to a bigger stage and bring recognition to the Northeast region,” she says.

Rapid-fire:
*An entrepreneur you admire.
Ans: Linnet Mushran, founder of Bhuira Jams

*New tech that can transform the future of small businesses
Ans: Social media

*One value that can help small businesses thrive
Ans: Quality control

*Your favourite book
Ans: Outcomes Over Output by Josh Seiden

*In my free time I ____…
Ans: Spend time with my kids

* Before this interview I was ____…
Ans: Playing with my younger son

*Something they don’t teach in college but is important to run a business is
Ans: How to build a relationship of trust with your customers and your employees

*Best advice you ever got is to ____…
Ans: As a woman, financial independence is important to deal with unforeseen challenges and to maintain positivity in life.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.

Radhe Devi sits in the middle of the verandah of her home with a piece of cloth in her hand. Around her are ribbons, stones, and mirrors that she carefully sews on the cloth. Spectacles perched on her nose, her eyes are focused in concentration–the cloth she is working on will be transformed into a skirt that forms an important part of the Manipuri wedding attire known as ‘Potloi’.

The 88-year-old is lovingly called ‘Abok Radhe’ (where Abok means ‘grandma’ in the Meitei language). Since the past 58 years, she has been working as a ‘Potloi Setpi’ (wedding dresser)! The octogenarian entrepreneur, based out of the Thoubal district in Manipur, has dressed over 1,000+ brides in her lifetime.

“Every time I design the Potloi for a bride, I get very anxious. I ask myself if they will like it and if it will make them happy. And when I see a happy bride walk down during the ceremony and people gush over the handiwork, it gives me joy. When they ask who made it, I feel proud of myself,” says the grandma.

The Potloi comprises the stiff cylindrical skirt, a blouse, a woven belt around the waist, and Innaphi, which is a delicate muslin shawl wrapped around the upper body. Abok Radhe also matches her outfit with local jewellery before she presents it to the bride.

Even now, Abok is unstoppable! She can make an entire outfit in merely five to seven days!

In addition to this, she also makes costumes for the Khamba-Thoibi dance, which is based on a popular Manipuri legend.

When the wedding season is over, Abok also makes dolls using cloth and rice straws, and sells them in local shops.

The effervescent bridal wear designer shares her entrepreneurial journey, proving that age is just a number!

From a mum to a Potloi entrepreneur

“I was only 15-years-old when I got married,” informs Abok, from her home in Wangjing Sorokhaibam Leikai. Abok Radhe had seven children and was a homemaker. Her husband, late Hanjabam Mani Sharma, was an astrologer and would participate in important activities in the temple.

So, how did she learn the art of Potloi making?

“When I was 25-years-old, a lady in my neighbourhood was involved in the art of Potloi making. She was like a sister to me, and hence, I would often help her finish her orders. This is how I first learnt the different processes involved in making the wedding garments,” she says.

However, it was when she turned 30 that she got into making the outfits on her own.

“My daughter, who was only seven years old at the time, was taking part in the local Ras Leela drama. In those days, no shop or costume designer sold the costumes. So, I had to design a dress for my daughter,” recalls Abok Radhe.

She designed her daughter’s costume in merely five days! This made her confident enough to pursue dressmaking as a profession. At that point, her family was not doing too well, and she wanted to contribute financially.

To refine her handiwork, Abok Radhe trained under Khurailakpam Iboton Sharma. This man was multi-talented as he was a dance teacher, who was involved in local theatre, and was also a dress designer.

In fact, if one were to look at the history and origin of Potloi, it had its roots in the Ras Leela. The Potloi was introduced as a costume by Meidingu Chinthang Khoma or Maharaja Bhagyachandra (1749-1798), who composed three forms of Rasa Leela–Kunja Ras, Maha Ras and Basanta Ras–dedicated to Lord Krishna. The Potloi was the costume worn by Gopis in the Rasa Leela dance, and later, it became popular as a wedding outfit for brides during the Hindu-Meitei ceremonies.

Initially, when Abok started making outfits, she would take almost 15 days to make a set. The reason why she took so long was perfecting the shape of the stiff cylindrical skirt.

“Now, when we make the skirt, there is a thin rubber sheet used by bridal designers to give the skirt a stiff shape. But this wasn’t available before. So, I would have to stitch nine layers of cloth on the inner side of the embellished skirt. This would take a lot of time. Also, to make the skirt stiff, it had to be washed with rice starch and dried in the sun. When there would be no sunlight, it would spoil the outfit as it would end up rotting,” recalls Abok Radhe.

The Potloi comes in vibrant colours like red, pink, and green and is embellished with ribbons, stones, mirrors. The Innaphi too has beautiful borders that comprise small embellishments, ribbons, and embroidery.

When Abok started her small business of selling the Potloi, she would earn Rs 500 per outfit. Now, she sells each for anywhere between Rs 10,000-15,000 depending on the intricacy of the handiwork.

Other handiwork, challenges and looking forward

When the wedding season is over, Abok doesn’t stay idle. She makes dolls in tiny Potloi outfits in different sizes, and the price ranges from Rs 20-1.000 depending on the size and amount of handiwork.

In addition to that, she also makes costumes for the Khamba-Thoibi dance which is performed in the Lai Haraoba festival of the Meitei community, celebrated in May. This drama depicts the love story of a boy named Khamba, who belonged to the Khuman clan, and princess Thoibi, who belonged to the Moirang clan.

Here, the dress is elaborate. In addition to skirts made from printed cloth and handloom fabric, there is a top made from velvet, a thin muslin cloth tied around the waist, garlands, and elaborate headdress adorned with peacock feathers which draw the most focus. Abok makes these costumes as well.

However, while going about her business, Abok Radhe does face a few challenges.

“One of the key challenges is finding the right material for the Potloi outfits. As you might know, bandhs are a common phenomenon in Manipur. This affects the availability of rubber sheets and other materials, which are an integral part of the skirt. Without it, the skirt would not have the stiff cylindrical shape,” she says.

In her free time, Abok is also involved in social work; she is a prominent voice when it comes to women’s empowerment. She is associated with organisations like ‘Nupi Apunba Lup’ and ‘Ukalpan’, both based out of Wangjing, serving as their Secretary and Advisor.

She also has created awareness on issues like drug addiction and women’s employment in the state. “I believe that it is important for a woman to be financially independent so that she can support herself in any situation and not depend on anyone,” she says.

Abok Radhe is well known for her Potloi work and a lot of students, especially women, come to her to learn the skill. Many of them have even gone ahead and started their businesses.

“I may not live long, but I want the art of Potloi-making to live on. I hope that the skills that I have imparted, help my students to make beautiful designs of Potloi. It is through my work and theirs that I want to be remembered,” says Abok Radhe signing off.

Images Courtesy: Nirupama Takhelchangbam

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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“Sometimes, resistance only fuels one’s passion to pursue something harder,” says 27-year-old Ranjana Yadav, an entrepreneur and owner of Vidhivani pearl farming, a startup in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

Ranjana stumbled upon pearl farming almost three years ago, while completing her MSc in Forestry, and was immediately fascinated. “The very process of how a pearl forms inside shells as an act of self defense really surprised and fascinated me. To see how people were employing this natural phenomenon to create something so beautiful was even more interesting and I wanted to be a part of it,” she adds.

She shared her entrepreneurial dreams with her family, but they were skeptical. So, she decided to win them over by cultivating pearls at home.

“In January 2018, I set up a small farm in an abandoned bathtub in my father-in-law’s backyard. I started small and set up 20 odd pearl mussels. Every day I took care of it, and in a matter of 10-12 months, I witnessed an 80% success rate with almost 2 pearls forming in every mussel. The success solidified my confidence and helped me convince my elders to support me in this journey,” adds Ranjana.

Furthermore, the pearls from the bathtub farm fetched her Rs 350-Rs 450 in a jeweller’s market in Hyderabad, reaping a cool profit of Rs 80,000.

Emboldened by the success, the same year, Ranjana enrolled herself for a 1-week crash course on pearl farming at Bhubaneswar-based Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture.

A Farm in her Backyard

The substantial success and novelty of pearl farming in the Gangetic-belt of UP where it was quite uncommon, helped Ranjana create a niche for herself and upon returning from Bhubaneswar, she started her own farm in the backyard of her parental home, almost 6 km away from her residence.

“I am the first entrepreneur in the family, and it’s only natural that people were unsure about me taking up this work. But what is life without a bit of risk? So instead, I convinced my father, Suresh Chandra Yadav to allow me to dig up a 14×14 ft land to build an artificial pond. I also bought some 2000 mussels from Ahmedabad, with a total investment of Rs 1 lakh,” says the entrepreneur.

The entire process after installation of the mussels takes almost a year to reach completion.

Elaborating upon the installation process and care, she explains, “After the mussels are delivered, you have to let them rest for a day and get used to the environment. Then you need to dip them into alkaline treated water for the next 7 days, while feeding them green algae regularly. After 7 days, you operate on them and insert the nucleus.Then you hang a nylon net and ropes to support the mussels and let them rest for 10-12 months or even more depending on the variety. Throughout the process, it is important to take great care of them, check the water temperature, clean the pond and make sure they are well-fed.”

For the past one year, Ranjana makes a trip to her parental home to check on the mussels and feed them, the first thing in the morning. She spends almost 2-4 hours every day taking care of them. Although the lockdown caused a few hiccups in the process, she still managed to do this.

“These mussels are like my babies. From feeding them to checking their health and giving medicines if required, throughout this period, I have reared them carefully. Extreme weather conditions can increase the mortality rate to 90% and so it’s important to keep a daily check. With time they grow stronger and most independent and so during the lockdown period I could manage to oversee their care from a distance,” says Ranjana, who is also a mother to twin daughters.

What Makes Pearl Culture a Viable Investment?

Ranjana explains that freshwater mussel pearls are designer, which means that they can be moulded to various shapes and designs, unlike saltwater oyster pearls that are always round. They are also easier to grow and relatively less expensive. Also, freshwater mussels are organic hosts with no shell bead nucleus which means that they can grow almost 2-6 pure pearls per mussel in each production cycle.

“In some places in Asia, people grow as many as 20 pearls in a single mussel at a time. And, compared to ocean pearl cultivation that requires advanced surgical skills, freshwater pearl culture can be done by anyone with a little training and is also quite inexpensive. While this also means that these pearls are cheaper than the oyster pearls, the investment to production and profit ratio is quite good,” she explains, adding that she expects to make a profit of Rs 4 lakh this October-November.

Ranjana mentions that in the last few years, she has trained 16 agriculture students in her farm, and helped 10 farmers in Hathras, UP, set up their own pearl farms.

“I hope pearl farming becomes more mainstream in the coming years. People will always question whenever someone tries to do something new but that doesn’t mean they should back down. Weigh in your risks, create a tentative plan and just follow through, that’s the only way you can succeed,” concludes Ranjana.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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I remember the first time I tried to grow something. Sitting on the floor with a newspaper laid out, on top of which lay fresh soil. Touching the moist soil with my bare hands was therapeutic, calming my mind and soul.

Saniha Harish experienced the joy of gardening when she was only 14.

“I was visiting my grandfather, a farmer, and I asked him how he practiced farming. He then told me that my generation was not resilient enough to practice farming. But, once he said that, I took it up as a challenge,” smiles the 25-year-old.

Fueled by her will, Saniha got two pots and planted them with chillies and tomatoes. She would collect her kitchen waste, grind it in the mixer, and use a diluted portion as manure for her plants.

“When I saw the first few tomatoes and chillies, I was so happy. This motivated me to explore the world of farming,” recalls Saniha.

For the past five years, the 25-year-old has been growing about 100+ different crops on 11 acres of land. Her crop also includes mushrooms, which can be grown in 45 days, earning profits of Rs 40,000. She uses different organic fertilisers that have also helped her increase productivity.

Through her farming practice, Saniha earns a yearly profit of almost Rs 10 lakh! Additionally, she has a 1,500 sq ft terrace garden where she grows 60+ vegetables, fruits, and herbs!

The young farmer shares the different fertilisers used in her organic practice and how farming is her one true passion!

Acquiring the right skills

Once Saniha finished school, she was sure about doing something in agriculture. For this, she pursued a BSc degree from JSS College in Mysuru. Here, she took up a bunch of courses on agricultural topics like hydroponics, apiculture, and vermicompost, among others. She also signed up for independent short term courses where she learnt how to practice mushroom farming.

So far, she has completed over 30 of these courses that helped build her expertise.

After completing college five years ago, she decided to make use of her father’s agricultural land, which was lying unused. “My father was growing some coconuts there. Since he was an engineer, he was busy and couldn’t take up farming actively, I took control,” she says.

On 11 acres of land, Saniha now grows 100+ crops like bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, cocoa, vanilla, beans, corn, ginger, cabbage, cauliflower. Because the land is vast, she has installed specific irrigation systems (sprinklers) for different crops.

For example, for ginger, she’s used plastic jets that can sprinkle water up to five feet, while Dolphin jets have been used to water corn and have a capacity of 25 feet. Flower jets have been used to water greens like coriander, methi, and palak because they are delicate. She grows greens at a large scale and harvests them every day to sell in the mandi.

To ensure the fertility of the soil, Saniha grows a mix of crops on a plot of land. For instance, if ginger was grown on a plot of land, after its harvest the following year, she will not grow ginger there again, because it could affect the PH levels of the soil and strip it of its fertility.

Instead, that plot of land will be used to grow milder crops like corn, sweet beans, cabbage, that can be harvested in a few months.

Similarly, she avoids growing sugarcane, turmeric, and bananas on the same plot, because they take a longer time to harvest.

Using Organic fertilisers

Saniha says that her healthy and high yield can be attributed to her nutrient-rich organic fertilisers like vermicompost, Jeevamrutha, and mushroom manure.

There are about five cows on her farm (organically bred), and she uses cow dung to prepare vermicompost, which she also sells for Rs 10 per kg. She explains how she prepares it.

She has over ten rectangular vermicompost beds which have been dug 3 ft deep into the ground. If one doesn’t have a lot of space, it is also possible to buy vermicompost bags which cost between Rs 800-1,000.

While filling up the pits, Saniha first collects agricultural waste like banana stems, coconut leaves, and straws, chops it and adds it to the pit. She then adds cow dung slurry made from one part cow dung and two parts of water. She then layers the pit with ten inches of agri waste and two inches of cow dung slurry.

Once it is almost full, she adds two inches of mud before covering the pit with a tarpaulin or coconut leaves.

“This pit should be in the shade, away from direct sunlight. For 15 days, you have to rotate and mix the waste while adding a bucket of cow dung slurry every day. After that, I add one kg of earthworms in the pit. In the center of the pit, I insert a PVC pipe so that the earthworms can breathe; I also use it to add water daily to keep the mixture moist. In two months, this compost is ready,” she explains.

Additionally, Saniha also uses cow dung from her farm to make Jeevamrutha.

In an 800-litre drum, she adds 200 litres of water, 10-12 kg of cow dung, 10 litres of cow urine, and 3-4 kg of jaggery. Before mixing this, she adds two kilos of rice or wheat flour and covers the drum with a lid. This mixture is stirred for 3-4 days. Saniha suggests that it be used within 10-15 days of preparation so that the nutrient level in the manure does not go down.

There are also 150 organically-bred country chickens on her farm. Their poop is collected and directly put into the soil.

“The best part is that you don’t need to prepare this before using it for your crops. About one tonne is enough for one acre of your field, and it gives an excellent harvest. You can also add this into your vermicompost pits/beds,” she informs.

An avid mushroom cultivator, Saniha has been practising it for the past couple of years. “Although I do not like mushrooms, my husband and family love it. Hence, I decided to undergo training for one week at Mysore University, and that’s how I began growing them,” she says.

Once the mushrooms are harvested, Saniha is left with rice straws which are the growing medium. Instead of throwing this away, the young farmer uses it in her vermicompost beds. One may or may not add worms in the vermicompost pits (with the slurry and agri waste) when this is being prepared. The daily stirring needs to continue, and in 20-30 days, this compost is ready to use.

“I learnt this when I went for training to grow mushrooms. This compost is white and is extremely rich in protein. Using it gives the most bountiful harvest, and yields are higher by almost 10-15 per cent!” she adds.

An avid terrace gardener

Although Saniha started organic farming commercially about five years ago, she started terrace gardening actively only about three and a half years ago.

“Our earlier residence was a rented apartment, and we weren’t allowed to use the terrace space for gardening. But since we moved to a new home, I have been maintaining a terrace garden, where I grow over 60 fruits, veggies, and herbs,” she explains.

For the terrace garden, she uses kitchen waste from the home to make compost. To keep pests at bay, she makes a mixture of sour buttermilk and water (in high quantities) to spray on the plants. She also informs that growing marigolds in the garden is an effective way of pest control.

So, what does she grow at the terrace garden?

“Three types of pumpkins, sweet potatoes, baby potatoes, regular potatoes, methi, palak, Ivy gourd, bottle gourd, three types of brinjal, organic cabbage, red cabbage, bell peppers and chillies, corns, snow pea, cowpea, peanuts, watermelon, muskmelon, yellow and green zucchini, pineapples. The list is long,” she smiles.

Starting organic farming to make pure and healthy food available to people, Saniha’s passion brings her immense joy.

“This job gives me peace of mind. It is important to grow food organically at a time when most of what we buy from the market is pumped with chemicals. Although organic practices take some effort and time, it makes me happy that I am not serving poisonous produce to others, nor am I consuming it myself. If we do not go back to natural and organic methods, our children will never know pure food. It is now or never,” she says, signing off.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Google ‘mompreneur’ and the results are astounding — from articles on successful mompreneurs to others teaching you how to excel at it. Everyday we hear about women who take on the heaviest possible load and execute it skillfully.

In this article, we list ten enterprising, inspiring and versatile mompreneurs, many of whom have been working from home even before it became the new ‘normal’.

1. Gunjan Loomba Babbar – Shabari

If ethnic and quirky home décor products are what you are looking for, then you should head to Shabari, a brand that Gunjan Loomba Babbar brought to life almost three years ago. Having begun her business on Facebook and Whatsapp, Gunjan says, “Most of the business and orders I have received have been via word of mouth. I do not have any dedicated website for my business.”

Gunjan says that almost 70 per cent of the sales she makes comes through Whatsapp and about 30 per cent from Facebook. Gunjan can be reached at +91-96505 87253 or via her Facebook page.

2. Abhilasha Jain – Marwadi Khanna

Meet Abhilasha Jain, who leveraged Facebook communities to start her own food catering business called Marwadi Khanna. It all started with this one sentence she posted in an online community – “I am going to prepare dal-baati and choorma, a traditional Rajasthani dish on Sunday. Let me know if anyone wishes to order,” she wrote. Before she knew it, she had almost 40 orders in.

Besides the daily meals, she is also known for the traditional snacks and sweets, especially during festivals, social gatherings, and occasions like weddings. While this began as a one-woman venture, Abhilasha hired more people due to the escalation in orders, and eventually the team of four moved out of her house in July 2019 to a rented 1000 sq. ft. kitchen.

Abhilasha is the perfect example of how one can merge passion and business. To read more about her incredible journey, click here.

3. Chinu Kala – Rubans

Chinu Kala was thrown out of her home at the age of 15. With just Rs 300 in her wallet she started out, In what can only be described as a story of immense grit and determination, and established her accessories company called Rubans. Along the way she took on various odd jobs, from a door to door sales to waitressing.

Through her trials, she learnt that if one is determined, then no circumstance can get the better of her. In the year 2016-17, Rubans clocked in about Rs 56 lakh revenue. The next year the revenues grew by almost 670 per cent to Rs 3.5 crore. The last year saw the brand earning revenues of Rs 7.5 crore.

You can click here to read all about her inspirational journey.

4. Navdeep Kaur – Aagghhoo

The desire to provide the best she could for her daughter was one of the reasons why Navdeep chose to become a mompreneur. In an interview with The Better India, Navdeep said, “My daughter would react to synthetic fabrics very poorly. She would develop rashes on her skin which is why I would only stick to natural fabrics dyed in plant-based colours for her.”

Since there was a gap in the market between what she wanted and what was available, she decided to enter the market with her own products. When asked about the rather unusual name, she says, “‘Aagghhoo’ is that happy gurgling sound that babies make, and I thought it was the perfect name for my venture.”

Navdeep designs clothes that are easy on the skin and help children sleep peacefully in them.

Navdeep’s message for other mothers like herself is, “Be a work-from-home mom. I found my order in chaos, inspiration, and peace by being at home.” With the fabric for Aagghhoo being sourced directly from the weaving communities across the country, almost 500+ weavers are benefitting and over 1000+ pieces have been sold thus far.

Click here to read her story.

5. Shruti Ajmera Reddy – Hapup

When Shruti found that 95 per cent of baby foods contain one or more toxic chemicals like arsenic, mercury and lead, which have long term effects on the health of children, she knew that starting her own brand was the way to go. After extensive market research, in October 2018, she founded Hapup, a startup which provides nutritional mixes that are devoid of any kind of chemicals, preservatives, salt or even sugar.

While the mixes can be made at home, it is a long drawn process and not many have the time and patience to make them. “While I started out with wanting to provide babies with the best nutrition while also making it easier for working parents, we came up with something that is good for your baby and you. In the end, I want people to understand that this is not some fad that is temporary. What we are trying to do is provide a healthy lifestyle choice to people across all ages. We hope that Hapup becomes a part of people’s daily lifestyle choices in the country,” she says. Shruti is working towards having about 12 millet-based products out in the market soon.

6. Upma Kapoor – Teal & Terra

A single mother, Upma finds not just immense encouragement but also derives strength from her son. Having funded Teal & Terra with her savings and contributions from friends and family, she started with about Rs 7.5 lakh, a huge leap of faith. In just two years since its launch, Teal & Terra now clocks in revenue Rs 2.24 crore!

Banking on the age-old wisdom of Ayurveda, Teal & Terra’s cosmetic products are all-natural. Some of her best selling products include the onion juice and castor oil based hair oil. Priced from Rs 500 onwards, Teal & Terra primarily produce hair and skin care products. You can read all about her story here.

7. Monisha Narke – RUR Greenlife

This is the story of yet another mompreneur who was driven to make a difference to ensure that her daughter is comfortable in the environment around her. In an interview with The Better India, she says, “My daughter would constantly get coughing fits and I became very worried. She was only four years old at the time and I did not want to put her on any kind of medication. Instead, I wanted to fix the problem once and for all.”

With the motto of ‘Reducing, Reusing, Recycling’, the group began as a volunteer’s initiative and has now transformed into a social enterprise with over 30 lakh people educated through their workshops, more than 100 sites have been equipped with their bio-composters.

With a vision of impacting many more lives, Monisha wishes that RUR becomes a one-stop solution for decentralised waste management solutions in the coming years.

8. Prianka Dam Ganguli – Chitran

Prianka who runs an online handcrafted saree and accessories business says that when she started her business mobile phones were a rare commodity and it was the time of Orkut. What started as a way to keep herself busy during her pregnancy, but soon it became a business venture. Prianka relies on the use of technology and in particular, Whatsapp, to procure her sarees.

In an interview with TBI, she says, “It is impossible for me to constantly keep travelling back and forth but with the advent of Whatsapp, a lot of that has changed. Everytime my weavers get new stock they send me the images and once I choose the sarees, they courier it and I transfer the money immediately.”

You can read all about her journey here.

9. Suman Sood – Pickles and More

Suman Soon (62), a resident of Delhi, enjoyed cooking and making pickles. Little did she know that this passion of hers would turn into a business venture. She shares, “Slowly, people started coming to me with particular needs and tastes. Some would want the pickle in olive oil, others liked it spicy, and so I began to customise,” she says. It took her daughters to convince her to launch a brand. That was in 2015 and since then there has been no looking back.

With over 60+ varieties of pickles to her credit, Suman says that so far she must have made more than 25,000 kgs of pickle. The half kg bottle of pickle costs about Rs 250 and Suman makes nearly Rs 50,000 each month. To read more about her venture and perhaps even order some pickles from her, do click here.

10. Shilpi Sharma Bedi – Indie Project Store (IPS)

Shilpi’s platform sells outfits made of traditionally woven natural fabrics for children between the ages of zero to five, while empowering hundreds of artisans in the process. In 2016, a year after she delivered her baby, Shilpi felt that there was a huge potential for clothes made with traditional woven fabrics. It was this thought that led to the inception of the brand along with her friend Satya Nagarajan.

Speaking to TBI she says, “Instead of setting up manufacturing units of our own, we wanted to improve the livelihoods of artisans who were struggling to keep these traditional crafts alive. Hence, all our fabric suppliers, manufacturers, artisans come from small shop communities of India.”

In the four years of its existence, the brand has made a difference in the lives of over 100+ artisans in Hyderabad, where the business is based out of and also released over 170 new designs and have fulfilled over 3000+ orders!

To read more about their journey, click here.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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I have this habit of looking at food pictures when a sudden wave of cravings hits me. This often happens late at night when I can do nothing to get over the self-induced hunger pangs.

As I scroll through Instagram, I come across a picture of perfectly cooked paper-thin masala dosas, with a side of coconut chutney and sambar, with onions garnished on the top.

Upon further inspection (and after having worn my glasses), I see that the food has been moulded from clay in miniature form! The paint and the textures of each of the components on the miniature plate are so realistic.

These food miniatures are created by Chennai-based mother-daughter duo Sudha and Neha Chandranarayan. They have created over 100+ designs.

Two years ago, when Neha was celebrating her eighteenth birthday, her mum decided to give her a dosa miniature made from clay. Neha was excited and showed off the beautiful artwork to her friends.

Since then, Neha’s friends requested similar designs and Sudha happily made clay miniatures of maggi, pani puri, vada pav, and pav bhaji, either as fridge magnets or key chains. The recipients would be ecstatic on receiving them.

“My mother has been working with clay art for about 15 years and is a self-taught miniaturist. Seeing the response from family and friends, I asked her if we could make our miniatures accessible to others beyond our close circle,” smiles the 20-year-old Computer Science student.

Thus, in February this year, the duo started selling their clay food miniatures under ‘CN Arts Miniatures’ through their website. Depending on the dishes, the sizes are between 3 and 11 cm.

Now, they get close to 150 orders a month from across the country and even abroad to Singapore, Malaysia, and the US!

An artist at heart and homemaker by choice

“Since I was a child, I have loved dabbling in art. I would paint, sculpt, do crafts; it was my source of joy,” says 50-year-old Sudha. She nurtured this talent in Neha as well.

Fifteen years ago, when the family lived in Mumbai, Sudha pursued a short course in clay art.

“I made jewellery, life-sized flowers, bonsai, and succulents using clay and decorated our house with these pieces or gifted them,” says Sudha.

In 2013, after the family moved to Chennai, Sudha set up a small workshop in their house. Whatever artistic skills she had learnt over the years, it was time to share it with others.

Hence, in 2015, she started conducting classes for people between the ages of 18 to 80. This year, on Neha’s insistence, she decided to reinvent herself as an entrepreneur.

Making of the food miniatures

Because of the intricate detail in the miniatures, each component takes a significant amount of time.

“We use air-dry natural clay which is eco-friendly as compared to polymer clay which contains PVC and is manufactured artificially,” states Sudha.

The duo makes each of the components separately and fixes them together with glue. After this, the artwork is painted, coated with a sealant, and left to dry.

“We make every component — from the vegetables to the rice grains and even the mustard seeds — on our own,” emphasises Neha.

And being artists along with foodies, perfection is key for the mother-daughter duo. A masala dosa, for example, takes about a day where the clay needs to be dried and painted. But, recreating thalis from Northern and Southern parts of the country, which contain almost 15 dishes, takes nearly three days, with about six hours of work each day. The final products are accordingly priced between Rs 400 and Rs 1,500.

Combining food and art to deliver happiness

Making realistic food miniatures is more difficult than it appears. Getting the shape, colour, and texture right is the biggest challenge, informs Neha. And, since each of these pieces is handmade, they can only accept limited orders a month.

“Sometimes, people approach us with large orders for custom miniatures and want them to be delivered quickly. It is difficult for us to fulfil these requests but we push ourselves to complete the orders with perfection,” says Neha.

Their hard work and determination landed them some large orders from overseas! “We got an order of 100 miniature dosa fridge magnets from the US. The clients were Indians who were throwing a housewarming party. They were happy with the final products,” says Sudha.

Sudha’s workshops are quite popular. Kamala Venkatesan, a homemaker, is a regular participant, attending six workshops. An avid craftsperson, Kamala uses fabric to make dolls for friends and family.

She first learnt about Sudha on a Facebook group of doll enthusiasts. “Sudha taught me how to mould clay into shapes of fruits, vegetables, snacks, and sweets. She also patiently taught us each step of the process. The workshop was such a gratifying experience and I look forward to attending more of these when the circumstances improve,” says the 49-year-old.

Now, the mother-daughter duo continues to practice and perfect their artwork. They also want to experiment with dishes from different cuisines.

“Crafting is my life. Not a single day goes without creating something. Since food is something that can bring joy, we are giving people pieces that they can cherish. This makes us feel like a part of their celebrations,” says Sudha, signing off.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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They say, ‘Grandma knows best’ and Delhi-based entrepreneur Noor Arora couldn’t agree more. Her family members had been going back to her great grandmother’s (Amma Ji) home remedies for years.

Anytime someone had any skin or hair issues, it was instinctive to refer to Amma Ji’s notes. More so because Amma Ji was a naturopath who had travelled across the country learning about natural remedies from experts.

“I had come back to Delhi after finishing my studies in the US. But the pollution and humidity made my skin break out. This was when I referred to Amma Ji’s diaries for skin remedies. I made a concentrate of cloves and a few other ingredients and applied it on my skin. Within hours, I could see my skin improving,” recalls the 28-year-old.

Natural, Plant-based, and Vegan

With her mother, Geeti Arora, and her maternal aunt, Mani Khurana, Noor used Amma Ji’s nuskhe (remedies) for years. The trio began to discuss how these natural remedies were effective but seldom available in the market. At the same time, their friends and relatives often requested them to make small batches after seeing the brilliant results.

“Slowly, the batches got bigger. And once we devised a way to preserve our concentrates naturally, the next step was making it available for everyone,” smiles Noor.

This led to the birth of First Water Solutions, a herbal skincare brand that uses 100 per cent natural and plant-based ingredients. The products are also not tested on animals, making them vegan.

Founded on 5 August 2017, the natural skincare brand is free from parabens and formaldehyde and also stays away from ingredients like alcohol, petroleum, and silicone which are generally not considered carcinogenic. Noor goes on to explain that just because some ingredients are not considered bad for your skin, they are not necessarily good for you.

“Silicones used in a lot of skincare products tend to make your skin feel smooth. But, they are difficult to wash off from your face. This results in microbes and other germs getting lodged between layers of application, leading to skin breakouts,” explains Noor.

First Water Solutions has about 56 skincare, haircare, and personal care products made from 128+ natural ingredients, sourced from over 100 farmers across the country. Currently, they have a registered customer base of over 30,000, which includes buyers from Bhutan and Brazil!

Discovering Amma Ji’s Diaries

Noor graduated in 2014 with a degree in industrial design from the Parson School of Design from New York. Incorporating sustainability in her designs was a major theme for her, and she even received a Graduate Award for her eco-friendly practices.

Once she returned to Delhi in 2014, she began freelancing on different projects related to art and painting. Her artwork focused on ecology and showcased endangered flora and fauna.

During this phase, she went back to Amma Ji’s diaries.

“After Amma Ji passed away in 2007 at the age of 97, we discovered hundreds of diaries; she was an avid journaler. We noticed that she wrote different remedies in bits and pieces in all her journals. I was only 15 at the time, but I was so fascinated,” recalls Noor.

In 2009, Nani (Amma Ji’s daughter) was diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, it was still at an early stage, and with radiation therapy, she recovered slowly and steadily. However, the radiation took a toll on her skin, and she developed scars and skin patches.

“Nani was already feeling low, and naturally missed her mother [Amma Ji]. To help her feel better and feel close to Amma Ji, we went through the diaries again. Surprisingly, we discovered this remedy that was specifically for pigmentation and decided to try it on Nani,” recalls Noor.

It was a paste of mulberry juice mixed in crushed cucumber seeds, hibiscus and lotus flowers. This paste was applied on Nani’s skin, which showed improvement within days. This instance stayed with Noor, Geeti, and Mani until they finally decided to start First Water Solutions.

Geeti was helping manage the family business of ceramic tiles. Aunt Mani on the other hand was head of Human Resources at the British High Commission, who quit her job in 2009 to start her own HR consulting firm. Later, Mani discontinued the firm when the trio decided to start First Water solutions. Although Noor continues to take on projects as an artist even now, she also works on developing First Water Solutions as a brand.

Formulating concoctions in the kitchen!

From making the concentrates to packing them, the trio handle all operations of their skincare brand.

All their ingredients are organic and sourced from farmers’ collectives. For example, the coconut oil is from Kerala, the saffron and cinnamon from Kashmir, coffee from West Bengal, roses from the Western Ghats, while hibiscus, jasmine and chamomile are grown at home.

The formulations are available in the form of concentrates or oils, where they press the juices out of the ingredients and mix them with water or oil-based carriers. Some best selling products are the Pure 21 serum and Pure 21 oil for skin. As the name goes, these products are made from 21 ingredients like cinnamon, lotus, rose, saffron, melon seeds, cucumber seeds, among others.

Gradually, they went on to make anti-frizz hair serums and masks with heat-protectant properties. They also launched their range of solid perfumes, made from essential oils blended with a base of soy wax, castor oil, coconut oil, and shea butter. Further, they have body and face mists which are water-based.

Their hard work and dedication seem to have paid off as their clients love their products.

Delhi-based homemaker Vedika discovered their products even before they were officially launched. She heard from a mutual friend that First Water Solutions was looking for testers. At the time, the 52-year-old was looking for a natural solution for skin pigmentation and decided to try these products. She hasn’t stopped since.

“After trying their samples, I could see a visible difference, as my skin started clearing up. I love the serum because it is light on the skin and does not feel sticky or oily. Even my daughter’s acne has cleared up!” says the happy customer.

Another customer, Gurugram-based Latika Thukral, discovered the products at a Diwali Mela over a year ago and was impressed that they were made from their grandmother’s home remedies.

“I really like their skin serum and night oil. Since I spend a lot of time in the sun, the serum gives my skin good protection. I have even gifted these to my friends,” says the 54-year-old, who works in the social sector.

Overcoming hurdles and looking forward

As a small business that manages all aspects of the operations, the trio faces quite a few challenges. Most notable among these is inaccessibility to right packaging.

“We know that our products are amazing, and hence, we also want them to be presented well, but the packaging options available are horrible. Either the glass bottles leak or the plastic packaging is low-grade imports from China,” informs Noor.

And that’s not all. Sometimes vendors are not ready to accept small orders, especially those who sell glass packaging.

“Currently, we are still a small business. We neither have the capital nor the space to store so many bottles. So, this is quite challenging for us,” she explains.

As a natural brand, they try not to use plastic at all, but due to constrictions in terms of what is available, they end up using a few plastic bottles. However, as a conscious brand, they take full responsibility for managing plastic and encourage their customers to recycle through offers.

“We have a scheme where customers can send the bottles to us after using the product. We recycle the bottles and offer them a discount on their next purchase or a free product,” informs Noor.

Moreover, their plastic bottles are of good quality, encouraging customers to reuse them as well.

Learning from their experiences, Noor offers a few words of advice for other small businesses.

“Be innovative and think out of the box. If you hit a roadblock, find a detour but remember that you have to persevere. You will succeed only when you refuse to give up. Imagination, ingenuity, and integrity are three factors that will always work in your favour. Always be ethical in what you do, as it shows in your offerings,” she says.

Now, there are a lot of plans in process for the small venture. Noor informs that currently, they are only selling in their flagship store in Delhi, through other e-commerce channels, and social media platforms like Facebook, but will soon launch their website, which will also have Amma Ji’s recipes. Customers can then choose from concentrates of individual ingredients and make their formulations. At the same time, they are experimenting with all-natural make-up.

“Our motive had always been to create awareness about the benefits of using natural products. Chemical-based products are not just bad for one’s skin but are also detrimental to the environment. We have always been inspired by Amma Ji, who was a visionary in our family. This brand has been born in a matriarchal setting which has empowered so many other women, including those who use our products. In the future, we want to use this platform to build a community of women-led businesses to push these values forward,” says Noor.

Rapid-fire:
*An entrepreneur you admire.
Ans: Vrinda Gupta, director at Estoot, a digital marketing firm

*New tech that can transform the future of small businesses
Ans: Automation of supply chain

*One value that can help small businesses thrive
Ans: Integrity and ingenuity

*Your favourite book
Ans: 1001 Fairy Tales, a Reader’s Digest edition published in 1851

*In my free time I ____…
Ans: read, watch documentaries, and spend time with our dog Fifi

* Before this interview I was ____…
Ans: on a call with the website team

* A message for your past self about small businesses
Ans: Relax a little and stay calm

*Something they don’t teach in college but is important to run a business
Ans: finances, customer relations, and ground realities

*Best advice you ever got is to ____…
Ans: Look at any thoughts and ideas but with different perspectives and only then you can come up with a tangible result.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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“I was in my teens when I learnt how to drive a car, and I loved every second of being behind the wheel. So, when the time came to choose a line of work, it was easy — I transformed my passion for driving into a profession,” begins 27-year-old Vidya Shelke, who used to work as a cab driver in Mumbai, for prominent cab-aggregators.

Her work was a source of constant joy to her. But, things went south when the COVID-19 lockdown was announced. Like many others in the country, Vidya too, lost her job.

“It was half the source of the total household income that was largely spent on the children. It was quite a hit for us, but I was not ready to back down,” shares Vidya who then decided to turn this adversity into an opportunity by helping people, who were stranded due to the lockdown, reach their homes safely. She started this service on March 28, and has helped almost 200 people so far.

From Adversity to Opportunity

Vidya lives in Mulund, a suburb in Mumbai, with her husband Anil, and two children.

“Anil runs a small business of transporting goods. He works very hard but supporting the entire family single-handedly is a challenge in this city, and I wanted to help, somehow. So, I started as an autorickshaw driver. However, continuing in that job was quite a problem especially with regards to security and so when I got the opportunity to drive at a prominent taxi-service, I decided to shift. Since then, things were great as we were able to manage our daily expenses while providing a good education to our children,” shares Vidya, whose kids study in a boarding school in Shirdi, Maharashtra.

But, after the centre’s decision to impose nationwide lockdown on 24 March, Vidya was scared. “I wondered about the future of my kids. How would I provide for them without a job?,” she mentions.

After a lot of thinking, Vidya came up with a novel idea of providing cab service to aid those who were stranded or stuck amid the lockdown situation.

“With the train and bus services shutting down, many were struggling to travel back to their homes. I realised the gravity of the situation and decided to do something about it. My husband already had a car that I was using when on the job, so I took it out, shot a video message announcing my services to those who needed it, and circulated it on social media,” she says.

In a matter of 10 minutes after uploading the video, Vidya began to get calls for pickups. From senior citizens, pregnant women to families from migrant labourers, the cab driver helped them all, and drove to the farthest corners of Maharashtra, to get them home.

When asked about how she managed to do this in a scenario where several cities and districts had sealed their borders, she mentions that most of her customers were emergency cases and she tried her best to find proper permissions before transporting them. And in cases, where she couldn’t, she would politely refuse.

“I am deeply grateful to Vidya for helping out when there was no option available. My wife and I would be stuck in Mumbai if it wasn’t for her. She not only dropped us to our village in Jalna, but also helped make the e-passes. Additionally, she did all of this while also following all the safety protocols,” mentions Sunil Sadam, who was working as a daily wage worker in Mumbai.

Adhering to the safety guidelines, Vidya has made it mandatory to wear masks inside the cab and carried a bottle of sanitizer and extra masks for those who did not have them. Also, she would only take two passengers, except children, in the back seat of her car. No one was allowed to sit in the front seat, owing to the norms of social distancing.

A Cab Driver Who Lent A Helping Hand

Vidya charges only Rs 12 per km, one way for the journey, and also provides a return journey, if required, for free. She has also helped arrange for e-passes for her passengers.

Having ferried so many people in the last few months, she has probably had her share of memorable journeys. Recounting one, she says, “There was a pregnant lady who approached me for a 160-km-long ride back home to Junnar. She was alone and did not have enough money to afford the travel, but was in a critical state, awaiting delivery any day. The municipal hospital had turned her away due to lack of vacancy, and she couldn’t afford any other hospital. So I managed to quickly make her e-pass and started the journey. We were only some 10 kilometers away from her house, when the authorities at the checkpost denied entry to her, despite having all the documents right. Thanks to the help of another samaritan, a truck driver transporting agricultural goods, I managed to board and send her home after taking extraordinary measures. That is one incident I can never forget.”

This sense of responsibility and the courage to help the needy even in dire situations, makes Vidya, and people like her, the true heroes of humanity, who go the extra mile to make the lives of others better.

“We can truly overcome such adversity only as a community.By offering my services, I was being a responsible citizen and doing my duty, as well as earning some money,” she concludes,

You can support Vidya or reach out for help, by getting in touch with her at: 79000 71050 (WhatsApp)

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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“Despite being a tea-drinking nation not many of us know tea,” claims Delhi-based Anamika Singh, a tea expert and founder of Anandini Himalaya Tea, a company that brews organic tea blends and infusions.

“We know that Assam and Darjeeling are two places from where our tea comes, but do you know the estates? Do you know the person behind the tea you drink? I wanted to take tea to people in a way that they would understand and appreciate,” she tells The Better India.

Anamika worked with her father, in their family estate Manjhee Valley Tea Estate in Dharamsala and has spent close to three decades working in the tea industry. To change people’s view of tea and introduce exotic blends in the Indian tea industry, she launched her own enterprise seven years ago.

“I started with seven varieties of brews — with various kinds of flowers and herbs from the mountains, the tea from our own family estate in Dharamsala,” informs the master-blender.

Today, Anandini offers more than 150 infusions and brews and works with more than 170 farmers and their families across India to grow the ingredients that she requires to make blends for her infusions.

“I have been a tea-taster since birth”

Born in Darjeeling, where her father Abhai Singh was based as a tea manufacturer with over 51 years of experience in the tea industry, Anamika grew up with a strong understanding and appreciation for tea.

“When I was to join college, my father gave me two choices — either I go ahead and attend a regular college or I join the tea business, shadow my father and learn on the job. There was no thinking what I needed to do — the choice was clear,” she says.

She recollects how most of their conversation would revolve around tea — techniques, new trends, markets etc. “So much so that I would get fed up and wonder if and when we would ever have conversations about other things. Little did I realise then that I would be doing exactly the same thing when I grew up,” she laughs.

Working with Tea Blends

Anamika recollects how her day would begin at 4.00 a.m. with a trip to the factory with her father. “It was amazing and demanding all at once. I maintained a little notebook during those initial training days and even now flip through it,” she says. She also met tea farmers in the course of her work on the estate and built a network of suppliers and other stakeholders.

While working at the estate, she enrolled for a degree in Economic Honours as well. “I am very happy I did what I did — these learnings are for life. It’s what has brought me this far,” she shares. “But through it all, tea has always ruled my heart. So while the world knew of Himalayan Tulsi and mint teas, no one was experimenting with lavender and chamomile, I loved working with these blends,” she says.

For two years Anamika took on every single role within the company — she took orders, blend, packed and delivered the tea and worked on marketing and social media. The efforts paid off as she now has a steady clientele. In 2015, her brother, Kunal Singh, joined her and things became easier from then on.

“When it’s your baby you just give it your best, and I did. Having Kunal join me just gave me more strength,” she says.

Anandini delivers pan-India and has a tea room in Delhi and tie-ups with boutique hotels across the country.

How Well do you Know your Tea?

One of Anandini’s USP is their desire to bridge the gap between the consumer and the manufacturer. “So far it’s been sort of a catch 22 situation – the manufacturer produces what they believe the consumer wants, and therefore the consumer buys what is available. With Anandini we attempted to change that.”

Anamika finds it immensely challenging and creatively satisfying to make a special brew for her customers. “We all have that one favourite memory that is triggered by smell, taste, or even texture. In having very deep conversations with the client, I understand these nuances and then make an infusion that captures all this.”

It could take a few hours or a few days, these specially curated blends depend on how she connects with the client. “We do not use artificial flavours or oils. The flowers, herbs, and spices we use are largely sourced from India, with the exception of Rooibos and Yerba Mate.”

Jayanti Pandey, a travel experience curator based in Gurugram, says, “We often get Firdaus from Anandini and also one infused with rose and chamomile. I have also attended two workshops that Anamika conducted. She explained about how to brew tea correctly and how to pair tea with cheese. I still follow those tips.”

“At Anandini, we give great emphasis on supporting the farmers who grow organic and natural ingredients for us. We work closely with the farmers and know what goes into what we are putting out there,” she informs.

As for the price range, a packet of 75 grams of blended tea would cost you Rs 275 and will give you about 35 cups of tea. It goes upto Rs 1,100 for 75 gms of hand-rolled tea.

“What makes our blends slightly more expensive are the ingredients we add as well as the kind of tea that we use to create the infusions,” she informs.

How to Make that Perfect Cup of Tea

“Brewing your cup of tea is an art and a science,” says Anamika.

• You switch off the gas at 95 degrees C, or when you see the water bubbles appear on the side of the pan.
• To make one cup of tea, you will need one teaspoon of tea to 1 mug of water (200 ml).
• Add tea to a tea-pot, and water over it and let it infuse for four to five minutes depending on the tea that you are using.

“The trick is to measure everything you use to brew the tea. Follow this rule strictly and you will always get the perfect cup,” says Anamika.

The bestsellers at Anandini include a blend called First Flush infused with lavender flowers and lemongrass, which is a very versatile tea and the peaty, brisk Tea called Pinewood smoked tea which has a sweet after taste.

Firdaus which translates to heaven in Urdu is another favourite of many. It is a classic Green Tea from the estate infused with saffron, marigold flowers, cockscomb, and cardamom.

She faced many challenges in the beginning, including finding farmers who practised organic farming and doing all the work related to her business on her own.

When Anamika began her career almost three decades ago, it was a path less tread. With dedication, hard work and passion for the fragrant brew, this tea connoisseur has established a brand that has loyal admirers who are also its ambassadors.

If you wish to place an order or better still get your own personalised infusion made, reach out to Anamika and her team here.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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This article has been sponsored by Britannia

Growing up in Tamil Nadu in the 1980s, Sumathi R was a stellar student throughout school and college. She always dreamt of giving back to society through her own eye care clinic and persisted in obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Optometry. Her focus and diligence eventually led to her becoming a scholar in her respective field, which she then followed up with an MBA degree in Hospital Management.

However, with marriage and motherhood, Sumathi realised that her family needed her undivided attention. After her second child was born, she quit her job to look after the children and the household. However, deep inside her heart, she always knew she wanted to get back to her first love — optometry. All she needed was the right opportunity at the right time!

Earlier this year, she came across an advertisement for Britannia Marie Gold’s My Startup 2.0 contest and decided to submit her business idea for an eye care clinic in her town, Kanchipuram and as fate would have it, she ended up winning the prize money of Rs 10 lakh!

Sumathi is not alone with such an ambition. According to a 2018 survey, 48% of Indian homemakers had entrepreneurial dreams when they were young. The survey also revealed that 1 in 4 housewives try starting up their own businesses but often give up due to lack of support, financial difficulties, lack of confidence, or household responsibilities.

This initiative by Marie Gold wants to address this issue and propel homemakers to become homepreneurs. A homemaker is the nerve-centre of the family, the CEO of the house who ensures the daily smooth running of the home. She also has ambitions but they often take a backseat as the mountain of responsibilities stare at her every day.

‘My Startup Contest’ helps to fuel the ambitions of such homemakers by giving them financial support and functional training. A majority of winners from season 1 have already begun their entrepreneurial journey in various parts of the country. This year, in the second season, the top 10 homemakers won Rs 10 lakh each whereas the top 10,000 won customized online skill development programmes by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). On 29 and 30 June, the top 50 finalists presented their ideas to a jury in a virtual event after which the top 10 winners were announced.

Be it Sumathi, or Elakshi Phukan from Assam who wants to begin her own bakery and catering business, or Zarina MV from Telangana who plans to create linen wear for kids — these women and their inspiring stories are proof of the fact that nothing is beyond their reach. The My Startup 2.0 contest has given them a much-needed boost in making their dreams come true. #kyunkibahutkuchhaikarna.

Have a look at their inspiring journey:

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“No one can be sure of what the future will be,” is how the new trailer of BBC One series adaptation A Suitable Boy, begins.

Set in newly independent India, the six-part series is an adaptation of Vikram Seth’s 1349-page-long tome of the same name. It seamlessly traces the journeys of four families amid the backdrop of socio-political tensions that were bubbling prior to the first national election in Independent India (1952).

It is also a parallel story of a spirited university student Lata (played by Tanya Maniktala) who much like the newly independent nation, is navigating through the socio-political ridges and contours to carve her own destiny.

Here are five reasons why Mira Nair’s adaptation is a must watch:

1. The dream combo: Andrew Davies and Mira Nair

Renowned Welsh screenplay writer, Andrew Davies is the man behind the famous 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Mira Nair, on the other hand, is an Academy Award nominated Indian-American filmmaker famed for her work in gems like The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay. And, together they bring a promise of visual poetry on screen.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” is the first line of Pride and Prejudice, which reflects the narrative of marriage and society relevant in both 17th century England and 20th century India (in A Suitable Boy). How the duo skillfully bring it together is something fans of the book would love to watch.

2. Inspiration from Merchant of Venice

What makes A Suitable Boy, an absolute enriching read is its subtle undertone of influences and parallels left for the readers to draw and compare. Sharing one such trivia of inspiration Seth said in an interview, “I thought it was basically just Lata’s story, three suitors, rather like the bearers of the gold, silver and lead caskets in The Merchant of Venice. Out of this I felt something would emerge and it would be a quiet and intimate story. I had no idea it was going to grow to be this monster.”

The author’s book of epic proportions, for the past 27 years, has maintained its indelible mark in the minds of its readers. Hopefully, the series, with a talented cast including Tabu as Saeeda Bai, Ishaan Khatter (Beyond the Clouds, Dhadak) as Maan Kapoor, and Tanya Maniktala in the central role of Lata Mehra, will truly enthral viewers.

3. Treat for littérateurs, especially fans of Jane Austen

As you read about the four families — Mehras, Kapoors, Khans and Chatterjis — you cannot help but remember Austen’s almost mocking portrayal of the idiosyncrasies of the Bennets, Bingleys, Dacrys and Lucases. To watch these heavily fleshed out characters from Seth’s universe come alive in front of your eyes is quite the treat for littérateurs across the world.

Exploring and chronicling concepts of family, relationships, religion, caste, class and identity amid all of it was an epic task Seth had accomplished exceptionally well in his book. Watching Nair and Davies translate these 1300-odd pages on screen is quite a feat the literary audience is eagerly awaiting.

4. A big fat Indian family drama, with socio-political undertones

A love story simmering inside a cauldron of drama, action, conflict and tragedy, the TV series, A Suitable Boy has all the needed elements of a good conventional family drama. However, despite the non-fiction garb, its keen emphasis on peeling the multilayered dynamics of Indian society and culture to reveal a recurring story of truth, sans the masala, is what makes it a possible antidote for the conventional saas-bahu serials.

5. A promise of intricate nostalgia

One of Mira Nair’s many talents is to paint nostalgia dipped in visually magnificent scenes. Be it the glimpses of Taj Mahal, old havelis and busy streets straight after the partition and independence of India, much like Seth’s book, Nair’s creation holds the promise of retro nostalgia that period cinema or series are well-known for.

For history buffs or period drama enthusiasts, this series is to lookout for.

A Suitable Boy will premiere on BBC One at 9 PM on July 26, and is set to be released on Netflix later this year.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Usha Rani Naik was born with an extraordinary spark and determination. This spirit followed her throughout as she refused to flinch or fade even in the face of continuous adversity or poverty. Fighting social taboos and the patriarchal society of the Bathudi tribe, she rose to become a force to reckon with, inspiring hundreds of others to follow suit.

Speaking to The Better India, the feisty woman says, “Every time life tries to bring me down and says that I cannot do something, it makes me more determined to follow through. People do so many things without permission, so why should I need someone’s consent to find my independence and follow my dreams?”

The resident of a small village on the fringes of the Eastern Ghats, Gujaldihi, in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, this primary school dropout supports a family of four. Through her eco-friendly handicrafts company that uses sabai grass, she has empowered more than 200 women.

Weaving a better future

“I moved to Gujaldihi after getting married at 22. People would mock me about that, but the delay was because I did not want my father to bear all the expense of a marriage. Instead, I took a loan and shared the burden. I was hoping that things would change after getting married and coming to this new home. But, I was wrong, as the financial problems followed me,” says Usha.

Unlike many in her community, she believed that financial independence had nothing to do with gender and that women should be empowered to support themselves and their families. It was this idea that led her to initiate self-help groups (SHGs) in her village back in 2001.

“It was no secret that we were struggling financially every single day, as were many families in the village. Be it any personal need or running the household, women would always have to ask for money. I was tired of that and wanted to be independent enough to do it myself. So I started the SHG,” adds the 40-year-old trailblazer.

She began her entrepreneurial journey with ten women. Today, after years of hard work, her team runs a successful business of sabai grass handicrafts in the heart of Odisha. It is called Mayurbhanj Sabai Farmers Producer Company Ltd.

But the road to success was not easy.

Speaking about her journey, she shares, “We spent the first few years doing several things for additional income, like poultry, rearing goats, and even cultivating mushrooms. But nothing seemed to work. So, around 2011, we decided to take a loan of Rs 20,000 and try honey farming. Unfortunately, even that tanked and irked the men of the community, especially the elders, who began to voice their dissenting opinions. That’s when our block supervisor, Jyotsna Rani Das, suggested we look to our roots and reinvent our traditional art of sabai rope-making into a prospective business.”

With her help and assistance from the District Industrial Centre (DIC), they set up a six-month training programme where 60 women of the village received training in their traditional art of making a variety of consumer products like coasters, baskets, mats, stands, shoes, etc.

Sabai grass, also known as Bombei, in the native Bathudi dialect, is a tall elephant grass native to Africa; it is commonly known as Napier or Uganda grass. This specimen was introduced in eastern parts of India back in the 18th century. With time, rural and tribal communities embraced it in their culture and tradition by using it for rope-making.

Usha, like many women of the region, grew up helping her mother and grandmother in weaving these ropes. She tells me she was 10-years-old when she began to weave a full-length rope all by herself.

This idea to use a traditional and well-versed art form to create useful handicrafts soon gained momentum and more women joined in the venture. However, success was still a faraway goal.

Rising from the dust

“When the first opportunity to showcase our work in an exhibition surfaced, we worked day and night to meet the requirement. DIC then took us to Cuttack, and we sold products worth Rs 20,000. We were happy, but soon after the sale, we got feedback that they were not satisfied with the quality and wanted to return the items. It was the second big blow for me, and this time, the elders of the community came down hard on us. Many even began blaming me for swindling the money. In a village-wide meeting set up by the heads, they began to question my character and said that I was misleading women out of their houses onto a dark path. Even my husband believed them at the time,” she shares.

Bruised by the accusations and buried under a debt of Rs 40,000, she decided to take a break. But, destiny somehow was not ready to see her give up just yet, and help from ORMAS (Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society) arrived. They encouraged her to continue and convinced the villagers to support her.

By 2013, Usha and her producer group not only managed to pay off the debt but also earned significant profits.

In the following years, over 200 women were trained by 60 women working as core team members, with Usha as one of them. And they continued their successful venture while paying off loans worth lakhs of rupees.

Last year alone, they sold products worth Rs 30 lakh and gained profits worth Rs 19 lakh.

Looking at their success and the need for a stable marketing outlet, the state Government of Odisha earmarked a dedicated section in the two handicraft outlets of “Mayurashilpa” in the district headquarters town of Baripada and the state capital city of Bhubaneswar.

In 2019, the company received a standalone order of making products worth Rs 25 lakh to be delivered in three months — the highest single order so far. To meet the need, Usha made six more Producer Groups in neighbouring villages, training hundreds of women in producing their line of products.

“Today, women from all backgrounds and other villages, including those who have B.Ed degrees or more, come to us to join our work,” adds Usha.

She also single-handedly supports the education of her 16-year-old son, with a monthly income of Rs 20,000. “I even bought him a bike recently, with my hard-earned money,” she adds, proudly.

Her grit and success have travelled across several parts of the state, attracting a filmmaker Shankhajeet De to create a film about their journey.

“She is a remarkable woman with an infinite source of courage and inspiration. She not only convinced her family but the entire village as well as those beyond, of the power of determination. Today, people who once mocked and accused her come to her for help. She has not only helped her own family come out of poverty but has also empowered many more. And, even in the COVID-19 situation, she has continued to be a rock, anchoring the community and her company to stability,” says Shankhajeet.

Watch the film here:

He adds that although the pandemic took a toll on their earnings this year, post the ‘Unlock’ declaration by the government, these women restarted their production, taking all the safety precautions, aiming to garner sales through online platforms.

Extend your support to this band of bold women by ordering handmade eco-friendly products on their website.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Images courtesy: Shankhajeet De

This article has been published in partnership with UNDP India

Recent media stories talk of how Japan is falling short of its pledge for women to hold 30 per cent of the nation’s leadership positions by this year. When this pledge was announced in 2011 with a fancy slogan to “build a society where women shine”, the said rate was 10.6%. Today it has increased only up to 15%. As a Japanese woman, this news has disappointed me but has not really surprised me. How can we have strong women representation in Government, private sector, and political positions, when we are still expecting girls and women to take up the traditional roles as caregivers?

Having lived and worked across several countries — Nepal, Maldives, Tajikistan, Yugoslavia, and now India — one thing remains common in these historically, geographically and culturally diverse countries: gender inequality. Through my work and own personal experiences, I have seen over and over that women’s empowerment cannot happen overnight. Women’s empowerment must be part of the government policies, workplace practices, social norms, education and parenting. It is a slow and long process.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further magnified the gender gaps. Increased burden of childcare, caring for elderly and domestic work are falling on women as the key caregiver. It is estimated that following the lockdown in April, four out of every ten women who were working last year, lost their jobs during the lockdown. Women’s participation in the Indian workforce is one of the lowest in the world with participation declining from 35 per cent in 2005 to 25.5 per cent today and the lockdown has pushed down the numbers even further.

For UNDP, empowering women and increasing their participation have always been a top priority. All our work on economic empowerment has a strong piece on confidence building, negotiation skills, leadership skills. Building confidence and negotiation skills go a long way in addressing gender discrimination and gender-based violence, which are often significant barriers to women’s participation in labour force and other decision-making processes.

Through the Disha Project — a collaboration between UNDP and IKEA Foundation, we have empowered one million women and created a cadre of mentors to strengthen women-led entrepreneurship. The psycho-social support provided as part of this project, includes not only the skills to start their own enterprise but also empowers them to negotiate and fight gender stereotypes at home and in the community.

We have been in touch with the women entrepreneurs we work with and have seen how economic impacts of COVID-19 are felt most egregiously by women and girls, especially those who are already economically disadvantaged or economically dependent on others. Thus, it is even more important now to strengthen the scope for local jobs and livelihood opportunities for women so that they can tide over any possible economic crisis.

While we are re-envisioning women’s livelihoods, we must realize that livelihoods cannot be seen in isolation. While we work closely with rural women across India, we witness the various challenges that stand between them and their economic independence — safety issues, lack of confidence to step out of homes, their overwhelming burdens as caregivers, mobility issues and social norms.

I strongly believe that it is possible to transform this reality. But women cannot do that alone.

We need more leaders, more corporations, and most importantly the men to step up and create opportunities to ensure that every girl, every woman gets an equal chance to realize and grow to their fullest potential. We need to work together to ensure that women are part of all decision-making processes that affect them or matter to them — in parliament, in panchayats, in schools, in community groups, in media and at home.

Women’s empowerment cannot happen overnight. It is a slow and long process — it starts with the family and the community, giving equal opportunities and confidence to girls to stand up for what is rightfully theirs.

Armed with a B.Tech degree in Computer Science, 34-year-old Asha Bineesh, a homemaker from Kakanad, Kerala became an entrepreneur four years ago with the launch of her successful YouTube channel Competitive Cracker, where she coaches aspirants for various competitive examinations.

What started with a handful of followers in 2016 has grown to accommodate more than 5,000 students and over 2.6 lakh online subscribers.

In conversation with The Better India, Asha explains how having started this online training platform with an initial investment of just Rs 30,000, the company clocked in a revenue of about Rs 1 Crore in FY 2019-20.

Using The Power of Youtube to Build An Audience

After graduating in 2006, Asha, like many of her college mates, also prepared for competitive examinations. “I cleared the bank exams and underwent training. It was during this period that I realised how there was a shortage of good coaching classes for these competitive exams,” she informs.

The idea stayed with her. The thought of doing something on her own was a constant presence in her mind due to the lack of quality coaching classes. In 2015, she started recording some lectures and put them up on YouTube.

“Initially, given my knowledge in computer science, I decided to try and put up coaching videos on Math and GK on YouTube. The first two videos barely had any views, but then it picked up, and people started appreciating the content,” she tells me.

Asha had started with only one laptop, a basic model smartphone along with an investment of Rs 30,000. “It was after the third video that I started receiving phone calls from potential students urging me to take classes for them,” she says.

This was the signal she was waiting for, and Asha rented a small place in Ernakulam to launch her coaching classes. “At first, there were only three students, but slowly by word-of-mouth, more students joined me,” she recollects. Competitive Cracker was thus born and has since grown to become a multi-channel learning platform — with contact classes, online materials and even a mobile app.

Shift to online teaching

Even before online learning was the norm, Asha decided to move her coaching classes to the online model to be able to reach more students. “When I started online, it wasn’t the preferred way of learning at all. That in itself brought with it some challenges, but I decided to give it a go nonetheless,” she says.

In the beginning, Asha and her friend, Mithu, conducted the classes. As the reach grew, more people started approaching Asha eager to teach and be a part of her teaching community. Currently, there are twenty-seven teachers in her team.

For a year after it’s launch, Asha was a one-woman-army taking care of everything from creating content for her Youtube Channel, making the videos, marketing, sales, and finances. Three years ago, Bineesh, [Asha’s husband] an MBA graduate, quit his job at Hindustan Life Care and decided to join Competitive Cracker full-time.

“It was my immense trust in Asha and the work that she was doing, which led me to quit my lucrative and steady corporate career,” says Bineesh. “I am very proud of her. She has managed it all exceptionally and to be able to lend my support and expertise to Competitive cracker makes me happy,” he adds.

Innovative teaching methods

Asha has not let the lockdown period deter her; instead, she turned this disadvantage into a learning experience for her students. In one Youtube video, Asha is busy in her kitchen, making lunch for her family. While cooking, she throws in bits and pieces of information that students appearing for competitive examinations must be ready with.

“Do you know what the acid present in tamarind is?” she asks as she stirs her rasam. “Tartaric acid,” she answers and then picks up the next ingredient which will go into the rasam. This goes on, and by the time she has made the rasam, students have learnt something new.

“There is something to learn in everything we see around us – one just needs to find the right questions to ask,” says Asha. She goes on, “I am passionate about cooking, learning and teaching, and this lockdown gave me a chance to merge them all,” she chuckles.

Deepu S (29), a resident of Kottayam, joined Asha’s coaching classes in 2016 and was amongst one of her early students. “What’s unique about these classes is how accessible Asha is. No matter what doubts I had, I could always call and get it cleared,” he says.

Having secured a rank of 1,141 in the Kerala Public Service Commission examination, Deepu is now waiting to get placed. “For those looking for coaching that is concise and focussed on clearing examinations, Asha’s classes are great,” he says. He also mentions that Asha’s tips and tricks for Maths are especially useful.

Cost of modules

The cost of the package varies depending on the module and the number of sessions one chooses. There are courses available from Rs 1,000 onwards, and some are also being offered for free. You can click here to access the entire list of courses available.

Asha and her team also maintain a blog where exam dates, syllabus, and other relevant information is updated frequently. Click here to access the same.

If you would like to reach out to Competitive Cracker, you could visit their website here, YouTube channel here, or e-mail them at competitivecracker12@gmail.com.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

A ruthless brick kiln owner, over 6,000 vulnerable labourers and one gusty teenage girl to the rescue — what sounds like a Bollywood movie has in fact turned out to be a reality. A tribal teenage girl from Odisha’s sharp instincts and courageous act has helped rescue over 6,000 labourers trapped in different brick kilns in Tamil Nadu.

Meet 19-year-old Manasi Bariha from Odisha’s Balangir district, trafficked by an agent to Tamil Nadu in lieu of cash incentives. Manasi’s father had taken an advance of Rs 28,000 to pay off debts incurred due to medical expenses of her late mother.

Unable to arrange for the repayment, Manasi, along with her father and 10-year old sister went to Tamil Nadu along with 355 other labourers from Balangir, Nuapada and Kalahandi districts in Odisha. The local agent took them to the GDM brick kiln in Pudhukuppam in Tiruvallur.

They were promised of good money, but after reaching the spot, the labourers realised they had been cheated. “We had to start work early in the morning around 4.30 am and continued till noon. Then, we were given a break of two hours and again resumed work which continued till late in the evening,” Manasi recalls.

What was most inhumane was the fact that the labourers were paid between Rs 250 and Rs 300 every week or even less, which accounts to less than Rs 30 per day. “My father and I would get Rs 150 each every Sunday. That was all money we could earn,” she says.
Though disturbed by the conditions, the labourers continued to work for six months in order to earn money. However, once the lockdown began they started to get restless and expressed their desire to return home.

The kiln owner promised to let them go, only if they completed the targeted number of bricks within two weeks. Scared of the unknown disease COVID-19 and hoping to return to their villages soon, the labourers did as they were told by the owner. “All of us toiled day and night to complete the bricks so that we could leave for our homes. Our relatives were pressuring us to return and we were scared of the disease as well,” she says.

However, after the completion of the work, the owner retracted on his words and refused to let the workers go. Instead, he continued to force the labourers to continue working throughout the lockdown. When the labourers staged a protest in May, the owner along with some of his men thrashed them mercilessly — sparing neither the women nor the children.“They lost their cool when they saw some of the workers packing their luggage to return home. He called around 50 men who started beating all of us with lathis. Several workers were injured and were bleeding profusely and needed urgent medical attention. My sister was also beaten up,” says Manasi.

Manasi knew it was time for her to act. She somehow managed to slip into a safe place and made frantic calls for help.
“I called up some people in my village who had a media connection. They asked me to send photos and videos of the incident so that they could make them viral and draw the attention of the authorities. We were successful and the police arrived to rescue us.”
With the help of the Tiruvallur district administration and legal authorities, the labourers were rescued and provided with timely medical aid.

While an FIR was lodged against the kiln, the owner of the kiln is absconding. On further probing, the authorities found out that there were 30 other brick kilns where labourers were being forced to work. All of them were ferried to the railway station and sent to their respective states under police guidance.

While Manasi’s act of courage has saved the lives of over 600 labourers, the issue of trafficking workers still continues. In fact, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation has turned grimmer for the workers. A study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research suggests 27 per cent of the households in Odisha have reported no income during the lockdown.

“Unorganised and migrant workers are the most vulnerable to trafficking which has clearly taken the shape of an organised crime now. With Covid-19 and the uncertainty surrounding it, it is likely that many labourers will be forced into debt for their survival triggering conditions of bondage and even wage-less labour,” says Neenu Thomas, Director (Odisha Projects), International Justice Mission.

Now, back in her village, Manasi still feels unsafe as her future is uncertain. “We managed to return from that place but our problems are far from over. We need to work in order to sustain ourselves. Now, we are working as daily labourers to be able to buy food. But, we need work,” she says.

(Edited by Sruthi Radhakrishan)

Hyderabad-based Lulu Behmanshah was barely a year old when she was abandoned on the railway tracks. A social worker brought her to an orphanage, with a bad injury that would eventually lead to locomotor disability. While the clouds parted for Lulu when a young couple adopted her and gave her a loving home, the journey ahead was not easy. At every step, an obstacle, mistreatment and threat of humiliation followed, so much so that after completing her Class 10, the young girl dropped out of school.

But, nothing could kill her hunger for learning, and a few years later a chance encounter with Meera Shenoy at a conference changed her life forever.

The founder of Youth4Jobs (Y4J), Meera had been helping thousands of youth like Lulu to upskill and find employment, so with her reference, she enrolled in a short-term training program at the Hyderabad Training Centre. Today, she is a successful professional at a leading business services provider company.

N Sunitha from Hirehal village, in AP’s Anantapur district, has a similar story.

“When I was young, my father, a daily wage labourer, had a paralytic attack and could not work anymore. He was the sole breadwinner of a family of 5. To make ends meet, my mother would work as a labourer but it was still not enough,” shares the 23-year-old who has a speech and hearing impairment, like her two siblings.

To make ends meet, her elder brother took up a daily wage job. But soon, a friend told him about the Youth4Jobs and he enrolled in basic training in soft skills, computer skills, communication and job-readiness orientation, after which he was placed at an HSBC bank. His success inspired Sunitha to follow in his footsteps.

“Initially, my parents were scared and worried for my safety. But, when my brother finally got a job and they saw how it had the potential to change someone’s life, they agreed,” says Sunitha, who did not miss even a single day of training and was one of the most motivated students in the batch.

Now working as an assistant cook at Sodexo (Google) Hyderabad, Sunitha is able to bear the medical expenses of her father, and also supports her younger sister’s education. Her unflinching dedication towards work even won her the Employee of the Month award within just six months of joining.

“I came to know that education is not the only criteria to get a good job. Good communication skills, personality, work ethics and the will to continuously learn, is what puts a candidate aside from the rest. The training and grooming at the Y4J centre transformed me into a better version of myself” adds Sunitha.

Stories like these abound at the Y4J, and makes it what it is today — a torchbearer of inclusivity in India, that has changed the lives of almost 20,000 people in the past 8 years.

Yet according to Meera, it is just a single drop in the ocean of real change.

Creating an Ocean of Change

In a news report from 2019, a recruitment platform Equiv.in shares how only 34 lakh of the 1.34 crore persons with disabilities of employable age have a job in India. That amounts to a rate of over 70% unemployment. The same graph is bleaker when it comes to rural areas.

Meera shares how a realisation on the similar lines back in 2012 sparked the motivation for change.

“I had been working in the upskilling sector for quite some time but it was in 2012 when the realisation of how our society ignores one of the largest populations of vulnerable individuals, persons with disabilities, dawned upon me. What’s worse was that almost 80% of the population of PWDs all across the world come from developing nations, with India being one of the prominent ones. Plus, due to social stigma, insensitivity, mistreatment and lack of accessibility and opportunities , a majority of PWDs in India fall into the vicious circle of poverty,” says Meera who started the organisation to help persons with disabilities from rural areas find dignified employment.

A majority of the students are from low-income backgrounds in rural areas with speech and hearing impairment, low vision, locomotor (physical or orthopaedic) disabilities and intellectual disability. Owing to that many of them had not completed their secondary and higher secondary education. A few had not even completed Class 10.

From Trichy to Guwahati, the upskilling and employability program of Youth4Jobs runs across 27 residential centres in 18 states, that annually train and place 3500 to 4000 students with disabilities, between the ages of 18 to 30 years. Be it vocational or finishing skills or even technical training, these students receive rigorous guidance followed by placements in various sectors like banking, ecommerce, IT as well as service sector.

“But whatever truly matters is always hard to accomplish. So, the first challenge was not just finding people to enrol but gaining their trust and giving them the confidence to dream. Most of them having suffered years of discrimination and mistreatment were quite conscious of their disability and not sure of their true potential. Even the people around them were most discouraging. Hence the first step was to mend this advocacy problem and change the mindset. Consequently, we launched Village Connect, an initiative where we would educate opinion leaders in the community, gather support of the government organisation, gram panchayats and NGOs to reach out to the villagers and empower the PWD population,” says Meera.

A successful stepping stone, Village Connect today has more than 5.7 million households across 9000 villages in its fold.

COVID-19 Brings Y4J Online

In the world constantly evolving its ways to a new normal amid the pandemic, Y4J is making sure that persons with disabilities are not left behind. To ensure this, they decided to reintroduce their training sessions online by tailoring the classes to fit the accessibility of their students.

“The pandemic took its toll on everyone, but it was especially worse for persons with disabilities. Although all our operations shut, we knew that we had to continue working at the bottom of the pyramid and help those who were at their most vulnerable,” says Meera who launched a new program called Youth4Jobs Online in May, as an effort to continue skills training despite the nationwide halt.

This program is meant to help the underemployed and undereducated community of PWDs in India knit a safety net of survival in a post COVID-19 world and the organisation made sure to spread the word through several social media platforms and organizations.

Once word was out in social media, the Y4J team began to receive calls from Bihar or Agartala, among others, but the challenge was to address the issues of low bandwidth and connectivity.

“Many of them weren’t so technologically savvy and connectivity in their area was also an issue. So we had to make sure that we created content that they could watch offline and yet manage to take attendance while helping them to log in with a more simplistic interface. So we began to use Facebook private groups, Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Hangout etc. to connect with them and share downloadable content. To assess the progress, we created simple Google forms with questions and paired them with video calls, one midway into the course and one at the end,” adds Meera.

With the tailored content and presentation, Y4J team consisting of a project executive, trainers and sign language interpreters started the 20-day 3-hour-long programme every morning and afternoon. This training, for individuals between the ages of 18 to 35 years, was focused on providing life skills, computer skills and basic English and skills for job-readiness orientation.

The regular classes are usually 8 hours a day, but they program designers reduced the time in the online classes due to the comparatively less attention span of the students on devices.

So far, a total of 1890 people have been trained under this program, and many of them are women.

“It’s interesting to see how despite several challenges and apprehensions, we managed to tap into this reservoir of curiosity. And we have seen a huge spike in enrollment of women especially. Earlier, due to several social and safety concerns, many girls or women would not come to our resource centres, but with it being shifted online, they can now learn from the safety of their homes,” says Meera.

Employment Matchmaking For People With Disabilities

Meera speaks about how, despite the economic ramifications of the lockdown, a good number of corrections in their network have come forward to show interest in hiring these candidates post lockdown.

Talking about the sensitisation drives prior to the hiring, Meera adds, “Over the years we have built a robust network of corporates. Our corporate connect team not only runs sensitization drives with the teams and managers and provides sign language training but also does accessibility audits and encourages employers to hire candidates in an array of roles.

With their training in job readiness orientation accompanied by role orientation and mock interviews, the team of trainers ensures their hands-on transition from the training to placement. Even during the final interviews, candidates with speech and hearing impairment are accompanied by interpreters and team members to guide them throughout the process. Plus, the founder adds how their work is not only to get them jobs but to ensure job satisfaction as well, and so a team from Y4J continues to take periodic follow-ups with the individuals and step in to resolve any work-related problems.

“In the post COVID-19 world we are planning to expand our placement horizon by exploring ideas of enterprise by helping them set up small businesses or micro enterprises. E-commerce is another important sector we are hoping to get more jobs from,” she adds.

But the biggest roadblock in these plans continues to be the access to computers and smart devices. As many candidates come from low-income backgrounds, they do not have smartphones, tablets or computers to continue their training online. Owing to this, despite a deluge of applications, Y4J had to make enrollments based on the access to devices, which compromises their goal for a last mile outreach.

While the organisation is planning to conduct a drive for donation of used or unused smartphones and computers, you can step forward to lend a helping hand.

To be the changemaker in this transformational journey towards accessibility, you can visit their website or contribute here.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Featured image: Meera Shenoy/ Facebook

Four weeks ago, when IAS officer Jitendra Kumar Soni took charge as the District Collector of Nagaur, Rajasthan, his first initiative was to help the rural people of the village access every part of the city with ease. To do that, he launched an initiative named Raasta Kholo Abhiyan which involved removing encroachments and land invasions.

Apart from clearing the encroached land, he also decided to name the new pathways after women-achievers in that area.

Raasta Kholo Abhiyan

“Once I was appointed as the District Collector, I realised that the local police stations had several complaints about pathways being closed, and cases of land encroachments. But nothing was being done about them. These areas do not have proper roads, it is land registered under the Revenue Department. Owing to this, many had to take roundabout routes to reach their destination,” he mentions.

The first Raasta Kholo Abhiyan drive was launched on July 31, and 38 pathways were cleared. He worked with Panchayat Samitis, and the local police officers in those areas to clear the pathways, and install the patikas — or stones — which had details about the road’s name, and when it was made.

Naming The Streets After Women

But, the officer believed that it is not enough to just clear the pathways. He wanted to set up a system to ensure that no one closes the pathway again. To do that, he decided to call them Vidya Gaurav Patikas and name them after women/girls in that village, who have achieved something in the field of education or sports.

“This was a small gesture of thanks to the women, and a sort of sentimental appeal to get people to follow the rules. So, we installed patikas that have information about the pathway on them. Apart from that, there is also a GPS tracking system in the stones, which will intimate the police officers if it is tampered with,” he says.

Divya Sharma, a resident of Kuchera in Nagaur, is a state-level hockey player, and this year she was also the topper of her school, the Kalpana Chawla International School, in the Class X board exams. Now, she has a pathway named after her.

“I did not know that the road was going to be named after me, but when I got a call that morning, I was so surprised and excited. I was invited to the inauguration of the new raasta, and was even honoured by the officials. I know that many people in the village do not allow their daughters to complete their education, but with initiatives like this, maybe their thinking will change,” says Divya.

The Raasta Kholo Abhiyan drive will be conducted regularly on Fridays, and three pathways will be identified, cleared, and named after an achiever, on that day. Jitendra plans to continue doing this until all the pending cases are cleared.

While roads are traditionally named after war heroes and historical figures, this small initiative will ignite young minds to achieve greater milestones.

Image courtesy: Jitendra Kumar Soni

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

To honour this nation’s Independence Day, we bring you the fascinating stories of #ForgottenHeroes of #IndianIndependence that were lost among the pages of history.

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”- Aruna Asaf Ali

Seventy-two years after India finally got its hard-won independence, the courage and contributions of many little known freedom fighters have faded away from public memory. Largely overlooked by writers and historians, these men and women laid the foundation of India’s freedom from the British.

One such unsung firebrand is the woman who historians often call the ‘Grand Old lady of Indian Independence’. Here’s fascinating the story of Aruna Asaf Ali.

Photo Source

Born on July 16, 1909, in Kalka, Aruna was the daughter of Upendranath Ganguly, a restaurant owner who had migrated from Barisal in modern Bangladesh to the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh).

Both Upendranath and his wife, Ambalika Devi, were ardent followers of the Brahmo Samaj (a monotheistic reformist movement that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance) and were fairly liberal. As such, Aruna had a childhood typical of the daughter of an upper-class Bengali Brahmo family.

As a student, Aruna did her schooling in Lahore’s Sacred Heart Convent and completed her college education from All Saints’ College in Nainital. After her graduation, she joined work as a teacher at Calcutta’s Gokhale Memorial School.

It was here that Aruna first met the man she would fall in love with and go on to marry, a progressive barrister named Asaf Ali.

Photo Source

In 1928, 19-year-old Aruna married him in Allahabad despite parental opposition on grounds of religion and age (he was a Muslim and her senior by 23 years).

In one of her numerous biographies, Aruna would later write, “My father was no more when Asaf and I married in September 1928. My paternal uncle Nagendranath Ganguly, a university professor who regarded himself as my guardian, said to relatives and friends that as far as he was concerned I was dead and he had performed my shraddh.” 

As Asaf Ali was a prominent member of the Indian National Congress (INC), this marriage brought his fiery young bride in touch with the political elite of the day. In fact, their wedding was attended by prominent nationalist leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajgopalachari and Maulana Azad.

Interestingly, Asaf Ali was the lawyer who defended Batukeshwar Dutt and Bhagat Singh in the Lahore Conspiracy Case (Bhagat Singh also fought his own case with the help of a legal adviser).

Unsurprisingly, Aruna was soon at the forefront of the freedom struggle. Two years after her marriage, she went to jail during the Salt Satyagraha. Threatened by her growing popularity, the colonial authorities refused to give bail to her and she remained in prison even after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 1931, when all political prisoners were released.

But this manoeuvre of the British Raj backfired badly, with every other women prisoner refusing release unless Aruna was freed. This was followed by a massive public outcry and personal intervention by Gandhi for her release. And so she was.

Photo Source

A year later, she was arrested again and imprisoned at the Tihar Jail, where she protested the indifferent treatment of political prisoners by launching a hunger strike.

Stung by the protests, the British moved Aruna to Ambala and subjected her to solitary confinement. But by then her relentless efforts had already borne fruits, resulting in an improvement of conditions in the Tihar Jail. She was released soon after.

In the years that followed, Aruna continued to contribute to the freedom struggle in countless ways. But it was only a decade later that she would achieve a milestone that would forever etch her name in the pages of history.

In 1942, the world was at war. On August 8, INC launched its full-blown ‘Quit India’ movement at the Bombay session. In a bid to pre-empt the success of the movement, the British responded to the declaration by arresting all its major leaders, including Gandhi and Nehru. As such, there was no one left to push the movement.

Knowing that this leadership vacuum could end the movement before it had even started, 33-year-old Aruna swiftly stepped in to preside over the remainder of the session. Undeterred by the country-wide crackdown against nationalist leaders, on August 9, she defiantly unfurled the flag of Indian Independence at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay.

Then, with a motley crew of INC workers, Aruna went underground. As the news of the flag hoisting spread like wildfire, spontaneous protest and hartals erupted across the city despite the absence of direct leadership.

Photo Source

Overnight, Aruna’s courage and slogan were on everyone’s lips, with her flag hoisting becoming the most striking visual of the Quit India movement. Thereafter, the British government posted a reward for her capture but she was successful in eluding the police.

During her time in hiding, Aruna used underground radio, pamphlets and magazines (such as Inquilab) to continue the struggle. She also came into close contact with socialism and its prominent leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia and Edatata Narayanan.

Aruna was still underground when Congress leaders came out of prison, disobeying even Gandhi’s request to surrender on account of her frailty and worsening health. In a rather affectionate, hand-written note (that was later duly framed and displayed in Aruna’s living room), the Mahatma wrote:

“I have been filled with admiration for your courage and heroism. You are reduced to a skeleton. Do come out and surrender yourself and win the prize offered for your arrest. Reserve the prize money for the Harijan [untouchables] cause.”

Soon after, she returned to active political life on Gandhi’s written behest in which he personally asked her to do so because ‘your mission has been fulfilled’. However, she soon moved from the Congress first to the resuscitated Socialist Party and later to the Communist Party of India.

After India finally won its hard-fought independence in 1947, she devoted her time to working for other social causes such as women empowerment and workers’ movements.

Photo Source

As a matter of fact,  between the 1950s and 1970s, Aruna, along with Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, represented the lineage and linkage of the women’s rights movement with the freedom struggle.

In 1958, she became the first elected Mayor of Delhi and was responsible for major civic reforms. But she soon tired of petty politicking and resigned from the post, never to take up any government job or contest elections. Instead, she focussed her energies on newspaper-led movements that mobilised support for social reforms.

In 1964, she was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize. She was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1992 and the Bharat Ratna in 1997, a year after her death — the legend had passed away peacefully on July 29, 1996, at the age of 87. Till the end of her illustrious life, she had lived in a one-bedroomed apartment on the road bearing her husband’s name (Asaf Ali Marg).

A woman who has inspired countless others, Aruna Asaf Ali’s frail beauty and charming exterior belied the incredible inner strength with which she defied British rule and the revolutionary zeal with which she worked for the improvement of the lot of women, the poor and the depressed. Little wonder she holds an irreplaceable position among independent India’s pioneering powerhouses on whose elegant shoulders we now stand.

Also Read: A Freedom Fighter With a Feminist Soul, This Woman’s Contributions to Modern India Are Staggering!

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Sabira Mohammed, a homemaker hailing from Palakkad, started cultivating orchids on her terrace as a means to kill boredom while her family set out to school and work every morning.

What started in 1998 on a terrace has now expanded into an acre. Setting up a nursery was a natural progression and Sabira gained a lot of traction through Facebook and WhatsApp. In just three years of launching her Facebook page, she garnered 5,000 followers.

The 53-year-old orchid cultivator currently earns upto Rs 3 lakh per month. So how did this homemaker turn her love for flowers into a business?

When Flowers Became Companions

It’s been 22 years since Sabira started her orchid cultivation and there has been no going back ever since.

“I got married in 1982 right after completing my 10th grade. My husband and I went to the UAE after our wedding. We lived there for about seven years and returned to our home in Thrissur in 1989. My husband who had his own business at the time would leave for work in the morning and all three of my children would leave for school. This left me all alone at home with a lot of time on my hands,” says Sabira.

That’s when she thought about trying her hand at gardening. Initially, she started out with flowers like jasmine and anthurium in pots on the terrace. When her garden bloomed, Sabira expanded into orchid cultivation.

“As time went by I moved the cultivation from the terrace to a 1-acre land. I started collecting sapling from the Krishi Bhavan and even started importing them from places like Thailand. Even though I had expanded the cultivation into a larger scale, I wasn’t quite sure about stepping into the business side of it,” she adds.

The Turning Point

Sabira’s orchid cultivation started gaining a lot of popularity in 2006 when she won the Kerala State Government’s Udyana Sresta Puraskar for her amazing work in the field of gardening. She was nominated for this by the Krishi Bhavan in her area. The award skyrocketed her garden into fame and she also started getting visitors from across the state.

“This was definitely a turning point in my life. I started selling saplings to interested visitors and even sent them to those who were in faraway districts,” she explains.

With over 500 varieties like Dendrobiums, Cattleyas, Vandas, Oncidiums, Paphiopedilums, Bulbophyllum and Phalaenopsis, Sabira even expanded her garden with a greenhouse.

“My husband, Muhammed Moosa and my youngest son, Sibin were very supportive of the expansion and motivated me to start a nursery. So finally in 2017, we launched a nursery in Thrissur under the name Pearl Orchids. The initial investment to start out the garden was around Rs 20 lakh,” informs Sabira.

They set up a greenhouse along with a mist irrigation system to make cultivation easier. Around this time she started a Facebook page and used Whatsapp for customer orders.

“Posting pictures of my orchids were literally the only marketing I did for the nursery but in a span of just three years, it grew into one of the most popular orchid nurseries in the state,” she explains.

Susan Kuriyachira, who has been a customer of Pearl Orchids for the past one year, says, “The prices for the orchids range from Rs 250 onwards and the packaging is simply superb. The saplings stay fresh for about 6-7 days without any fertilizers.”

Recently, Sabira invested in a Gir cow as a means for manure for the orchids. Besides this, she does not use any chemical fertilisers to grow her flowers. For the past three years, she has been earning a monthly income of Rs 3 lakh, from which Rs 50,000 is reinvested in cultivation.

“Several people have approached me for business tips, but my only advice is not to rush into things. It took me 22 years to get this far. So if you want to start your business, the first step is to cultivate an interest towards it, the rest will follow on its own,” she says.

You can place orders through her Facebook page, Pearl Orchids.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)