promoting grassroots women empowerment through

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Annual Project Report: Jan 2020 - March 2021 SUBMITTED TO SHAPOORJI PALLONJI FINANCE PRIVATE LIMITED By Swayam Shikshan Prayog, (SSP) www.swayamshikshanprayog.org Promoting Grassroots Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship & Leadership Program

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Page 1: Promoting Grassroots Women Empowerment through

Annual Project Report: Jan 2020 - March 2021

SUBMITTED TO SHAPOORJI PALLONJI FINANCE PRIVATE LIMITED

By

Swayam Shikshan Prayog, (SSP) www.swayamshikshanprayog.org

Promoting Grassroots Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship & Leadership Program

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DESCRIPTION

This is the annual report of the project `Promoting Grassroots Women’s Empowerment

through Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership Initiative’ implemented by Swayam

Shikshan Prayog in Osmanabad (Washi block) and Latur (Deoni block) districts in Maharashtra

state in collaboration with the support of Shapoorji Pallonji Finance Private Limited, under the

CSR.

RATIONAL Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP)’s operational areas in the Marathwada region represent some

of the most underdeveloped districts in Maharashtra. Maharashtra has over 70 % of its people

employed in agriculture and allied sectors. Lack of opportunities for developing an

entrepreneurial mindset and applied skills training; have led to low growth in business and

manufacturing. Women are still viewed as a mere labor support in agriculture, Agri allied

activities, and family enterprises by the government and other stakeholders.

Without the skills for market spotting, financial management, women often fail to establish,

engage or expand their enterprises, and stories of business loss and debts significantly erode the

resilience of women entrepreneurs.

SOLUTION The program will create a new definition and aspiration for entrepreneurship among rural women

from low-income groups.

Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) for women: The entrepreneurship

education process crafted by SSP aims at developing rural women as entrepreneurs. It brings

out their economic aspirations and enhances their business skills. These successful

entrepreneurs thereby share their success strategies and become mentors and role models for

the aspiring as well as struggling entrepreneurs. As a woman stabilizes and grows her

enterprise, she is provided with mentorship support to emerge as advanced business leaders

in their communities. This in turn strengthens further economic and social as well as political

empowerment in their families and communities.

Secondly, SSP and women’s networks create a robust local community-driven eco-system that

includes access to a WELI block resource center to sustain their enterprises through

mentorship, market, and finance linkages.

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OBJECTIVES OF PROGRAM

To equip women as first-generation entrepreneurs with knowledge and skills to tap

opportunities in emerging sectors such as trading, services, production to launch their

enterprises

Establish resource networks to provide entrepreneurship training and business support

including domain-specific skills, knowledge and develop linkages for seed-fund / capital

to expand or set up micro-enterprise units.

To create a cadre of women mentors who will offer entrepreneurial leadership and

resource support for women-led models for community development

TARGET REACH & REGION Districts & Blocks Washi Block of Osmanabad & Deoni Block of Latur

Villages 100 villages - 50 villages in Deoni block, Latur and 50 villages in Washi block

Outreach number 5000 Women

Baseline study 500 Women

Maharashtra State map Osmanabad & Latur District

Location Map

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PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY The entrepreneurship and leadership education process crafted by SSP aims at developing rural women as entrepreneurs and enterprise owners; by defining their economic aspirations and thereby enhancing their business skills. Successful entrepreneurs share their success strategies, become mentors and role models for aspiring and struggling entrepreneurs. As women stabilize and grow their enterprises, they are provided with leadership support to emerge as advanced business and development practice leaders and change-makers in their communities and districts. This in turn strengthens and leads to further economic and social, political empowerment in their families and communities.

TEAM & RESOURCES While the Project manager oversees the implementation of the project activities at the block level, conducting awareness meetings in the villages and the center, preparing the training calendar, organizing the follow-up meetings with the trained women, collecting the baseline data, and maintaining the center record.

Project Team 1 Project Manager 2 Block Coordinators 2 Trainers 10 Community Leaders

Resources 2 WELI Centers

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OVERVIEW OF THE ACTIVITIES Activity Qtr -1

Jan - Mar Qtr -2

April- Jun Qtr -3

Jul -Sep Qtr -4

Oct-Dec Qtr-5

Jan -Mar

Grand Total

Project Activities

Mobilization & Awareness - 1600 1447 2158 500 5705

Community Influencers - 67 37 - - 100

Women Enrolled - 150 200 120 200 670

Entrepreneur Training

Physical

- 115 154 80 162 511

Financial Literacy Training - 115 154 80 162 511

Business started - 115 154 80 162 511

Additional Businesses - 55 59 34 69 217

Indirect Beneficiaries

(Family Members Getting Impacted)

- 620 795 530 838 2783

COVID Awareness

across 100 villages

- - 1715 557 1720 3392

Ration Kit distribution to

needy & poor family -

20 (V) 330 (F)

1 (V) 25 (F)

- - 21 (V)

355 (F)

Linkages for Govt. schemes

& loans

Loan distributed to women

entrepreneur

- 6 lakhs 20 (P)

- - 10.10 lakhs

113 (P)

Rs.16.10 lakhs 133 (P)

Govt. Scheme linkages

Valuation Rs.9430350/-

- - - 294 (WF) 15 WF 309 (WF)

Additional COVID relief

activities

Seed distribution for

Nutrition kitchen garden - -

114 (F) 19 (V)

- - 114 (F) 19 (V)

Health kit distribution to baby & mom care -

10 (V) (100 (F)

31 (V)

(371 (F)

- - 41 (V)

471 (F)

Equipment kit to support New & existing business -

- 120 WE

8 (V)

22 WE

5 (V)

- 142 WE

13 (V)

Hand wash demonstrations - - 442 (P) 1320 (P) 945 2707

Soap distribution through other donors

- - 25 (V)

452 (F)

11300 soaps

35 (V)

269 (F)

7477 Soaps

- 60 (V)

721 (F)

18777 Soaps

Sanitary Pad distribution through other donors

- - 275 (F)

25 (V)

560 packs

850 (F)

35 (V)

726 packs

- 1125 (F)

60 (V)

1286 Packs

W= Women, WE =Women entrepreneur, V= Village, F= Family, P= Participants, WF= women Farmers

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PROJECT TARGETS VS ACHIEVEMENTS

5000/5705 Women Mobilized

The program has successfully mobilized 5705 women from

marginal farmer families & vulnerable communities and

built awareness about program.

Trained 100 highly motivated women with entrepreneurial

mindset within 100 villages across 2 districts of Maharashtra

to promote entrepreneurship program and on-board them. 100/100

Leader /Influencers Trained

2500+ Meetings Held Throughout on-boarding

Processes

Mobilizing and convincing women to step out of the

traditional barriers is never easy, SSP leaders built

awareness, counselled women & their families to create a

space for them to be empowered & to be entrepreneurs.

<<

Business Scoping, Managing Business activities, Financial

&, Digital Literacy and building customer networks training

conducted 60 hours per Women entrepreneurs. 60hrs.

of Rigorous Training for Each WE

500/511

Women Entrepreneurs

Transformed 511 rural women from marginal and

vulnerable background into Entrepreneurs across 100

villages of Latur & Osmanabad districts.

511 Women entrepreneurs have initiated 728 new micro-

enterprises including trades, Service and Value chain

enterprises to boost-up rural economy as well as 400/728

Started New enterprises

Rs.40000+ Average Indicative annual income of

WE

The average annual indicative income of WE is

Rs.40816, which support them to deal with financial

crisis, improve standard of living & reinvest in

existing or new business development.

Through interventions made by leader 309 Women

farmers received benefits of Rs.94,30,350/- converted

in value) under government schemes to support their

Agricultural enterprises.

309 Women linked to Govt. Schemes

Rs.2,08,57,200/- Total Annual Income of 511 Entrepreneurs

Investment of 50 lakhs for empowerment in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude building towards

creating women entrepreneurs in rural area and encouraging them to start businesses. Raising business

capital by women themselves has successfully started 728 micro enterprises which has created

Rs.2,08,57,200/- as annual indicative income for 511 women entrepreneurs which may vary based on

the situation of pandemic, market demands and supply, along with policy changes. E.g. The pandemic

has impacted various companies in dairy business like Creamline & Tirumala, which led to reduce milk prices

by Rs.2-4 for liter, which will impact income of women engaged in milk business.

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LEARNINGS

Top Five Businesses Highest numbers of Women Entrepreneurs engaged in

Detailed tabled is drawn on page number - 26

Although there are 35 types of businesses women entrepreneurs haves started under the program, here are top five businesses which cover 71.84 % of businesses i.e 523 out of 728 business.

Detailed tabled is drawn on page number – 27

0

50

100

150

200

250

Milk Business Vegetables Tailoring Ata Chakki Goatery Other 30businesses

209

150

78

45 41

205

Top 5 Businesses

3845536243

43077

50213

4514142167

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

Milk Business Tailoring Ata Chakki Grocery shop Goatery Other 30businesses

Average of Annual Indicative Income

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Share of Top 5 Businesses in Total Revenue Generation

Businesses Average of Annual Indicative Income

Business wise annual Income

Milk Business ₹ 38,455 ₹ 66,91,200

Tailoring ₹ 36,243 ₹ 26,82,000

Ata Chakki ₹ 43,077 ₹ 16,80,000

Grocery shop ₹ 50,213 ₹ 16,06,800

Goatery ₹ 45,141 ₹ 15,34,800

Other Businesses ₹ 42,167 ₹ 66,62,400

Detailed tabled is drawn on page number – 27

Milk Business32%

Tailoring13%

Ata Chakki8%

Grocery shop8%

Goatery7%

Other 30 businesses32%

Milk Business

Tailoring

Ata Chakki

Grocery shop

Goatery

Other 30 businesses

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ACHIEVEMENT OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES

Activity: 1 – Mobilizing 5000 women from marginal farmer families

The program location were elected based on the baseline study, and planned to execute this

current program in the 100 villages, 50 from Washi Block of Latur and 50 from Deoni-Block of

Osmanabad district of Maharashtra.

To meet desired outreach number of women

from marginal and vulnerable communities,

i.e. 5000 several meetings have been held by

SSP leaders at village level to mobilize women

from multiple communities and had dialogue

with them. Each leader conducted at-least

four meetings with same audience to build

their understanding around the program and

prospective opportunities for them by

creating their interest to participate in the

program.

The meetings and awareness session were

also involved male and person heading family

in terms of transforming their attitude

towards women’s rights and ability to

contribute for the betterment of the family.

The key aim of the meeting was to make

women aware about the program; WELI

model, WELI training centers, service offered

for entrepreneurship development as well as

enterprise development and the way women

can get engage in the entrepreneurship

business.

Training session also included sessions where

participants created a demand and drives

insights and sketched a roadmap to success.

Through mobilization and awareness

meetings SSP could mobilize 5705 women.

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Activity: 2 Number of community influencers – 100

In the process of mobilization, women

representative, who were working as

communicator and promoting SSP’s women

entrepreneurship & leadership training

program among women from various villages.

The project has identified inspired and potential

women trainers and trained them as

influencers, and assigned them to promote and

on-board women from vulnerable background

for enrolling for training by reaching them out.

SSP has mobilized 100 motivated and energetic

women leaders in last one year.

Activity: 3 Number of women will be enrolled – 700

In the phase of enrollment, SSP leaders’ evaluated women who aspired to be entrepreneurs

from the marginal and extremely vulnerable communities based on the level of grit to

participate, approach towards the program design, willingness to learn through intensive

training. The evaluation process was involved several meetings with the groups as wells as

personal conversations were held by the leaders, including discussions with family members.

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Activity: 4 Number of women Entrepreneur will be trained – 500

Through this training program participants were educated and developed their personal as

well as business skills. Recognizing the need in their respective villages, women were

supported to identify and choose the area their interest to start enterprise in the village which

are adjacent to the city. Need analysis, or business scoping, understanding businesses,

opportunities, risks within it, learning about finance management along with dealing with loans

and building capital for businesses and running business efficiently along with facing

challenged associated to business as well as market.

Building market linkage through personal as well as SSP network was also a major part of

training, where participants were encouraged to start engaging with larger network and deal

with market demands in the nearby cities. Around 511 women were trained through Zoom, an

online coaching app, during this quarter.

Activity: 4 Number of women undergone the financial literacy module – 500

SConsidering lack of finance management skills among women participants, women were

trained on financial literacy which has built deep understanding about potential of saving

habits and thoughtful expenditures, which reflects in their behavior while interacting with

leaders during financial planning activities.

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Activity: 5 Number of women become entrepreneurs - 400

In the last phase of entrepreneurship training,

number of brainstorming sessions were held

prior to decide which business to start with.

Throughout the process women were

continuously monitored and supported to

establish business through visiting them

regularly, organizing meetings, understanding

issues and resolving the same.

Numerous meeting were conducted with SHG

group members and made them aware of

benefits of borrowing loan from SHGs & banks.

Leaders offered support to convince their family

members to invest into capital cost for the

business, by making them believe in the

capacities women in terms of increasing

financial stability of the family in the long run.

The efforts made by leaders and active

participation of women audience, has brought a notable transformation within these two block,

as the more than 400 i.e. 511 women started 728 enterprises such as Vegetable business, dairy

business, grocery shop, cloth shop, sewing, poultry, goat rearing, etc. Business women have

found a way out of adversity.

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ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES TO ABOVE

Activity: 6 Mentoring and guidance for New Women Entrepreneurs

During the program SSP leaders offered

women entrepreneurs continuous

mentoring by visiting them at their

business places even through online

meeting to evaluate the processes and

progress of it, by giving feedbacks,

understanding other requirements of them,

such as advising on capital, advertising,

sales, pricing, manpower, packing, labeling

etc. During the visits, the entrepreneurs

were observed and trained to communicate effectively with the customer and keep record

books of transaction to evaluate spending for understanding profit and loses.

Activity: 7 Market information and linkages

To make most out of micro enterprises, women entrepreneurs were given training on building

linkages with traders, retailer as well as bulk buyers. Women who have started businesses such

as vegetable selling, milk business, grocery shop, cloth shop, tailoring, poultry, goatery and

other businesses made aware about markets available in the nearby cities.

In this sessions information

about ready-made clothing,

stationery, grocery, and other

businesses were introduced

with their traders. Women

engaged with dairy business

were trained on making dairy

products from milk. Along with

the introducing businesses

women were provided

information about wholesalers

and traders for raw material as

well as readymade products

where they can buy and run

their businesses.

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Activity: 8 Impact 511 women entrepreneurs as direct beneficiaries & 2500

family members as indirect beneficiaries

The program has successfully reached out its target audience and achieved the desired number

of beneficiaries. SSP has reached out a large number of women from potential beneficiaries,

however, only a part of that could be enrolled as per program design.

The program not only accomplished the program goal by converting these target audience into

entrepreneurs but also impacted their families, relatives, neighbors’ even communities by

changing their approach looking at women, providing a safe space for them, offering

opportunities to contribute and respect these women. The change in attitude of the

communities has opened new avenues for women to contribute more actively than earlier.

Activity: 9 Organic Farming Training

Considering Farming practices in villages and possession of agricultural land by women farmer

families, both point were in the favor women interested to start agri allied enterprises. With

the aim to promote organic farming practices, SSP leader built the narrative and several

activities and meeting trainings were conducted with women farmers.

The training mostly focused on practicing organic farming by using bio fertilizers and

demonstrated how to make these bio-fertilizers and boosters such as Neem extract, Jivamrut

and Dashparni as inputs for farms. Process of Seed germination at home also key topic of the

training.

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INPUTS HIGHLIGHTS

Enterprise Building Training Module

Training Module The 10 days training module spread across three months of classroom, hands on as well

as experiential learning; followed by handholding and mentorship support.

Which primarily contains; Introduction, induction and mobilization of two days followed

by entrepreneurship education of six days. It is essentially a classroom as well as on-field

training for the aspiring women entrepreneurs. Considering the need-of-an-hour;

financial and digital literacy is also taught for another two days.

The women entrepreneurs are then exposed to the open market to develop their

backward, forward and bank linkages where they are linked with appropriate mentorship

and handholding support.

What is business

o Features of Business

Business scoping,

Local market

Demand & supply

o 5 Important aspects of Business

Decision Making

Risk taking

Confidence

Planning

Execution

Business viability session

o Backward and Forward Linkages

o Financial planning for investment

o Goal setting

Exposure visit to manufacturing, service and trade businesses.

o Sharing observations and reflections / Learning

o Creating market plan for 3 years

Mentor allocation and discussion

Creating business strategy along with action plan.

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Financial Literacy Training Module

Based on the following content session during training program are designed and conducted

seeking active participation of participant women entrepreneurs. Several individual as well

as group activities are conducted along with continuous monitoring and facilitating them to

build deep learning about the concepts.

Finance management

o Savings

In cash

Investments

In bank

SHG- saving groups

o Expenditures

o Budgeting

Introduction of financial institutions

o SHGs

o Banks

o Credit societies

o Micro finance companies

o Money lenders

Why Banking

Basics of Banking

o Banking Services

o Types of bank accounts

o Banking Products

o Types of insurance

Digital Banking - UPI

Understanding loans

o Loan process

o Interests and types

o What is credit score?

o EMI payments and penalties

Digital literacy

Spread of coronavirus has created new learning opportunities for everyone. Women from

rural background depend mostly on cash transactions, even they are not tech-savvy, which

create quite a lot of troubles in establishing communication with others. The training

program included digital literacy to promote mobile based communication, use of video calls

for training, Use zoom app for conducting meeting, digital payments apps for financial

transactions and Whatsapp for communication with customers like taking orders and even

spreading real time information related to their businesses to others.

The use of following Apps were critical for women entrepreneurs to create and enhance

network of women.

Zoom App

Whatsapp,

Facebook

Google maps

Google pay /Phone pay / PayTm/ Bhim app

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COVID RELATED WORK AND ACTIVITIES

Mobilization & Engagement of stakeholders

SSP Leader worked continuously with Gram Panchayat, Anti Corona Force, and Health Center,

ASHA health Workers, Anganwadi Workers, and Youth during the entire duration of COVID-19.

Everyone came together to stop virus from spreading fast. A regular monthly meetings of the

Gram Panchayat, Anti Corona Force and SSP representatives were held to take important

decisions based on the need of the time.

SSP identified SHGs, build their capacities to work proactively in their villages and contribute

in the interest of creating new businesses in the community by the members and providing

loans for women interested in to start business or facing financial scarcity.

Building awareness & capacities

To create awareness about best practices and educate participants in rural areas health

awareness training were conducted, where participants were made aware about types of

diseases, care to be taken in the pandemic, educated them on daily nutrition and health diet.

Along with promotion related to health, implication of unhealthy practices on health and even

on financial losses were promoted to refrain people from being negligent.

CRPs Training: CRPs were trained to use digital platforms like zoom app, whatsapp and

google meet to conduct online trainings and meeting with the women. The app also used to

create Awareness about COVID-19.

Conducted online training on food security: conducted online training on food security

before kharif sowing. The training was attended by women farmers from 20 villages in

washi districts related to food security, germination capacity of soil, seed processing,

organic farming, and water management for the farming.

Covid -Relief of various kits

Ration Kit distribution to needy

& poor family:

Food grains were distributed to poor and vulnerable families, critically ill, widowed after a

village level survey was done. The distribution was done with support of gram panchayat

and village level food supply committee. 355 families were provided the Ration kits.

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Distribution of vegetable seeds: As lockdown has impacted most of the occupations; made

farmers face financial crisis, which was leading problems to meet day to day food

consumptions too. To solve the food crisis, farmer having agriculture land were encouraged

to grow vegetables, other than that women were motivated to create kitchen gardens and

grow vegetables for the household use. Women leaders identified that due to stoppage of

income many of them were unable to afford the seeds also, so, to help them, 100 families in

ten villages were given free vegetable seeds. Due to this, these families will have access to

abundant and fresh vegetables within 30 to 40 days. These efforts provided them with fresh

vegetables to improve health of family members along with saving money on food.

Distribution of Mother and Child kit: In 10 villages 100 families, the Himalayan Company

Health Kit was distributed free of cost for the child under 5 years of age and for the mother.

Sanitary Pad Distribution

To improve health status awareness sessions were conducted for women and adolescent

girl’s. The sessions were mainly focusing on educating them about menstruation, healthy

and safe practices during menstruation / periods. Along with that Sanitary pads were

distributed to provide relief from getting infections in the critical financial situation

emerged in the time of coronavirus.

Government Schemes Linkages

During this pandemic women were given information about government schemes, and

encouraged to take initiative, to contact various government departments to check

available schemes and avail benefits under the same, such as water wells, drips, water

pumps, employment schemes, jobs under MNREGA etc. on the other hand several job cards,

Rashaan card, Pension schemes, health insurances were obtained for needy villagers.

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IMPACT

The Program involved several activities which impacted women participants, their families and

community even local economy in various aspects as following.

Women learned to be resilient and fight back to the situation with their full potentials. They

built an ability to convert an opportunity into reality and achieved better state in the life, by

continuous efforts, and learnings from the situation. Never give up attitude, within them got

boost during the training program.

Women entrepreneurs has got confidence to own an enterprise and run it successfully

mitigating challenges faced by them. Since all of them belongs to marginal and vulnerable

segment of the community, has proven that they has the spark and potential to lead a better

life. Engagement and continuous mentoring made them literate in terms of financial

calculations and record keeping for their business along with budgeting.

Social: Increased financial conditions of hundreds of families due to these women’s hard

work, has made them achieve a respectful status in the family as well as in the community,

even other women look them as ideal, role model. The improved status and decision making

abilities, several avenues of has being created to participate and keep their voices in major

decision makings within family and even community too.

Almost all women started earning through their own enterprises, which has made them self

–reliant, independent and supporting their families as well as other women with similar

conditions. Women entrepreneurs has formed a group of leaders to support others, has built

strong networks with government officials as well as traders in their trades.

The success achieved in running business with profit, has created their identity as business

women, which has built their moral strong. The convention set in villager’s mind that

women cannot run business, and manage finance, was broken by these women and set a

new approach within the community.

Involvement of women in the agri and agri allied business, through organic farming

approach, has create positive impact of the environment. Practicing organic farming

practices, by using bio-fertilizers and pesticides along with multiple bio-booster for crops

has increases yield, and production for them which made them earn extra and save on input

costs.

Around 42% women have started multiple businesses, from profit they earned from 1st

business they started, which clearly shows deep rooted business attitude within them,

which has built through the learning journey during entrepreneurship training. Women

entrepreneurs preferred to engage in a business which falls into essential category, since

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they have learned from pandemic that no business can survive in such critical time but

essential businesses can survive and make profit too.

The project not only improved their financial conditions but made them literate in terms of

savings, investments, loans and repayments etc. along with budgeting. Women have started

using bank accounts, taking loan, calculating loan interests.

CASE STUDIES Success story: 1

Jayshree Shahaji Shingare, age-47 from Village Para, washi Block, District Latur.

Jayshree is uneducated, she has 2 acres of land and 10 members in her family, she, her husband,

two sons and a daughter who has 4 daughters and a boy.

She supports her daughter and grand-children, survival was not easy due to the large number

of family members and small size of the agricultural farm. She couldn’t manage two meals for

her family.

She used to go to work in other people’s

farm. In such situation, she got

acquainted with Seema. She informed her

about SSP organization and selected her

to work as a leader in the village. After

becoming a leader, she attended training

of enterprise development and got

interested in starting business. She

learned to do business and identified kind

of business can be started in villages.

However she wanted to start business,

she didn’t have money. As she became a

member of self-help group, she took loan

from self-help group.

Since there was only one flour mill in the village, she bought a flour mill and started her own

enterprise. Her enterprise started functioning well as it attracted customers nearby. She started

getting benefit from the flour mill.

With the increased income, she saved money and bought a small flour now she has two flour

mills. With the doubled income from both flour mills, she started stationary shop. Which also

gives her a sound income.

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Now her family’s financial situation is better and can support her family properly. She did not

go to work on someone else’s farm. She had a turnover of rupees 40000 in this business and

now She gets rupees 5000 a month from that business. She still wants to grow her business.

With the guidance of the SSP organization, where she could stand today, She want to go further

and grow her business and with me. She want to make the women of her village aware of this

business and make them empowerment.

Success story: 2

Anjali Dipak Sagar, age 30 years from Bobali khurd village, Block Deoni. District Latur,

Anjali has completed her B.com second year. There are six members in her family. She, her

husband and 3 girls and 1 boy. She doesn’t have farm. She has a grocery store. The grocery store was started as it was difficult to make a living as there were more members in the family and there was no land. Due to small size of the village, customers are limited, which leads to have less sale and result in less earning.

Her husband works in a welding shop in the meantime. She met Priyanka, from SSP in village, who told her about WELI and SSP organization and selected her as a village leader in her village. She felt very satisfied talking to with Priyanka, got convinced that the financial situation of her home could improve through associating with organization. She spoke to her husband, and opted for WELI training and where she understood about managing business and strategies to grow it. After taking training, she wanted to start stationary shop, along with grocery shop for she didn’t have enough money. She took a loan from a self-help group and started stationary shop, now the turnover is around Rs. 20000 and profit is up to Rs. 5000 to 7000 for a month.

She could support her family previously, but could not provide good facilities to them, now she dreams to provide good facilities and fulfill their desires. Most of her household expenses were incurred by her husband but now she shoulders major household expenses. She wants to progress ahead, and dreams to make women of her village a business like her.

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Success story: 3

Usha Prakash kale, village zinnar, Block washi, District Osmanabad,

Usha was living a life of doing a

mercenary work. she has a farm of five acres but the farm was dry and did not get much income. So she had to go to work in someone else’s farm, sometimes she had to go to work in other villages as well as she could not take care of their children because they have to go to work on someone else’s farm. Also the cost of educating the children had increased. It was not possible to sustain family on the employment. There was a shortage of money in the house. She had no idea what to do in such a situation, so she met with Jayshree, SSP leader in our village. Jayshree asked her to take business training from SSP and also, they informed her about WELI. Usha decided to take an entrepreneur training. On completion of the training, she availed sixteen thousand rupees from SSP, and started business of cattle feed. The milk business is popular in the village, her cattle feed business was doing well. Now she has started poultry and goat rearing from earned profit of the cattle feed. Now she is in the business of raising chickens and goats along with animal feed, from which she earns Rs. 15000 per month, which has upgraded her family’s financial situation. Her earning made her get respect in the house. “Usha advices women, every woman must start a business, it makes women self-reliant, builds their self-esteem and self -identity.’’ Success story: 4

Dipali Pradip yedale, Village waghanalwadi, Block Deoni. District Latur.

Dipali’s financial condition was good earlier when she was living in joint family. Unfortunately,

her family got separated, and financial condition started getting worse as her husband did not have job and she was housewife, both were having no income from any other sources too, meeting household expenses was hard in such situations. Her son had to go under an operation, which was expensive, hence she was worried about their survival.

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She met to Yogita and explained her situation, Yogita, a SSP leader in her village. Yogita provided information about entrepreneurs training and WELI. After completion of entrepreneur training, she found a way to start business. Then she took a loan of ten thousand from Self-help group and her husband gave some money. Then she brought one buffalo and started milk business. She got profit of 40000 from milk business. And later she bought a flour mill, which also started giving her extra income. Now her family’s financial situation is improving, as she is making good living of her family for which her husband is proud on me. SSP is an organization that provides employment to unemployed women as well as works with the grassroots women and supports them to be self-reliant. I am standing today because of SSP.

Success story: 5

Pratibha Rajendra Padwal, Village Zinnar, Block Washi, District. Osmanabad.

Pratibha was living like an ordinary

woman’s life since her family condition was good. With the sudden death of her husband, worsen the situation. She recovered from the situation, however grief was chasing her. Her in lows were not cooperating her, they also refuse to allocate land owned by her to her. She returned back to her mother’s house, her mother’s financial condition was not so good, which was making Pratibha realize that she was a burden on her mother’s family. One day she came across with Seema, SSP leader. After understanding her problems seema suggested her to take business training and start business as solution. After completion of training Pratibha became confident and found a way to became independent. Pratibha took a business to support her family by

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borrowing loan from a self-help group. And bought a Papad making machine and started a Papad business in the village. As she started earning well, she started poultry business out of that which is giving her a sound income for improving her life.

Keeping aside her pain, she is now self-reliant and making her own decisions, which is making family members respect her in home. She said “Even though, she was sad, she got positive perception and good way. Because of SSP organization. Success story: 6

Nirmala Dilip Reddy, Waghanalwadi, Block Deoni, District Latur

Nirmala lives with her, in the Waghnalwadi village, family of 6 members. She has completed

her studies till 11th class. She got married at the age of 17, in 2003. Her husband used to work in medical store and earn for family, but an unfortunate event of accident occurred in his life where his injured his knees, which were treated but spending money couldn’t recover his fully. From the day of accident, major responsibilities shifted to her shoulder, including household expenses, education of children and other responsibilities too. With 2 children, most of the responsibilities fall on her. In 2006, she started a stationary shop whih was giving monthly Rs.3000-4000 profit per month. In 2020, during the pandemic, lockdown hit her business so badly, which led her to push in financial problems again. During this time, Priyanka from SSP introduced her to the entrepreneurship trainings and this helped her get a loan from the Self Help Group. Nirmala took up sewing business while attending online trainings. She took a loan of Rs 10,000, purchased a machine investing Rs 30,000 and started clothing business in the village. Currently, she earns Rs 6000 per month which is a double income what she is earning, Due to financial literacy training she also has started saving with the thought of scaling her business in future.

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Success story: 7

Sunita Vijay Shingare, Para village, Washi block, Osmanabad district

Sunita belongs to poor financial background, has 9 members in her family, due to financial

difficulties during initial years her education got affected. Her father had dairy business which was giving around Rs 5000-6000 per month, which is not sufficient for her big size family. She got married Sunita in 1997, and now has 2 children and she wanted to educate them. Her husband also do not have sufficient income. She wanted to earn for educating them through starting a small business. She started organic farming in 2020 through SSP’s after attending training in early 2020. She invested Rs 10,000 by taking loan from SHG, and now earns approx. Rs-1000-1300 every day. She said “Recognizing the need of our village, I choose this business and now I earn Rs. 15000 per month from this business. My business went great during lockdown and now I am happy that I am self-reliant and run my family and can give better education to my children. I am thankful to SSP.

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Trade Wise Distribution of Businesses.

Sr. Category Trades Primary Enterprises

Additional Enterprises

Total %

1 M Shevai making 3 4 7 0.96 2 M Sticker printing 1 1 0.14 3 S Beauty Parlour 8 8 1.10 4 S Knitting 3 3 0.41 5 S Laundry 1 1 0.14 6 S Mess 2 2 0.27 7 S Mirachi Kandap 2 2 4 0.55 8 S photography 2 2 0.27 9 S Snack center 2 2 0.27

10 S Tailoring 74 4 78 10.71 11 S Xerox Centre 3 1 4 0.55

12 T Bakery Shop 1 1 0.14

13 T Bangles Shop 7 2 9 1.24

14 T Chicken Shop 1 1 2 0.27

15 T Cloth Shop 12 12 1.65

16 T Water Plant 3 3 0.41

17 T Egg Shop 1 1 0.14

18 T Garland Making 1 1 0.14

19 T Foot Wear Shop 3 3 0.41

20 T Fruit Stall 1 1 0.14

21 T Grocery Shop 32 3 35 4.81

22 T Masala Store 2 2 0.27

23 T Nursery 2 2 0.27

24 T Panipuri 2 2 0.27

25 T Papad Business 5 2 7 0.96

26 T Saree Shop 6 1 7 0.96

27 T Stationary Shop 10 5 15 2.06

28 V Dal Mill 2 2 0.27

29 V Ata Chakki 39 6 45 6.18

30 V Goatery 34 7 41 5.63

31 V Milk Business 174 35 209 28.71

32 V Milk Collection 28 28 3.85

33 V Poultry 17 4 21 2.88

34 V Vegetables 28 122 150 20.60

35 V Vermi-Compost Bed

1 16 17 2.34

Total Businesses 511 217 728 100 M= Manufacturing, S= Service, T= Trading, V= Value chain

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Business wise Average Monthly Income

Enterprise No of

enterprises Monthly Income (Rs) Average Monthly Income

(Rs)

Fruit Stall 1 5000 5000

Poultry 17 81500 4794

Panipuri 2 8500 4250

Grocery Shop 32 133900 4184

Drinking Water Plant 3 12000 4000

Nursery 2 8000 4000

Cloth Shop 12 46000 3833

Goatery 34 127900 3762

Milk Collection 28 102500 3661

Ata Chakki 39 140000 3590

Vegetables 28 100000 3571

Mess 2 7100 3550

Laundry 1 3500 3500

Mirachi Kandap 2 7000 3500

Photography 2 6700 3350

Papad Business 5 16500 3300

Milk Business 174 557600 3205

Snack Center 2 6400 3200

Beauty Parlour 8 25400 3175

Foot Wear Shop 3 9500 3167

Tailoring 74 223500 3020

Stationary Shop 10 30100 3010

Dal Mill 2 6000 3000

Saree Shop 6 17500 2917

Bangles Shop 7 19500 2786

Knitting 3 8000 2667

Chicken Shop 1 2500 2500

Flower Garland Making 1 2500 2500

Masala Store 2 5000 2500

Shevai Making 3 7500 2500

Xerox Centre 3 7500 2500

Vermi-Compost Bed 1 2000 2000

Sticker Printing 1 1500 1500

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Details of Government Schemes disbursed

Sr. No Name of the scheme Unit of schemes

availed Valuation of the scheme

1. Agri Kit 2 ₹ 5,000

2. Bio-Gas 13 ₹ 5,43,000

3. Carrart 99 ₹ 99,750

4. Drip 2 ₹ 43,500

5. Egg Germination Machine 1 ₹ 5,000

6. Farm Pond 3 ₹ 2,15,000

7. Goatery 3 ₹ 1,30,000

8. Grocery Allocation 2 ₹ 5,000

9. Kadaba Kutti 8 ₹ 2,56,000

10. Mirchi Kandap 1 ₹ 75,000

11. Onion Seeds 1 ₹ 18,000

12. Panbudi Motar 17 ₹ 5,08,500

13. Pipeline 17 ₹ 9,60,300

14. Seeds Of Chana 3 ₹ 4,800

15. Seeds Of Soybean 42 ₹ 3,53,200

16. Sewing Machine 17 ₹ 1,02,000

17. Solar Pump 6 ₹ 7,35,000

18. Spray Pump 12 ₹ 1,29,000

19. Sprinkler 45 ₹ 11,75,000

20. Tadpatri 6 ₹ 7,300

21. Tree Plantation 2 ₹ 1,50,000

22. Well 14 ₹ 36,10,000

23. Well Motor 2 ₹ 3,00,000

24. Grand Total 309 ₹ 94,30,350

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Swayam Shikshan Prayog

102, Gayatri Apartment, Near Orchid School, Balewadi Phata,

Baner, Pune, Maharashtra, Pin -411045

www.swayamshikshanprayog.orgs