Smt Rajinder Kaur - A courageous woman entrepreneur

摘要

The 36-year old handicapped farmwoman Smt Rajinder Kaur works with full passion and enthusiasm along with her husband on their 2.5 acres of land in the village Chatha Nanhera of district Sangrur. Major crops grown in their fields are wheat, paddy andmustard (GSC-7). With agriculture income solely, .it was hard for her as well as her family to meet the expenditures of day to day life. Smt Rajinder Kaur had a strong desire and zeal to do something for her family. She wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with her husband but was lacking in opportunities, which couldprovide her means to earn. Nevertheless, 'where there is will, there is a way'.The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Sangrur advertised a vocational training programme on detergent making, dish washing liquid and phenyl making, scheduled as per their annual calendar for December 2015. It was basically designed to train rural women to set up small scale enterprises for income generation. Smt Rajinder Kaur acquired this training and practised this endeavour to develop herself as a trained worker in these threeproducts. She boosted her fellow friends and other ladies from her village Chatha Nanhera to start-up this venture as an enterprise and played a key role in the formation of Kirat Self Help Group registered under the Punjab State Rural Livelihood Mission(PSRLM or Ajeevika Mission) in 2016. She is actively serving as a group leader of this group. Following the instructions given by the experts of KVK,Sangrur and PAU, Ludhiana, she took various vocational trainings and engaged herself in the preparationof a variety of value added products from fruits, vegetables, cereals and pulses. This was not the success which Smt Rajinder Kaur was aiming at. The next challenge was taking these products beyond the village and block level. Smt Rajinder Kaur with thehelp of her husband and group members commenced the preparation of products at a larger scale for sale beyond their village. The first outside exposure of the market came in the form of putting up a stall at Kisan Mela, organized at PAU, Ludhiana. This was the start of a profit making journey. Winning third prize in ‘Women Entrepreneurship Category’ at state level PAU Farmers’ Fair in 2016 acted as a booster for her confidence. Presently, Kirat Self Help Group is preparing more than 30 food productsand has also been engaged in catering services through which they have created a win-win situation for themselve.