Mithu Das, 44, was an ordinary housewife till she decided to attend a workshop on growing mushrooms. Her husband Tapan, 49, is a teacher in a government school and she did not have any compulsion to earn more. They have their own house in Kaliagharh area of Jirat town in West ...
Mamta Bai, 47, is the proud owner of a kirana or convenience store, and an atta chakki, in Navi Bagh near Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal. She has taken a loan of Rs 40,000 and is now in her 4th cycle, which began in March this year. She had almost nothing before she set up...
The COVID-19 lockdown was the second crisis in the life of Khalda, 40, and her family. She had been leading a comfortable life till the June 2013 floods in Rishikesh washed away her husband’s business in Gujjar Plot village and he had to switch from being a roadside car mecha...
Gita Santra, 41, who had taken her first loan from Village Financial Services in 2015, faced a significant setback in her business when the government announced the lockdown on March 24, 2020. Her sequin- and zari-stitching business, in which she had employed 10 part-time w...
Mousumi Das, 38, had one business failure ten years ago. She was determined not to let the coronavirus lockdown cause the second one: scores of workers depended on her this time. In 2010, her sari business failed, leaving her with debts. Her first son had just begun school ...
Sahanara Sardar is thanking her savings habit for surviving the lockdown hit on her readymade garments business: She managed to clear her repayments. Sahanara, who has been a customer of Village Financial Services for 16 years, has applied for a fresh loan after having just...
Achana Dalui, 26, and her husband Narayan are vegetable growers in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district who sell their produce directly in four nearby markets. Each market is open two days a week normally, but their hours have been cut down because of the coronavirus pandemic...
Sabera Begum of Bankra in West Bengal’s Howrah district was lucky that her husband had not given up his small grocery when she took her first loan from Village Financial Services in 2013 to start a ladies’ garments business. The grocery business kept them afloat during the ...
Who doesn't want a bit of colour in their life? Especially if it doesn't cost much. Sarashwati Kumar, 36, of Chhattisgarh's Baraipara village, in Raipur district's Azad Chowk area, figured this out when she wanted to earn some extra money to support her family of husband and t...
Kalpana Barman, 38, had two weapons that helped her survive the lockdown: her trusty sewing machine and her grit. When the government ordered a lockdown on March 24 to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, her business almost sank. Kalpana, who lives in Jorpatki villag...
During a lockdown, what you make or sell is important, but location can be a multiplier. Anjana Roy, 45, a resident of Mourigram-Duliya in Howrah district, has been a customer of Village Financial Services on and off for nearly 18 years now, having taken her first microfinanc...
Kajal Bej did not let the coronavirus lockdown torpedo her spirit --or her sari and readymade garments retailing business. Although she had to keep her shop closed for months, she used her phone contacts to keep in touch with her regular customers in the locality and could sup...
Manju Kanrar, 33, turned her skill at doing sequin work on readymade salwar-kameez suits into a business in 2016 when she borrowed Rs 10,000 from Village Financial Services’ Baltikuri branch. She used to do sequin work and stitch zari borders on salwar-suit lengths just to ...
For Sandhya Bose, 45, the coronavirus lockdown was the second economic crisis in her life. When her husband, a worker in a steel-almirah factory, died of a heart attack 15 years ago she was left with three young sons and had to look for a way to earn. One of her neighbours in ...
Durga Rani Das, 48, of Assam’s Bongaigaon district, had started helping her husband Chiranjeet with his business of weaving bamboo baskets after they got married. As a young girl, she had learnt some bamboo crafts. As her family grew – one daughter followed by two sons – t...
Swapna has been living in Pashchim Daspara village in West Bengal's Howrah district all her life. She has been married to Somnath Naskar for the past 15 years. After the birth of their son in 2006, they realized that their income had to grow. They discussed several ideas and d...
Nayan Singh Nayak, a middle-aged homemaker from Jagatbalavpur block, in Howrah district of West Bengal, lives with her husband and one minor child. The couple was eking out a living as casual labour for idol-makers. They saw that these small idols of clay, which people keep in...
My name is Sumitra Yadav. I have taken a loan from VFS to run my dairy business. I have 25 buffaloes and cows and have a workforce of five. I want to expand my business further.
My name is Moumita Naskar Kundu. I am a resident of Notunpara. I have a business of aluminium bangles for which I have taken loans from VFS for the past two years. The loans have really helped me to expand my business and I have been able to employ two new workers. We make var...
