Here, women deal a ‘biz’ blow to dry spell

Owner-cum-manager-cum waitress of a tea stall at Mhaswad village in Mann taluka, 85km from Satara city, Bainabai (43) sells over 300 cups of tea every day. She starts her day as early as 6am but one can see her working with the same energy even after dawn.

With no one to support her, she took a loan of Rs30,000 from Manndeshi Women Co-operative Bank eight years ago. She managed to repay the loan by paying Rs10-50 daily to the bank.

Elated with her success, Bainabai says, “I have married off my two daughters in these years. My son has also started earning but I would continue my business as it gives me immense satisfaction.” She travels from Ravatwadi to Mhaswad, a distance of 5km, every day to run her business.

Till few years ago, she was just a housewife. Her husband, a farmer, ran away to Mumbai after crop loss. Initially, Bainabai struggled a lot to feed her three little children. She started with a small tea stall in a rented corner.

Like Bainabai, there are many women in the village who battled against all odds to become self-dependent.

Barely half-a-km away from Bainabai’s tea stall, Kantabai (55), a blacksmith, feeds a family of 14 by making 180-200 sickles every day. When men in the family failed to get a job in farms due to drought and crop failure, a confident Kanta came forward to take a loan of Rs15,000 from the same bank and started working soon after. Her husband now helps her in work.

“I returned Rs2,000 in three months by paying Rs30 daily though I missed installments sometimes due to poor sale,” says Kantabai with a big smile.

As Kanta is the only person in the family who owns a bank account, she owns the business as per the bank’s norms.

Apparently, she is the head of the family who takes all decisions.

Working as a tailor, Vijaya Landge (35) has now formed a self-help group with Malan Linge, Sunita Buhare and Manda Panse to take a loan for starting a utensil selling business as their farmer husbands have very little earning. They are among those hundreds of women in Satara district who are the only breadwinners of their families.

The perennially dry Mann taluka has 105 villages. At least two-thirds of these villages have no drinking or irrigation water. They are dependent only on natural water sources like wells which dry out every year due to scanty rainfall, average 40-50 cm a year.

Drought and crop loss have forced villagers to migrate to other places for earning a livelihood. Small farmers and farm labourers are the most affected.

Tolan Virkar, 30, a resident of Masaiwadi village, is learning how to sew with a dozen girls of her village. “My fields go dry and husband is sitting idle. Thus, I decided to run the family,” says  Tolan. She had purchased a sewing machine on loan and is learning how to design kurtas.

Apparently, the area has many such women ‘entrepreneurs’. They take loan to buy a donkey to carry sand or to start a vada pav or idli chutney centre or simply to work as vegetable vendors to support their families.

These financially-empowered women are changing the family dynamics in Satara. They are the new power centres in their families. Though women had been working in agriculture sector since centuries, they hardly had a say in financial matters. The roles are changing now. Drought has pushed the phenomenon.

Financial empowerment helps single women sustain even in villages. BCom pass Shobha Raut (32), who runs a grocery shop in Mhaswad, has decided not to marry. Shobha, who is famous for having led a 200km-long padyatara to Solapur four years ago, says, “I am happy supporting my parents and brothers. I am also self-sufficient. Then, what is the need of marriage?” She sent her younger brother to pursue his masters in computer science in Pune and plans to open a bigger grocery shop.

Archana Rasal (32), who owns an imitation jewellery shop and runs a tailoring business, divorced her abusive husband seven years ago. “When I left the matrimonial home and came to my parents, people in the area used to stay away from me. I started working in the shop. Later I got to run the shop, which I purchased subsequently. After knowing my success, my husband wanted me back but I sought divorce. Now, I am happy raising my daughter with my hard work,” says Archana, who is supporting her parents also. She couldn’t clear Class X but her daughter studies at Maharshi Karve Mahila Ashram, Pune.

Manndeshi Mahila Sahkari Bank, which was started in Mhaswad in 1997, has been able to transform thousands of lives in rural Satara. The bank is the first micro-financing initiative in India and tends only to women. Riding on women power, the Mhaswad-based bank has now reached Vaduj, Gondavale, Dahiwadi, Satara and Lonad along with two mobile branches.

Each branch has “Rural-B schools” which helps women learn various skills and encourages them to form self-help groups for better sustainability.

Despite economic slowdown across the globe, this women bank has grown to Rs2.25 crore from an initial capital of Rs6 lakh.

Women are managing finance better than men. “Our repayment rate is 98%. As women are programmed to save more and manage better than men, we were sure about the success of the bank though our application had been rejected by RBI initially,” says Chetna Gala Sinha, the founder of the Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, who gathered all illiterate women of Mhaswad to launch this bank in 1997.

Chetna, a post-graduate from the University of Mumbai, shifted to Mhaswad soon after marrying Vijay Sinha, a farmer. “Most of the women don’t want to let their alcoholic or abusive husbands know about the savings. This helped us design a simple model where we go door-to-door to cater to women and accept as little as Rs5. Now, we have come up with e-account card which can be accessed by the account holder only,” she says.

A case study for foreign students
Satara is a lesson for foreign students as well. Carole Wenger, 24, an anthropology student from Lausanne (Switzerland), is staying in Mhaswad village of Satara since February. Planning to do her masters from London, Carole is here to have a first-hand experience about Indian villages.

“I came to Mumbai first and then Mhaswad. The village is just seven hours away from India’s most famous city, but life is so different here,” says Carole. Now teaching internet to teenage girls under ‘Butterfly Programme’ at Manndeshi Rural-B-school, she is elated. “Indian girls are very shy but open up if given a chance.”
Christopher Reuhs (24), a German national dropped in a month ago, is studying a dual degree programme in Germany and Ireland campuses.

Trying to adapt to the scorching heat, Reuhs says, “I chose India to see such a big country and study the micro-financing programmes in rural parts. Another German, Dina Yunus, is also here for five months to do a project on women banks.