These women in Karnataka are turning themselves into women entrepreneurs
Meet the Raichur women entrepreneurs who have been effectively managing side hustles and providing for their families. These female entrepreneurs have had tough times in their lives and gone through a lot of hardships, and many other underprivileged women in Karnataka have turned themselves successfully into businesswomen. Let’s take look at some of these underprivileged Karnataka women to be able to stand by themselves financially.
The Raichur district in Karnataka is currently occupied by many female entrepreneurs. They are gradually developing a name for themselves as local business owners who provide for their families by operating tailoring shops and roti-making operations. Some of them, including Taiyamma, have also taken on the persona of an Unnati Sakhi as a part of the Code Unnati Project by the UNDP and SAP Labs.
They locate other local women entrepreneurs like themselves and develop their potential as Unnati Sakhis. I’ve never been happier, says Taiyamma, a former ASHA employee who now works for herself and manages a tiffin center in Raichur, Karnataka.
Meet another female entrepreneur, Shikhakala, who started riding a scooter at the age of 12. She frequently borrowed his friends’ scooters to practice riding even though her postman father had no riding experience. She claimed that my father would reprimand her if she kept falling off the scooter. However, she persisted, according to the 46-year-old who now instructs women in driving in Raichur. She makes enough money and has a lot of students. But the moment she realizes she has assisted a woman is standing on her own two feet makes her happy.
Meet the multitasker! Every morning, Farzana gets up at five o’clock for namaaz. She does her tasks around the house and then, at midday, she goes to her kirana business to work on her maggam creations. “I never sit still, my husband grouses. He occasionally silences my alarm to prevent me from waking up too early”, says the women entrepreneur.
When Jayashree’s husband, a farmer and the family’s main provider, developed paralysis on one side of the body five years ago, her life came to a complete halt. But a few months ago, she started a jowar roti manufacturing company after attending a UNDP entrepreneurship training. The woman business owner claimed, “My business was doing so well that my son quit his job at an electric shop to help me out full-time.” Jayashree, a 45-year-old woman, works out of this dilapidated barn. She delivers 350–400 jowar rotis every day, and her company makes between Rs 40,000–45,500 in revenue each month. Another unique short story.
Here come Sujata and Parimala. During a training programme in a clothing manufacturer in 2021, Sujata and Parimala crossed paths. Sujata was trained by maggam work master Parimala with the goal of one day owning her own embroidery business. In honor of their friendship, the pair just started their own store, Sakhi Garments. Sujata had always wished she could afford to purchase a computerized embroidery machine, which would cost Rs. 4 lakh. One was purchased with a loan from her brother. Sujata claims she paid it back completely with her winnings. “When I was four years old, my father passed away, and ever since, my brother has been my rock. He trusted in me”, she says.
And finally, we have Yallava. The Karnataka woman was devastated when she lost her husband, the family’s only source of income, a few years ago. She was left to fend for herself and her family without any prior experience working for a living. But Yallava didn’t realize that she would one day serve as an inspiration to others in those desperate situations. Yallava, a local of the little town of Kaladagi in the Karnataka province’s Bagalkot district, is now leading a life she could never have imagined for herself.
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