MANIPUR: Born in Manipur’s Ukhrul district, Yangmila trekked 7 km every morning to go to Ukhrul town from her Pharung village, carrying a basket full of vegetables on her back. After selling it off, she would trek the distance back home. Post-lunch, she would again undertake the trek – to and fro – for the day’s second round of business.
This Naga woman became a vegetable vendor not by choice but by circumstances. She began selling vegetables around the time she gave birth to a baby boy in 1991 at the age of 21 but without entering into a marriage. With the man choosing not to live with her, it fell upon Yangmila to look after her kid and also her ailing father. She continued undertaking the arduous journeys until 2002, when she came up with an idea to turn things around.
“I began selling used clothes and, a few years later, tried my luck in poultry farming to make a living. I began to have financial stability in my life in 2016 when I took to the food processing business after undergoing training conducted by an NGO,” Yangmila says.
The single mother, who had launched her startup with an investment of Rs 500, initially laid her focus on candies. She processed gooseberry, mango, wild olive, apple and fig, peach, etc and turned them into candies. The locals liked her products. Buoyed by the instant success, she started making organic pickles from chilli, garlic, perilla seeds, bitter eggplants, bamboo shoots, fox nut, and other things after having attended a workshop organised by a local Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), where she learned pickle-making.
The KVKs are farm science centres that connect with local associations to help farmers improve their farming practices and productivity through agricultural research.
They function as part of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
“I named my startup ‘Shirin Products’. Shirin is a Tangkhul Naga term, which means ‘everyone is given a chance to flourish regardless of the person being rich or poor’. Gooseberry candy was its first product,” Yangmila says.
The startup has its workshed at Viewland in Ukhrul. Work here is mostly done manually, but equipment such as foil sealer, hot air gun or blower, and grinder, among other things, are also used. Farmers from her village and adjoining villages provide her with fresh forage.
Some time ago, the startup received a grant of Rs 1.2 lakh from GIZ, a German NGO. It also took a loan of Rs 2 lakh from Rang De, a lending platform regulated by RBI. Shirin Products today has a market not only in the Naga hills but also in Manipur’s capital, Imphal, Assam, Nagaland and New Delhi. It sells the products through Facebook and other online platforms.
“We had a humble beginning. Initially, we relied on door-to-door sales with just one worker – me, the proprietor. Now, I have six permanent workers and six temporary workers, all of them youngsters, whom I have trained. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when I can provide employment to a youth,” Yangmila says.
Her son Shangreiphao, an MSc in forestry who now helps her mother in her business venture, ascribed her success to hard work.
“One can only imagine what she must have gone through being a single mother. It was purely for survival that she undertook the treks to Ukhrul twice a day for 12 years,” he says.
When he was six years old, his paternal grandfather took him to Nagaland’s Dimapur. “It was his decision. My mother was deeply sad that I was going away from her, but she was equally concerned about my well-being and education,” says Shangreiphao, reminiscing about the tough times.
About 10 years ago, he returned to Ukhrul and has been living with his mother since. “I am proud of her. She is a gutsy woman who is not afraid of facing the challenges of life,” the son says.
Yangmila is a recipient of the Vijaya Lakshmi Das Entrepreneurship Award and the Assam Women Entrepreneurs Award. She got the honours for her entrepreneurial spirit and for creating an impact in rural Manipur.
At times, she is invited by local government authorities and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to deliver speeches at events where the topic is food safety and hygiene.
Mashungmi Zingkhai, a local youth leader, says Yangmila has been an inspiration for the locals.
“She is a school dropout, and all those who work with her are also school dropouts. Government jobs are scarce, and she wants to train the unemployed youth so they can launch their own business ventures and make it big in life,” he says.