HYDERABAD: Women, in the recent past, have raised the glass ceiling in numerous ways. From sports to arts and from academia to boardrooms, women are now making their presence felt across the world. One might call it beginner’s luck, but wonders have happened when rural women are encouraged to try and innovate. The government, too, is leaving no stone unturned to help women, who are often from marginalised communities and low-income families, realise their potential and make it big in life.
Thirty five-year-old Vankadavath Mothi Bhai, a self-help group (SHG) member from Cheekaru Chettu thanda of Peddamandadi mandal, was one of the lucky ones to become a beneficiary of a government initiative meant to make women entrepreneurs.
Under the programme, she was trained at the Post-Harvest Technology Lab at the College of Horticulture, Sri Konda Laxman Telangana State Horticultural University, Mojerla. During her 15-day-long programme, she learnt to prepare marketable products from crops and plants.
After the training, she, along with a group of farmers from her village, began cultivating lemongrass on 15 acres of land. With the help of her training, she began manufacturing soap, perfume, tea, shampoo, air freshener, floor-cleaning liquid and agarbatti (incense sticks and cones) using lemongrass extracts, which have many health benefits.
Mothi Bhai has been using the tea stall located in the district collectorate to showcase her products as well. The district collector also helped the SHG procure an oil-extracting machine worth Rs 6.5 lakh, which Mothi Bhai and her colleagues have been using to make the products.
The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) helped her attend various exhibitions to promote her products. Recently, she received an order worth Rs 5 lakh from the US for soaps and shampoos made using lemongrass extract. She has received the best farmer award from a foundation and has also been selected for the best farmer award from Telangana, which will be presented to her by the Central Institute of Medical and Aromatic Plants, at Lucknow on January 31.
Speaking to TNIE, Mothi Bhai says she also uses bathing powder, goat milk, strawberry, tomato, aloe vera and papaya as bases for her soap products, in addition to using lemongrass extract. She is currently planning to expand her product base and also promote lemongrass tea bags, which she claims reduces back pain, and helps bring blood pressure and diabetes under control.
She is grateful for help from district collector Shaik Yasmeen Basha and Professor J Shankaraswamy for going out of the way to help her become an entrepreneur. Not just her, there are 30 SHG women from four villages who have been trained at the lab through funding from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), for manufacturing value-added products out of extracts from horticultural crops.
The lab also branded their products separately for each of the products, with brand names such Gampawada, Srikshara, U Jeevan and Grassoil. For instance, the idea of Gampawada is to have SHG women market their own products by carrying them in baskets and selling them as hawkers. Prof J Shankara Swamy, assistant professor, Fruit Science, College of Mojerla, who is the brain behind the lab, tells TNIE that several banks are coming forward to give loans to the SHG women.