Dhrangadhra as I had pictured in my mind absolutely turned out to be this small town of women who not only run their businesses but they run it effectively. There’s a lot of careful planning that goes into it. After meeting so many women and listening to their tales of successful entrepreneurship, I was thoroughly inspired.
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Even though the mud-puddled roads were acting ruthlessly, but with the weather showing a ginormous amount of mercy that day, I couldn’t help but be in high spirits. The unit office staff members accompanying me were displaying high levels of energy too. And it was time to meet the last Milaap borrower for that day.
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Vanitaben Gamara, the proud owner of five buffaloes took a loan of Rs. 15,000 from Milaap for buying one more buffalo six months back. She has been into the business of selling milk since a very long time. This was more of a long-standing sustainable family business. Vanitaben, who has two sons, aged 5 and 3, is expecting a third child. Even though none of her family members or she herself are educated, she wants her children to be well-educated. Vanitaben who earns a sum of Rs. 50 per liter by selling the milk, also sells cow dung cakes, which are used in the fields as manure. Selling cow dung cakes has become a thriving business for many. And for Vanitaben, both these businesses overall helped in increasing her monthly income by Rs. 3000. That’s three times the Rs. 1000 she had hoped to increase her income by when she applied for this loan.
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There are a lot of industrious women like Vanitaben in Gujarat who are capable of hard work and running their businesses profitably. All they need is a little help. A loan from Milaap changed Vanitaben’s life to a considerable extent, and she surely is grateful for it.
Vanitaben astutely tripled the growth of her dairy business with the support of Milaap lenders
