Governance

International Women's Day: Mungli Lohar leads the way in a Saranda forest

A small help nudged her to entrepreneurship

 
By Atreyee Kar
Published: Saturday 07 March 2020

The Chhota Nagra village in the Saranda forest of Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district is home to a chirpy, ever positive young woman, Mungli Lohar.

After being married into a large family she immediately had to take care of two younger brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and an ailing father-in-law. Lohar and her husband Gura struggled to make ends meet from day one.

Caring for the in-laws kept Mungli busy at home all day while Gura pursued several daily wage jobs to provide for the family.  

What made her stand out was her positive attitude, an inherent indomitable spirit. Coupled with her enterprising nature, it helped her turn around the story of her entire family. In 2016, she was selected by Trickle Up as an ultra-poor project participant.  

Mungli became a member of the Maskal self-help group (SHG), a place to save, access credit and share advice with other women in her community. Through project M-Powered, supported by the CSR division of Tata Communications, she also received a grant of Rs 3,000 and a smartphone to choose a livelihood option.

Following the advice of her coach, she not decided to invest in livestock and boldly started a small business. She also bought stocks and supplies to start a fast-food outlet at the local Saturday market.

Her membership with the group helped her network and promote the outlet. Initially, she could only break-even. She used her new smart phone to learn and access information for making more informed business decisions.

With word spreading about her outlet, she started supplying food to the SHG for snack-breaks at their meetings.

The trend caught on, and she now takes orders and delivers her food to other SHGs in and around her village during their meetings or training sessions.  

Today, Mungli runs the food business with Gura’s help. Every week, she is able to invest Rs 1,800 into buying supplies for the shop and makes a profit of Rs 3,000 on an average. With the earnings, she has purchased a bicycle that Gura uses to deliver food faster to keep up with demand. 

“I have employed three people to cook and clean. We use Sal leaves for bio-degradable plates and bowls as I too have a responsibility towards the environment. My constant endeavour is to grow business,” she says.

“One day, my food joint will be open all days of the week. One day, every woman from my community will walk out and earn their living,” the confident young woman says.

Gura is now one of the rare men in the village to be known by his wife’s identity and is referred to as Mungli’s husband. From being a young bride with a huge burden on her shoulders, Mungli today is a leader in her own right.

She is not just a role model for her own village, in her community, but also for her five-year old daughter, who is growing up watching her superhero of a mother handling her business and her family affairs with elan. Her son who is growing up in a gender sensitive household, will learn to respect women and treat them as equals. 

 “I sometimes feel if I did not take charge of the situation, maybe today I would be just any other woman. But I stood up for myself, I worked hard, followed a plan, and now I am a leader in the community,” says Mungli. 

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