Parivartan Mahila Bachat Gat, Thoratwadi
Mrs. Sunanda Pawar had organised a
meeting in Thoratwadi during which she put
forward an idea of setting up an enterprise which
would tailor Petticoats and sell them. The idea
was accepted and lauded by almost all women
from the village, but most of these women were farm labourers. They had no experience in either
managing finances or managing the business
itself. The problem of capital was solved by Mrs.
Sunanda Pawar herself. She provided a finance
of 33,000 rupees to the Self Help Group to
purchase 5 sewing machines and enough cloth.
The six member women of the SHG then put in
3 thousand rupees per head, raising a capital of
18,000 rupees. As the women had no experience
of tailoring and designing a Petticoat, they were
given extensive training for a month by the Sharda
Mahila Sangh.
After the training, the production activities
started. In the later phases, Mr. Balasaheb Nagre of
the Sharda Mahila Sangh, provided them whatever
help was needed via the organisation. Production
started on a large scale. Marketing efforts were
taken too. Cloth was bought from Rajasthan,
Solapur, Ichalkaranji and the production of
Petticoats started. Many orders started pouring in.
The Bhimthadi Jatra too became a good platform
to market their produce.
The SHG started to prosper and the scale
of work increased, One day, Mr. Rajesh Baitha,
Manager, Bank of Maharashtra visited the unit.
There he found out that another sewing machine
was required by the Petticoat unit. He arranged
the documentation within a day and made a
loan amount of 50,000 rupess available to the
Parivartan Mahila Bachat Gat. Now that there
were 6 functional sewing machines, they could
take larger orders.
Today, many people visit to see the work of
this SHG from areas like Daund, Barshi, Morgaon,
Khanota etc and are inspired to replicate such
projects in their villages too.
Today the Parivartan Mahila Bachat
Gat has earned repute as factory manufacturing
Petticoats and this has brought about a truly
fundamental change in the lives of these common
women...