Category: Sustainable Livelihoods

Meet Beautician Bano, a fiercely determined entrepreneur and mother of three, who rose above all odds from sweeping a beauty parlour to owning her own.

Since she was a child, Fairoza was fond of studying and learning new things; but due to familial constraints, she was unable to pursue her dreams of being educated. She was married at the age of 16.

Unfortunately, her marriage was not a happy one. For 12 years Fairoza

Self-dependent, resilient and driven, Santosh Sharma and her husband Rajinder Sharma continue to face challenges with grit despite multiple challenges.

Mrs. Santosh Sharma, 37, runs a manufacturing business along with her husband Rajinder Sharma (both of them are orthopaedically challenged) from their home in Delhi. They manufacture and sell various types of hand-made and machine-made cotton wicks and other essential pooja items (festival products) via B2B and B2C channels, exhibitions, and online sales channels like Indiamart and Instamojo.

The establishment of their business in 2018 was closely tied with support from ATPAR (www.atpar.in), an organization that provides Entrepreneurship Development and Mentoring  support to entrepreneurs with disabilities. They decided to start this home-based manufacturing enterprise after they attended an Entrepreneurship Development Training session conducted by ATPAR where they learned the manufacturing process. Santosh and Rajinder Sharma have grown to have three people under their employment in the time since, and have started getting international orders, while continuing to receive ATPAR

Warli artisan Yamini is proud to be an earning member of her family in a time of crisis, and hopes to inspire her sons to be independent and resilient.

Yamini, who had started out as a tailor, now has additional skills to boast about. A 35-year-old from Maharashtra, Yamini migrated from her home village, Jalgaon Jilla, to the city of Bhiwandi to earn a better livelihood.

Through her Bachat Gat (Self Help Group), she started attending the stitching training workshops conducted by TISSER in 2018. Having worked as a tailor, she was used to stitching blouses and saree falls (a piece of clothing attached to the hem of a saree), but with additional training she learnt to make newer pieces of clothing like jackets etc. It was in one such training session that TISSER representatives introduced her to Warli art. 

Her husband, the primary breadwinner of the family, works as a driver for private cab service companies. His monthly income of around ?15,000 was insufficient for family expenses, including the education of their two sons, which eventually required them to rely on informal money lenders. 

The uncertainty created by COVID-19 and the fear of her husband

Fearless and focused, Warli artist and trainer Razia has been breaking barriers in her community and enabling other women to restart their livelihoods.

When Razia Falluh Khan learnt that a group of 30 women in Ulhasnagar, a city over 40km away from her hometown Vajreshwari, Maharashtra, needed training in Warli artisanship, she was hesitant. The journey required her to climb a hill.

For Warli artisan Savita, who was financially independent before the pandemic, the depletion of savings and unstable earnings is a great cause of anxiety.

Savita Vastakar, a 32-year-old artisan, got trained in Warli art when she found out about the TISSER skilling program through a women

Through an artisanal upskilling program facilitated by the REVIVE Alliance, one resolute woman has found a way to turn her passion for painting into a means of income that can facilitate her children

When the world moved to work-from-home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Divya Chouhan ambitiously moved her business to an official premises to establish herself and grow.

When Divya Chouhan heads home in the afternoon after her shift at the Women and Child Department office, her neighbours often stop her on her way. Since she has a government job, they like to consult her about almost everything

Rakhi found her calling as a beautypreneur after dabbling in eclectic subjects like political science and mathematics. However, no past experience could have prepared her for the fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic

Before Rakhi Zamre opened a beauty parlour in her village, Chandikapur, Maharashtra, she had experimented with a lot of things. She graduated in political science, taught math for six years, and had even designed and sold sarees. When Rakhi set up her beauty-parlour, she brought together all of her experience to set-up a successful business. 

However, nothing had prepared her to face the pandemic. Before the lockdown, Rakhi

Meet Ritu-ben, a nano entrepreneur and mother of two, who has not allowed the harsh effects of the pandemic deter her optimistic spirit and perseverance

30-year old Ritu-ben lives on the outskirts of Ahmedabad with her husband, mother-in-law and two mischievous sons. She studied only till class 5, after which she had to help her mother with domestic duties. Marrying young, she said, taught her many things that she couldn