Micro-loans – Helping poor households and businesses survive and thrive in challenging times

Udaipur : While the lockdown enabled white-collared professionals to work from the comfort of their homes, it has been quite challenging for low-income families in rural areas to survive. The lockdown severely impacted the income outflow of shop owners in rural India. However, Devika Rajan from Gogunga Village in Rajasthan – well-known as ‘Devika didi’ refused to give up and decided to manage the financial crisis.

Work at construction sights came to a halt, and her husband Devendar was left with no choice but to close down hiswelding shop in 2020. Further, the small cosmetics shop lead by Devikaat the veranda of her house was severely impacted which  led to ahead-to-toe survival in 2020 for the entire family. Devendra started losing hope as he hardly managed to earn Rs 2,000 on a monthly basis. Devika was determined to support her husband and decided to help improve the financial status of her family.

Observing the change in lifestyle i.e., people shifting from cities to villages due to work from home and preferring more ‘family time’ in 2020, she decided to make gifting items the core USP of her business. She decided to expand her business with a novelty shop stocking new products.  With an understanding about the benefits of microloan borrowings from Svatantra Microfin – NBFC-MFI, she registered to the Joint Liability Programme and received the first loan amount of Rs. 40,000.  Gradually, the demand of her products grew leading to an improved standard of living with the profits earned.

Today, Devika has not only become an example of being a successful entrepreneur but also has become an inspiration to every woman amidst the entire village. Despite the circumstances, she did not lose hope and was determined to support her family.By getting apt support at the right time, Devika successfully overcame the difficulties during the lockdown phase. She attributes her success to SvatantraMicrofin who supported her during the pandemic and helped her stabilise the economic condition of the family.