For Kalpana Banik, earning a living began with a sewing machine.
She grew up and married in Nadia district, West Bengal, and the marriage came early, before she could finish her education. Afterwards she learnt tailoring and took small stitching jobs to add to the household income. The work paid, but she wanted more than tailoring.
About three years ago, she started trading garments on a small scale. It was a modest venture. It was also the first time she tried something beyond the work she already knew.
A knock from UDYAMINI
Around a year and a half ago, Dipti Biswas, a SoochnaPreneur Business Mitra (SBM) with UDYAMINI, approached Kalpana and encouraged her to join the programme. They spoke a few times, and Kalpana enrolled.
UDYAMINI is a four-year Rural Women Entrepreneurship Programme working across five value chains (digital literacy, handloom, livestock, agriculture and allied industries, and tea) in 19 districts of West Bengal and Assam.
Starting with the smartphone
Kalpana began with digital literacy. Dipti showed her how to use her smartphone for everyday transactions and for business. Soon she was handling online banking and paying through Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm. She also learnt how to stay safe online.
It was not easy at first. Several of the apps were hard to follow, and she needed repeated sessions to get comfortable. She practised, asked questions, and tried again.
Today, she says she has “a place to go whenever I face any problem related to the digital world”.
Making the business official
The training also made her think about formal registration and record-keeping. With Dipti’s help, Kalpana obtained her Udyam Registration and Trade License, and she now keeps her daily records on the Mera Bill app.
The change is practical. Records let her track every transaction, and registration gives her business an identity of its own. Dipti remains her go-to person for ideas when business gets difficult.
Looking for customers online
Kalpana is now exploring social media and other online networks to make her products more visible and find new buyers. The effort is still at an early stage.
Her enterprise, Suvo Enterprise, is named after her son.
A day for women like her
October 15 is the International Day of Rural Women, set aside by the United Nations to recognise the part women play in rural livelihoods, households and communities.
Kalpana’s story fits it well. Her progress came in steps: a smartphone, then digital payments, then registration, then her first look at online markets. She is a first-generation rural entrepreneur, learning each of these as she goes.
Her business is still garment trading, but it runs differently now. She keeps accounts on her phone, takes digital payments, and has a registered enterprise carrying her son’s name.
The sewing machine is still part of the story. The smartphone has joined it.
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