Women, men from marginalised sections turn entrepreneurs

April 25, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:45 am IST - KOLKATA

: Amid a depressing job-scenario, the youth in West Bengal, especially from the marginal and economically weaker sections, are slowly turning from job-seekers to job-givers, setting up small business ventures and treading into waters uncharted by their family elders.

Earning a livelihood is no longer about getting a job. Neither is it about setting up mom-and-pop stores or a hole-in-the-wall ‘business’. It is about enterprise. And women are jostling with men for their space-under-the-sun, showing an equal zeal to set up their own venture.

The brightest spot in this emerging trend is that these youths have all acquired skills, even if they are school-dropouts or housewives. They are also keen to augment their capabilities by attending entrepreneur training workshops.

The Hindu spoke to a cross-section of these first-generation entrepreneurs who can make a difference to an employment scene which is stagnating due to the dearth of industrial projects in West Bengal.

Take Santu Sheikh, for instance. The 26-year-old is the son of a jute mill worker, whose sudden death put the family in economic hardship. Undaunted, he started a tailoring unit for making salwar kameez. His lack of formal training was compensated by a natural-flair for designing and stitching garments, he says. He now employs five women and 20 men in supplying garments to wholesalers. “ My margins are tight but I am happy with the venture,” says the struggling but enterprising man.

Ramkrishna Dey and Krishnendu Dolui too are first-generation entrepreneurs with technical education backgrounds. While Mr Dey is a primary school teacher’s son, Mr Dolui’s father is a farmer. Mr Dolui has come up with an energy-saving device, which cuts electricity costs and Mr Dey’s unit makes security surveillance equipment like CCTVs. Their units employ five persons each.

However, it is the tale of the Ratna Naskars or Anjura Mullicks, which can be termed harbingers of the times to come. Ms Mullick surmounted her family problems, not only to set up a zardozi embroidery unit, but she also set up a women-and-child-welfare unit to help distressed women who come to her unit from the neighbourhood villages. She trains her 150 women-strong team herself, enabling them to earn at least Rs 800 a week. Ms Naskar set up a tailoring unit to supplement the earnings of her husband who is a mechanic. She now employs two girls and the income is brisk during the festive season.

These budding entrepreneurs and many more of their ilk recently attended an entrepreneurs development workshop organised by the CII. Half the participants were women. This level of enthusiasm and participation took the organisers by surprise.

The programme sought to provide handholding-support to new entrepreneurs and help them prepare business reports, access finance and recruit appropriate people.Aloke Mukherjee, CII regional chief, said that the aim was to mentor them.

Angshuman Adhikary, a State government official, said that it was important that they do not leave midway.

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