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...