Testimonials · Kala Akshar

Learning Makes Me

Student holding a sign that says Learning makes me strong

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Ladies We Love

Stories of courage and possibility.

Each woman, her portrait and her story — presented one by one.

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Pabiben Rabari

Belonging to the Rabari community of Gujarat, Pabiben runs an enterprise that empowers women artisans — Pabiben.com. The all-women company makes bags, dhurries, files, quilts, cushion covers and more. It employs a special craft form invented by Pabiben — Hari Jari — which is the machine application of ready-made elements. Pabiben, who lives in Bhadroi village, started working as a young girl to help her widowed mother. She could not complete her formal education because of financial constraints, so she stayed at home, learning traditional embroidery from her mother.

Through her business, she has created employment opportunities for over 60 women in her village, enabling them to become strong, skilled and independent.

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Sobita Tamuli

Hailing from Telana village in Assam, 35-year-old Sobita Tamuli runs Seuji, an all-women self-help group that manufactures and sells organic manure and traditional Assamese japis. Sobita first had the idea for Seuji in 2002, as a teenager who had been married off. Later, she gathered a few other women in her village and put her plan into action. Known as Kesuhar, Seuji makes organic manure containing natural elements such as cow dung, banana plant remains, earthworms and fallen leaves, and sells it for ₹50 per five-kilogram packet.

Sobita’s priority is leaving middlemen out and doing everything — from ideation to manufacturing and selling — from scratch.

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Godavari Satpute

Thirty-eight-year-old Godavari Satpute, from Nari Village in Maharashtra, runs her own paper-lamp manufacturing business, Godavari Akashkandil, which she founded in 2009. Her eureka moment came when she spotted a paper lamp in a local market and realised she could make one herself. With her husband’s encouragement, Godavari sought bank loans but was turned away. Her relatives then offered a small interest-free loan, allowing her to lay the foundation. She eventually approached BYST — Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust — for financial aid and entrepreneurial guidance to take her company further.

Godavari employs other women and enables them to become financially independent. She also won Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at the Youth Business International Awards in 2013.

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Future aspirations