Almost a decade ago, Balje N. Sangma was a home maker, who occasionally tended to paddy and vegetable farming mainly for self-consumption. Today, this woman in her thirties has beautifully grown into an entrepreneur who is successfully running a tea stall at the block office of Betasing Block in South West Garo Hills District and dreams of owning a piggery farm one day. Her husband still works as a Chowkidar at the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, but is no longer burdened by the responsibility of being the sole bread earner for the family of seven.
As a young mother in her mid-twenties, Sangma realized that it was difficult to make ends meet with the salary that her husband earned, and managing the household within the monthly budget was becoming a difficult task. However, she was not ready to succumb to the present and deprive her children of the basic necessities of life.
This triggered her mind and made her think that she needed to venture into other means of livelihood to lighten the load off her husband’s shoulder and secure a better life for her family. Upon hearing this, one of the staff members working at the block office of the Betasing Block proposed her the idea of opening a tea stall at the premises. Sangma toyed with the idea for a while. A tea stall business will be a profiting one, she thought, especially in an office area. And the fact that there are no other food stalls around the Betasing Block office is an added advantage. But she did not have the funds necessary to invest in the business. Upon hearing that she was interested to open the tea stall at the office premises, the staff at the block office decided to help her with the finances. As such, this was a win-win situation; Sangma would earn the income she desperately needed and the staff would have the comfort of having
tea and snacks in the office premises during breaks.
So, with the Rs 10,000 that she received from the office staff, the tea stall was set up, and soon the stall was filled with customers throughout the day. As the customer base started increasing and the stall gained popularity and Sangma employed three helpers. At times when she received orders for meetings and events, and therefore needed extra help, she would hire around 10-15 daily wage earners.
The returns from the tea stall were enough to provide for the basic needs of her family. But, occasionally, Sangma faced difficulty in paying her rent when the payment for the orders she fulfilled was delayed by 3 to 4 months.
So the next goal that she had in mind was to find a business activity that would fill up this gap. On the look-out for new business ventures, she learnt about Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) and the programmes that it has initiated in promoting livelihood for the public through enterprises and entrepreneurship. Without any delay, Sangma approached the Basin Development Unit stationed at the Deputy Commissioner’s office, where she was informed about the process she needed to follow to get herself registered with the Enterprise Facilitation Centre (EFC) at the Betasing Block.
At the EFC, Sangma expressed her interest to take up piggery as a means of livelihood, as she already had previous experience in rearing pigs. True to its name, the centre facilitated the necessary training programmes, which greatly enhanced Sangma’s skills and knowledge in piggery. She is now capable of rearing more pigs, learned how to make hygienic pig-sties, and how to manage diseases related to pigs.
The EFC also helped her in getting a loan for expanding her tea stall business. Being a resourceful woman, Sangma managed to save up a part of the loan amount for buying piglets. She also used the leftovers from her tea stall as feed for the pigs and supplemented that with rice husk.
With both the businesses running successfully, Sangma’s family’s future looks promising. Her decision to take up the profiting tea stall business has been rewarding. The tea stall has been running successfully for the past 10 years and she has piggery as a back-up. The expansion of the tea stall has provided good profits for her and has helped her in securing bigger orders whenever there are events in and around the area.
Sangma scripted her success story as an entrepreneur. Even though her schooling ended only till the ninth standard, she did not want her children to end up in the same path. As every parent, she aspires to provide a better future for her five children and the journey ahead is still a long one. She clearly understands that financial stability is a key factor that would decide the fate of her young children. Through her unbridled determination and willingness to work hard she has been able to shoulder responsibilities alongside her husband and has been able to provide the security that she wanted for her children.