Educating her children so they could lead a better life was the sole motivation for Pramila Didi to take up alternate livelihood activities. She earned 19,000 INR in a year via lac procurement and used the money to pay for her children’s college tuition. Pramila, a housewife living in a remote village in Chhattisgarh, helped her husband on their farms. But soon she realised that more than the money from farming would be needed to educate her two sons. Especially when the first pandemic wave hit, she felt a pressing need to start earning extra income.

In 2020, she attended a few of our knowledge-sharing sessions. She witnessed women earning from various sources, including backyard poultry and milk production. When she returned home to her family, she was convinced she had to work to improve her family’s living conditions. Her husband and children were equally excited and encouraged her to go ahead.

Pramila chose to plant Semialata in her farms—the host plant for lac production. She participated in the training sessions and quickly grasped the know-how of lacing. In a short period of time, she planted Semialata saplings and, within a year, harvested over 100 kilogrammes of lac. Her revenue generation from lac was about 19,000 INR this year. All this money was used for her children’s education.

Inspired by her entrepreneurial stint, Pramila will now venture into backyard poultry. Her husband and children have lent a hand in fulfilling her aspirations. They have helped her build a poultry shed and often visit the farms to tend to the Semialata trees. Watching Pramila and her family, a few other women in the village have decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. Pramila’s story inspires the woman and her family’s constant support, which has set an example for other families in the community. The training sessions and saplings we provided for Pramila to start her business cost us 8,000 INR. You can donate this amount to create more women entrepreneurs like Pramila.