Smt. Rasmita Das

Smt. Rasmita Das hailing from Baranga Village in Khurda is a member of Trisulia A JLG group. She is a 4th cycle client of Annapurna and is been associated since 2016. She was very young when she got married and right after few days of her marriage, she started supporting her husband in his pottery business. Her life took an unexpected turn when she lost her husband. After the death of her husband, she took all the responsibilities and carried on the family business all by herself. She took her first loan from Annapurna of Rs.25,000 in the year 2016, with the help of which she expanded her working area and diversified her products. Her sons and daughters-in-law also started helping her grow the business. Her sons help in firing the pots on the ground and in transporting and selling the products in the local market place and her daughters-in-law prepare the pots with her. Smt. Rasmita started getting orders of 150-200 pots per day and sometimes the number also increases as per the occasions and festivals. Household utensils made of clay are highly associated with the life of women especially in rural areas. Looking towards the increasing demand and un- availability of certain products in her village, she planned to take another loan of Rs 35,000 on 2018 and started making diyas, utensils and clay toys. She earns Rs.15,000-20,000 per month and even Rs.20,000-30,000 per month during the on season. The varieties of product offered by her were very unique in the village. The demand was high for these products due to which Smt. Rasmita decided to take another loan of Rs.40,000. By using that loan amount, she doubled the production of her items and even started supplying the products in bulk to the town. Smt. Rasmita is one of a kind who believes in keeping the traditional craft culture alive due to which she has a unique procedure of making diyas. She creates her own variation of handcrafted diyas with eco-friendly colors. She has not only succeeded in her business but also empowered the women in her family by involving them into the business. Her daughters-in-law are taking forward the legacy of her business. Recently, in the year 2022 she applied for Rs.50,000 so that they can expand their business and improve the infrastructure of the working area. Her biggest success was to be able to sustain her family financially and help her grandson to pursue good education. She is very thankful to the organization for supporting her in the bank linkage program due to which they got access to banking facilities and even learned using ATM cards. She feels overwhelmed that Annapurna has been supporting her throughout so many years. She says that Annapurna offers the best staff behavior. She likes the decreasing rate of interest and smooth disbursement process due to which she is willing to continue taking loans from this organization for more time.