Shivamma


“It is always good to have a house of your own.


In my brother’s house, there was no place for a visitor to even sit down.”
We are sitting in the home Shivamma has had constructed for herself and her
daughter out of the profits from her bangle-selling business. As we talk, she recalls
how the self-help group she joined encouraged her to start thinking of business
opportunities to supplement her agricultural income.
“I saw the kind of business a bangle seller was doing, and I thought, why can’t I do
something like this? I initially took a 4000 rupee loan to buy some bangles. The business
went well, so later I took an 8000 rupee loan to improve it. I go to Raichur to buy bangles
and sell them here in the village. People come, from our village and other villages, to buy
bangles from me. They come, even though I am [a dalit].”
Through Samuha, Shivamma has now had exposure to many new concepts and
places.
“I have learned how to form groups, maintain savings, calculate loans and interest rates,
negotiate with banks. Our trainings have taken us as far as Bangalore and Kerala.”
Shivamma’s business acumen and people skills have changed her life in unexpected
ways.
“In the village, they respect me so much and call me ‘Shaale Shivamma’ (an expression
to signify that even though she has no formal education, she has knowledge about many
things). If any public officials come to the village, they are first sent to talk to me.
I only went to school for five years and I never used to talk to any outsider. All this was
possible only because of Samuha.”