A loan of $1,550 helped a member to rent a shop to sell her vegetables and fruits and buy more vegetables and fruits to stock.

Sri Ram Group's story

In 2009, six women from Muniguda village located in Rayagada district, one of the poorest regions in India, stepped out and decided to build a secure future for their family by sharing the burden of the family with their husbands. They formed a group named Sri Ram (named after Lord Rama who they believe will protect them). One of them is Lalita. The lady standing to the extreme left in the photo is Lalita.

Lalita is 26 years old, living with her husband, two sons aged 9 and 6 and one daughter aged 5. All three of the children are attending school. Lalita started selling vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, onions etc., and seasonal fruits like mangos and strawberries in the local village market with the help of her husband. Her husband has been involved in vegetable and fruit selling for the last 10 years. He brings stock from the nearby bigger markets which are 300-400 km away and sells to the local wholesalers in their village market.

There was always some left-over stock that was not sold which had to be thrown away as they did not have a storage space of their own. So, Lalita decided to start selling these vegetables on her own by the roadside in the market. She now wants to rent a shop that will help her to have a place to sell the vegetables. It will also help her to buy more stock at a time and house the additional stock of vegetables. Buying more stock will help reduce her frequent travel to the market and eventually transportation and buying costs. A portion of the loan amount will help her to rent a shop in the market and purchase more stock of vegetables and fruits. She would like to grow her business and save enough to have a shop of her own.

In this group: Rukmani, Khira, Sabhya, Lalita, Brundabati, Nisha*

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