Case Studies

Kulsam Bi bought her own haath-thela (hand-cart)

• Name of the borrower: Kulsam Bi
• Loan Amount: Rs.2000
• Repayment Period: 47 weeks
• Activity: Purchase of thela (hand pulled cart)

Kulsam bi is handicapp lady, lives in Majhouli block of Jabalpur district. The area falls under Majhouli Unit of Sonata. Kulsam bi has a small family consisting of her husband, father and mother in law and one girl child. Her husband name is Chunna Shah and he works as a Palledaar i.e carrying goods on cart in the Majhouli block. He is the sole breadwinner for his family. Before taking loan from Sonata, he used to have a thela on rent for carrying goods, for which he had to pay Rs 30 per day as a rent for the thela.

It was some six months from now, when Sonata explored possibilities of starting operating in the villages of Majhouli block. Kulsum Bi was one of the first to join the group as she was in urgent need of financial support. Initially our field officer contacted her and told her about the product detail, she found that it was cheaper compared to the interest rate offered by local moneylenders that was 3% flat per month. Bank was of no help to her. Though she was convinced, there were other members in her group who were doubtful. It took almost a month to convince other members in a group and undergo the compulsory training and finally group recognition test (GRT) on 27/12/06. The disbursement was done ultimately on 5/01/07 along with the other members. Her weekly installment is Rs 50/- and has to be repaid in 47 equal installments in 47 weeks. Now with a loan from Sonata she had bought her own an old thela.

The thela cost her Rs 1300/- and there were additional Rs 500/- required for its repairing. So she had a working thela at the cost of Rs. 1800/-. She has rented her thela to her husband who in turn pays her daily rental of Rs 30/- and savings of Rs 10/-. The day when her husband doesnt get any work she rents her thela to others and in turn manages her daily earnings. Kulsam Bi has managed to repay the weekly installment regularly and at the same time is a proud owner of a thela, an asset created with her intelligence.

In the period of last three months she has been able to repay an amount of Rs. 550 towards loan repayment through 11 equal installments. She is now concentrating on repaying full amount of loan of Sonata and is looking forwards to an increased funding in the next cycle to buy another new thela which costs Rs 3000/-.

With a loan amount as small as Rs 2,000/-, we have been able to make some dent in the livelihood of kulsum bi.

Is it only a Tea Stall?

• Name of the borrower: Rametri Chourasia
• Loan Amount: Rs.5,000
• Repayment Period: 47 weeks
• Activity: Tea-stall

Rametri is from Khitola, a small locality in Sihora block of Jabalpur district. This area comes under the Sihora Unit that is the first Unit of Sonata and so far the largest Unit. The Unit had started its operation in the month of June'06 and most of the borrowers are from Khitola municipal area (block headquarter) only.

Before becoming member of Sonata, Rametri's husband Santosh Chourasia used to work in a hotel as a daily wage laborer earning Rs 40-50 per day. She has a small family consisting of two sons with her husband as a sole earning member. She wanted to enhance her family income but was not possible to work somewhere else because she had children to look after. Once she interacted with our field officer and got information about Sonata and how it is helpful for poor people in enhancing there livelihood. She later on discussed this with her husband who was skeptical regarding where to put the money on availing the loan. Rametri herself suggested her husband to start their own business of tea-stall in the market place and she can also work in the hotel. Since her husband was an expert in making snacks, this idea suited him and then they decided to avail loan.

It doesn't took much time for her to form a group because of her credibility and trust with other members. Soon their group started undergoing training. The first training was done on 16/9/06, while GRT was conducted on 27/09/06 and finally the loan amount was disbursed on 29/9/06. The members seriously attended the meeting with timely presence which led to early disbursements. They had a small plot in the market area on which they put up their stall which reduced some of her financial cost. Both Rametri and Santosh worked hard and at the end their effort paid off. Their shop is flocked by people and apart from tea they started keeping local snacks. She has employed one helper on her shop and in a way providing support to others also. The whole process took almost 1 months and she had put Rs 2,000/- of her own to meet initial cost for furniture, utensils, and construction work. On receiving the loan she purchased bigger utensils, and a gas connection with rest cooking material.

She has successfully repaid Rs 3,000/- in 24 equal installments without any delay. She plans to purchase a refrigerator for stocking cold drinks during the summer from the second loan cycle from Sonata.

With a sum as low as Rs 5,000 Rametri's family, who used to earn while working for somebody else, now have there own business where they can take small but crucial decisions and are also providing employment to others. Thus Sonata support has helped in creating employment opportunity for others as well.