Starting a new business requires an opportunity, and the Covid19 pandemic has become an opportunity for one of our Self Help Group member, Smt. Rina Das. She is a member of Onkar Guru Self Help Group of Ghungoor Gaon Panchayat under Silchar Dev. Block.
Though the pandemic was very difficult for some people and for some people it was an opportunity to start something new. Smt. Rina Das's house is very close to the Cachar Cancer Hospital, Silchar and this hospital treats many cancer patients from Barak Valley and its surrounding state like Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram etc. When the lockdown started, there were many patients admitted in the hospital and their attendant who were in difficulty eating and drinking as shops in the vicinity were closed. The lockdown was sudden and beyond people's imagination. Although it is normal in urban areas, the residents of suburbs and rural areas were facing more problems. She was very saddened to see the suffering of these people and she started making and selling tea and paratha etc. for them and sells around the hospital. Then gradually she wanted to make this is a way for her livelihood. Smt. Rina Das is a poor woman for whom running a tea shop was out of the dream but that dream came true as just before the lockdown her SHG had received a Community Investment Fund of Rs 50,000 from Assam State Rural Livelihoods Mission and she had borrowed Rs 20,000 and added another Rs 5,000 from her own savings and made a shop in the yard of her house with bamboo and tin.
The lady, who used to have a hard time with her family, now earns at least Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 from her own tea shop daily. She is living a happy life with her husband son and daughter. She is educating her children well also enrolled them in a music school a apart from their regular studies. Her husband, who previously had no permanent source of income, now helps his wife running her stall.
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