AISECT’s Successful Women Entrepreneurs:
Encouraging women to be self-sufficient and independent by setting-up their own enterprises, AISECT launched an entrepreneurship development cell called ‘Pehchaan’. The cell-cum-council has come into existence with the aim of helping women in establishing and running their businesses, thereby, giving wings to their dreams to be at the forefront. In other words, Pehchaan is a special interest body formed by a group of women within the AISECT network to cater exclusively to women.
Mrs. Anupama Das
Getting associated with AISECT’s pre-school venture ‘Brainy Bear Pre-School and Activity Club’ gave Anupama Das an opportunity to start an enterprise in her area of interest and fulfill a lifelong dream of nurturing and enhancing the knowledge of small kids through an innovative and fun mode of teaching. Anupama opened up her own Brainy Bear Centre in December 2015 at Shubham Vihar locality in Bilaspur.
Setting up this Pre-school and Activity Club has not only helped in improving the quality of early childhood education in the region, but it has also given employment opportunities to 6 other women who help her in running the Centre. The entrepreneur, who is presently focusing on enrolling more children into the pre-school, has proposed the idea of coming up with Brainy Bear Mid-Schools to the Management and hopes that this turns into a reality in the upcoming years.
Mrs. Deepa Bharti
Despite having over 8 years of teaching experience, Deep Bharti could not have ever imagined that one day she, along with her husband, will be managing two AISECT Education Centres in two different states and add her name in the list of some of the most inspiring and flourishing women entrepreneurs in the AISECT Group. Deep, who has been living in Kathua since her marriage 8 years ago, came to know about AISECT via an advertisement published in a popular Hindi daily.
When her husband decided to open an AISECT Centre in Kathua in 2010, she helped him in the endeavor. Later, in 2012, she opened the second centre in Pathankot to uplift the status of education in the region. Deep always wanted the freedom to try innovative things. Having her own centres allows her to do so and she can now invest a percentage of her income for the betterment of the centre and her students.
Mrs. Kavita Singh
Belonging to a very small place with a population of merely 10,000 people, where traditional lifestyle was the norm, Kavita Singh was unlike most people residing in Budhni. She disliked doing a 9 to 5 job and wanted to do something different. When Kavita came to know about the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) offered by AISECT, she decided to attend the 1 month programme in Bhopal in order to open her own enterprise. 3 months after successfully completing the EDP, in May 2004 Kavita opened an AISECT Education Centre at Budhni, where hardly 10% of the population had knowledge about computers.
She started the centre at her home with 2 computers. Kavita believed in providing quality education to her students unlike the other centres in the region which focused more on earning money. According to Kavita, apart from becoming financially independent, AISECT has helped her in creating a strong image in the society.
Mrs. Manisha Kankane
Manisha Kankane’s AISECT journey began in 2001amidst strong criticism from the local communitywith people questioning her family for allowing the woman of the house to go out and work. The subsequent 360 degree turn that her professional life and people’s attitude towards her took were no less than a happy-ending climax of a Bollywood movie.
Owing her success to AISECT
Giving credit to the supportive attitude of AISECT, Manisha, said, “AISECT has greatly helped in the development of the centre by providing study materials and constant hand-holding and problem solving. Also, as an individual I have greatly benefitted from AISECT. It has played a pivotal role for my current status in the society. People today recognize me not from my name, but because of my AISECT Educational Centre.”
Mrs. Rakhi Gopesh Sharma
It was Rakhi’s destiny to single-handedly run an AISECT Centre which was established 25 years ago by her husband, Late Mr. Gopesh Sharma. His demise a couple of years ago, after a 2-year long battle against mouth cancer, changed Rakhi’s life completely and made her take responsibilities of her 2 children, the Education Centre and continuing the legacy left behind by her husband.
Rakhi’s Centre
The Centre, which was established by Mr. Sharma soon after completing his 12th, is located at the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh and currently operates as a CVRU Distance Learning Centre. This Centre offers all distance courses from the Dr. C.V. Raman University (CVRU) to almost 1200 students. At present, the Centre has 30 computers and a staff of 15 people out of which only 2 to 3 are males and the rest are females. After so many years of hard work, the Centre has a turnover of 70 to 80 lakh rupees per year.
AISECT – a complete different experience for Rakhi
After completing her graduation in Home Science from Nagpur University, Rakhi did a fashion designing course. So working at the AISECT Centre was a complete new experience for her.In fact, she learned almost everything about computers, including how to operate one, at AISECT. Prior to this, she had very little knowledge about it.
Mrs. Sheela Rajput
It was due to her parents’ decision to educate her and her husband’s motivation to work that Sheela Rajput is today a blooming woman entrepreneur operatingan AISECT-SBI Banking Kiosk in Sagar.
Sheela’s AISECT-SBI Banking Kiosk
When Sheela’s husband, who owns an AISECT Education Centre, suggested that she help him in the business and operate a Banking Kiosk in the same building, she was a little apprehensive as she had no professional experience prior to this. However, she decided to try her hand at it and to her surprise, picked up the tricks of the trade very fast. Today, her Centre not only offers banking facilities but also Aadhar Card enrollment service andGovernment skill development programmes likethe National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) andthe Women Digital Literacy Programme.The quantum of work has increased so much over the years that she counsels around 100-150 people per month about the entire procedure of opening an account and its benefits.
Undoubtedly Sheela undertakes a tough task at the banking kiosk, established in 2013. She makes people, who are less educated and even uneducated in some cases, understand what activities are carried out at the kiosk, the benefits of saving money, interest criteria as well ashow the money can be deposited, withdrawn and transferred. Apart from this, she also has to inform them about various schemes and insurance policies offered at her banking kiosk like Atal Pension Yojanaand Jeevan JyotiBeema.
Mrs. Sangeeta Chandel
Sangeeta’s dedication towards utilizing her education in a productive wayacted as a stimulating factorin her life. Her zeal resulted in her shifting her focus from being a teacher to being an entrepreneur,traveling almost 30 kms a day from her house to the banking kiosk and vice-versa and then working for 12 hours at a stretch every day at the centre.Fighting all the odds in the beginning, today Sangeeta has provedthe sceptics, who doubted her capabilities,wrong.
Sangeeta’s AISECT voyage
Before establishing an AISECT-SBI Banking Kiosk in February 2008 in Bakawand, a tehsilin the Bastar district, Sangeeta was working as a computer teacher for 4 years at an AISECT Education Centre run by Mr. Khalid Meer.Mr. Meer always saw a spark in Sangeeta and when he came to know about AISECT’s financial inclusion initiatives, he motivated the 33-year-old to become an entrepreneur and run her own AISECT banking kiosk. He gave her some space in his building where he runs the AISECT Education Centre and provided all the financial assistance she requiredfor establishing and running the banking kiosk.Before opening the kiosk, Sangeetaattended a meeting on financial inclusion organized by AISECT in Raipur and there she came to knowhowa banking kioskfunctions.
Today, with a staff of 3 people and more than 5,500 accounts, including about 3,000 accounts of women,opened at her kiosk, Sangeetaalso provides insurance and pension schemes like Jeevan JyotiBeema and Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
Sangeeta, who lives in a joint family of 10 people, is one amongst the 3 earning members of her family. The other two earning members are her husband, who is a businessman in Bastar, and her brother-in-law. At present, Sangeeta has an income of about 10,000 rupees per month.