It was a pleasure for me to have met Ma Parbati JLG on 17th January. The group has five members of whom I was able to meet four. Rupali, Manasi, Sandhyarani and Minati were a part of the meeting that I had with the group. The group has been living in the village Mahavir Basti in Baramunda sub urban area of Bhubaneshwar. All the members of the group has been involved in one or other kind of small business such as tailoring, ration shop, tiffin hotel and furniture work. While all the members have some sort of occupation to make a living, they had taken an enterprise loan from Milaap almost 11 months back to scale their businesses. One being asked if they have benefited from the loan, all the members said in affirmation that they have been able to match the targets they had set for their businesses. The Milaap funding had helped them in buying the raw materials in bulk thereby reducing the overall operational cost of their business through bulk discounts and one time transportation. When I asked what if the group would have had approached other local lenders for the loan, Rupali said that local lenders charge Rs 10 as interest per month per Rs 100 which would make the overall all annual interest roughly around 120%. Milaap loan is easy to get and also the rate of interest is very less. As the loan repayment term has almost come to an end, the group expects to take a new loan in the near future.
Rupali Bisoi and Group
