Loan helps in buying farm supplies which doubled their income

Swapna is a married woman who lives Dhupguri with her husband, children and father-in-law. Her son is studying in class 6 and a daughter who dropped out of school to look after the house while her parents are away at work. Her husband is an e-rickshaw driver and she helps in contributing to the household income by engaging in stitching work. She said that the clothes she stitches are provided by an agent who supplies her all the materials she needs for stitching. She just stitches the clothes and gives it back to the supplier who then pays her for the work. For a dozen clothes stitched, she gets paid Rs. 60. Apart from the stitching work, she and her husband also do cultivation. They do not own a land so they had taken a land on lease. When she had taken the loan, it was the season to cultivate cucumber. So, they bought the farm supplies for cucumber cultivation with the loan. She said, “Our harvest was good. We made a good amount of profit by selling the harvest. But unfortunately this year, we couldn’t do any cultivation because we had some problem in the house and didn’t have money to buy the supplies.” She was happy though, the loan she took had doubled their income that season and with the profit amount, they were able to buy an e-rickshaw which is now their main source of income.