Meenakshi's pan shop flourishes

Meenakshi Ramachandra Kamble, a 51-year-old mother of three, was a head devadasi of a village a long time ago. Talking about her past, she said, “Being a head devadasi among more than 100 devadasis in a village is an honour and a great responsibility. As a head devadasi, I could earn sufficient money just by performing ritual duties and need not rely on the upper-caste landlord or sex work for livelihood. I was also responsible for the jagha, a portable shrine of Goddess Yellamma. A head devadasi is the voice of Yellamma for the village. People come to her with problems and she consulted the Goddess to give them the answers.” She is now out of this all consuming system and married with a daughter. Her daughter has eight children and was finding it very difficult to look after all of them. So, Meenakshi has adopted one of her grand daughters and takes care of her education too. Her husband works as a daily wage labourer and she runs a small pan shop near the bus stand in her village. 

To better the financial conditions of her family, Meenakshi decided to scale-up her pan shop and sell a few additional items as well. To stock up her shop with the regular and new items, she took a loan from MASS (Mahila Abhivruddhi mattu Samrakshana Samsthe), a micro-financing field partner of Milaap. With the enhanced shop, she has had more customers and the income has improved by an average of Rs. 900 per month. She has been able to repay the loan and is leading a comfortable life. Grateful for the trust placed in her, Meenakshi thanks the lenders profusely.