Success of the Month - July 2008

Jharna Thakur
[India - Calcutta - Bagbazar]

In Jharna Thakur’s house four generations live together and three ones are involved in her businesses.

Jharna has worked as a bank representative for a long while. Unfortunately she had to face corruption when the bank managers disappeared with all the depositors’ savings. As she was the only representative, she was known from all the people who had an account in this private bank. They came all together to threaten her. She had no choice. She had to repay all the depositors and she did. She opened a saree business in 1994 and succeeded in paying everyone back. The total amount she had to give was 42,000 Rupees.

When she could pay off, she started to support her family in 2002. At last the working capital she earned was finally used for the family’s needs. But soon afterwards her son fell ill and had to be admitted in hospital. She used the whole capital in order to save him.

In September 2007 she came to know that NCRC provided loans in her area. She applied and could borrow 4,000 Rupees (66€). In addition to the saree business, she opened a tea stall. Moreover she started to make paper packing she supplies to many shops. With the help of the son, they work from 5 A.M. to 8.30 P.M. six days out of seven in the tea stall. The mother works at home with her in making paper packaging. The rest of her time, in the evening, she sells sarees and many different cloths (jeans, petticoats, etc.) from a room in her house. She is well-known from all the people living in the area and gets many regular customers.

When Jharna took the loan, her working capital was 4,000 Rupees. After only seven months she could increase it to 12,000 Rupees. Her weekly saree income before getting the loan was 100 to 200 Rupees a week. It is now 500 to 600 Rupees.

Jharna plans to build a new house. The family is increasing and she wants to enable everyone to live comfortably. Within a short while she will be able to build the house since the profit increases day by day. Maybe the new home will be able to hold five different generations!