Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises, and investing in girls and women is the smartest thing a society can do as it will pave the way for improving opportunities for all people, besides economic growth. Perhaps Sangrur administration is one that has understood this more than anyone else. Women in rural areas here are joining Promoting Employment of Households through Entrepreneurship and Livelihood (PEHEL) introduced by Sangrur administration to set up their small enterprises. Through this initiative the Sangrur district administration is aiming to promote entrepreneurship and support vulnerable sections, especially women from the backward communities, to become entrepreneurs. It was in August 2022 that 35-year-old Sapinder Kaur of Rajalheri village of Sangrur district joined PEHEL for setting up a medical store in her village. She had completed a nursing course in 2018 and had joined a private hospital after that. Now, she wants to become an entrepreneur and has become a member of village-level self-help group (SHG). “I took a loan of Rs 1 lakh from the SHG last year and now Rs 60,000 is left to be paid back. The medical store is doing well and I am able to manage my home as well,” says Sapinder Kaur. Sangrur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Jitendra Jorwal while talking about the project said, “PEHEL is an initiative to empower SHG members to establish their enterprises in rural areas. The district administration is looking to promote entrepreneurship and support vulnerable sections to become first-time entrepreneurs.” Varjeet Walia, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Rural Development), Sangrur, while talking to the Indian Express, said, “You can call Sapinder Kaur's project a rural startup under PEHEL. Women are choosing different businesses like starting a bus service, a travel agency, an entertainment company, setting up a slipper unit, cow dung log-making unit, etc. Women want to try their hand at different occupations in which household members are involved and they are giving good results as well.” He added, “You can call them rural startups for which loan is provided by SHGs and training by PEHEL. We also help the women sell their produce by organising a PEHEL mandi every Sunday in Sangrur in which farmers doing organic farming also come to sell their produce.” Rekha Rani is yet another enterpreneur (of Mandvi village) who is running an oil extraction unit which she started in May this year. “I extract oil from coconut, almond, mustard seeds and sesame seeds, and I am also working as Bank Sakhi. I am Class XII pass and my husband is a carpenter. I took a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh from the SHG of the village and 50% of it has already been repaid. PEHEL helped me with the training for this unit.” For the uninitiated, SHG member who sits in bank branch to support branch manager is called a Bank Sakhi. She helps the SHG members in day-to-day banking services like documentation, loan facilitation, recovery and others but does not undertake financial transactions. Rekha Rani, a mother of three, said the family runs the small unit as a team and oil is extracted as and when they get the orders from customers. “PEHEL was conceived in this financial year. In August, we started a pilot project to prepare 430 school uniform kits for Government Senior Secondary School, Sangrur. Each kit included a kurta, salwar, dupatta, socks, pullover, and cap, and was procured by the government at a stipulated price as per norms. Women of five villages were roped in to make these uniform sets and they would earn around Rs 20-25 per uniform set as the order was small. But as the project became successful, we have now decided to get school uniforms made for the entire Sunam block's government schools for the academic year 2023-24 which will be around 15,000 uniforms. In this the profit margin will be more. The process to procure uniforms will remain same but instead of buying from a vendor, SHGs will be making it,” Varjeet Walia said. PEHEL identifies budding rural entrepreneurs and helps, supports, and motivates them in several critical services such as business development, mentoring and training, finance as well as access to banking services, he added. The administration aims to replicate and scale up this initiative to promote other enterprises mainly in three categories – trading, manufacturing, and services, Varjeet Walia said. “Till now, 89 entrepreneurships have been started under PEHEL, 338 SHGs have been formed in the current financial year in which 3,380 women are involved. A total of 18 women were involved in the school uniform project,” he added. Rani Devi of Phuld village had started a rubber slipper unit in August this year, while a cow dung log-making unit had also been started by another woman, who supplies the cow dung logs to brick kilns for using them as biofuel. Surjit Kaur of Karial village in Sangrur said, “I am running a masala unit. 'Atta chakki' is our family business and I have started this masala unit alongside after taking training. People come with dry products to ground them and we also make packets ready for them.” The idea is to remove the middlemen from the market, so that affordable products and services are accessible to everyone, the deputy commissioner added.
