You don’t need to hold a degree from a prestigious university to become an entrepreneur. It is believed that individuals are born with entrepreneurial skills that make them qualified enough to turn their ideas into reality. Today, we take a look at these 5 women entrepreneurs who hail from the backwards societies of India. Even though their options were limited in terms of employment, they dug their way out of their hometowns to establish their own business with the utmost grace.

Shaikh Raziya, Bastar

Bastar’s tribal people are usually referred to as ‘Naxals’. To tackle the stereotype and provide educational opportunities to the women and youth, Raziya came up with Bastar Food in 2017.  Their homemade food items including Indian sweets have caught Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attention in recent times. Raziya holds a Master’s degree in Microbiology and has also done R&D in several NGOs in India.

Akshya Shree, Tripura

Akshya Shree, hailing from New Delhi, started her own venture called Silpakarman which is a for-profit social organisation that deals with contemporary home decor crafted by select artisans in Tripura. She initially launched it with just Rs. 15 lakhs from her savings and hopes to bring more rural crafts into the world of international manufacturing.

Subhrarani Mohanty, Jagatsinghpur

Together with her husband, Mohanty launched SS Associates which was a manufacture of low carbon-emitting kitchenware. She draws attention from her own experience and conducted detailed research in order to check which cookware emitted low carbon. All her products are smoke-free and are also cheap on the pocket. With just a little investment of Rs. 13 lakhs, she had made significant contributions in depositing less biomass in every household.

Pabiben Rabari, Kutch

Through her women-centric enterprise, Pabiben.com, she works to empower all women in the Rabari community in Gujarat. She invented this technique called Hari Jhari which helps in machine application of new elements. So far, Pabiben has helped in creating employment opportunities for over 70 women in her village.

Swastika Stuti, Ranchi

Swastika is considered to be the first Haute couture student hailing from Ranchi. She graduated from the School of Fashion Technology in Pune and launched her own label right after graduation.

How many self-made women entrepreneurs do you know about?

Source: Makers India