Mangali Mondal

For the last five years, Mangali Mondal from Tamluk Municipality in the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal runs a small shop, with loans from Muthoot Microfin, selling cosmetics and related items near her home. Her micro enterprise has enabled her to pay for household expenses and tuition fees for her children.

However, her situation wasn’t that good five years ago. The family, consisting of her husband who is a daily wager and two children, even struggled to afford food for the family at that time. Desperate to improve her situation, she gathered all her resources and opened a small shop at a rented space nearby. After an initial boom, the business began to fade as she couldn’t afford to upgrade her shop with more products.

Mangali didn’t had any capital to buy essential items and she had never taken a loan before. During that time, she was approached by a Muthoot Microfin Relationship Officer and was detailed about the opportunity to take out collateral free group loans from the organisation. She happily joined a JLG and availed the first cycle loan of `25,000 and used it to purchase the inventory necessary to grow her business. With the help of that initial investment and her hard work, Mangali Mondal’s business started to grow.

Her daily earnings are around `700 now from `400 at the beginning. These extra earnings enabled her family to live a comfortable life. Today, she is upbeat about her family’s future and is planning to open another shop in a nearby location that will increase her business exposure and thereby ensuring more income.

Mangali says that not just the microfinance loan but the basic business skills she learned from Muthoot’s trainings had a great impact on both her thinking and the business. The family now has enough money to save for the children’s future. With all her success, Mangali isn’t done yet. She is making plans to diversify her business with further support from Muthoot Microfin.