Nalini & Lillette

 Nalini

GOKUL Baby Care Centre

JP Nagar, Bangalore

Life is not always a bed of roses. Yet, people tend to bloom in spite of adverse circumstances. Nalini is one amongst them. Married under false pretences,( her husband showed an industry belonging to some one else, as his own, (one funny aspect was Nalini's father and the boy's mother were cousins.So they did not think twice when fixing up the match nor did they have any cause to disbelieve him) It was only after few months later she realized that he had lied. He had high dreams and thought in terms of lakhs and crores. Humble beginning did not gel with him. In Nalini’s words, “He always has a ladder to the sky”. After innumerable attempts gone to vain, he proved to be a disaster in many ventures. Both of them became financially dependent on Nalini’s father. After the birth of their two children he deserted her to stay with his parents, at a village in Andhra Pradesh. 

Nalini decided that she would not further burden her father with her worries and decided to start something on her own. She came across the advertisement for the services offered at the WSECC and approached it for help. Through counseling sessions she thought about starting a beauty parlor. She had no basic skills.  Skill training was too long a duration for her due to her domestic compulsions and the cost appeared unaffordable. Nalini had not completed her graduation.

With our guidance, she scouted her area for more business opportunities. On one of her rounds she came across a baby care centre. The idea stuck to her. From successive counselling inputs she was able to gauge that since there were already three baby care centers in that area , one more would definitely not work out. Yet she did not want to shift from the idea. She was very persistent. She wanted to shift her residence to a place where there was a demand for baby care centre.

Scouting for more than a month, she was successful in finding a potential area. She shifted her residence. She consulted some people around the vicinity,and found out that there were more than ten people who were ready to enroll her baby care service. After the assurance from her potential customers she went as a casual visitor to other baby care centers some of which were running well , and some not so well and were incurring a loss. She made a check list of do’s and don’ts for her baby care centre through these critical observations and experience she had from these visits. Further, she went about getting quotations for various products like toys, charts, chairs etc. required for the Child care centre. She was facilitated to draw a business plan by WSECC. Finding the plan feasible, she was referred to a nationalized bank and a Women Cooperative Bank for credit assistance. Both the Banks considering the business like approach of Nalini, extended credit assistance.

Now her enterprise is well on its way. Since she is a soft spoken lady, children take to her easily. She has reached to the people about her Centre through pamphlets and ads on the local cable T.V. network. Feedback from her clients indicated that she takes good care of  the children  and made learning interesting. During vacations she conducts special batches where she teaches effective English Speaking Course and making of paper crafts. She has plans to start yoga classes in the morning and evening. Her father actively supports her. She is supplementing her income with mushroom cultivation.

“The WSECC helped me in taking the right decision at the right time. They were with me throughout ” beams Nalini. She has proved how women can turnaround with determination and little supportive environment. May Nalini’s tribe increase. 

We not only helped them in starting a enterprise but also help them troubleshoot any problems and be with them for a period of 3 years, and more if they demand it.

I still remember the day Nalini visited our office accompanied by her father. She was so scared that her father had to literally push her towards us. Gradually with repeated visits to our centre she opened up. She was depressed most of times. We also took the help of family counselling centre which had an office right next to us. That was a blessing. Because since we provided only business/enterprise related guidance, we found most of the ladies had to deal with mental agony/family problems first. In some dire cases we asked them to take the help of family counselling centre and then come back to us with a clear mind. That has helped a lot.

Nalini's problem did not end there. When he found that Nalini and her father did not shell out anymore financial assistance he took the daughter away from Nalini. The son was being nursed by the mother.

One on of my routine visits to her, i saw that her enterprise was running well. She asked the ayah to look after the kids..they were 30 children ranging from  tiny toddlers to 4 year olds..she asked me inside for a glass of sherbet. i did not refuse. As she was handing the juice to me, she began sobbing, 'now he has taken my son away from me' Later on  through a court ruling he got the custody of both the kids. He told the court that the mother was of unstable mind and unable to take care of the kids. "now i consider all these kids as mine"- she said pointing to the kids in her care.

She lost her father a couple of years ago. The latest news is she is getting married and going abroad with her husband.She completed her graduation with IGNOU , in addtion to it she also got a diploma in Nutrition and Health Care.  Now she has sold her baby care centre. she got good money for her (successfully running)enterprise.

But the most interesting enterprise according to me was gas cleaning operations started by Lily (short for Lillette). Everybody knows what a gas stove is. But imagine the huge gas stoves in Hotels/Hospitality Industries. They need to cleaned from time to time, to save the buildings from fire disaster. This is where the lady came in. Initially Lily worked with her brother tagging along ,because she could clean the gas stoves only after midnight. After 11pm the hotels close down. But the huge stoves needed to cool down before she could start cleaning them. So she had to be awake from 12 to 6 am in the morning, servicing about 5-6 stoves in a day/night..Slowly the demand grew so much that now she has many helpers with her. She also deals in  renting of gas stoves (when the stoves are really in need of total repairs)/sales of phenyl/handwash /dish washing liquids - a tie-up with these hotels adding up to her income.

Three years spent at WSECC was a good learning experience for me. We had a success rate of 35%. Most of these women are still in touch with our organisation. Another good thing was the ladies who started an enterprise and needed assistance,  employed the ladies who were registered with us (but did not want or were not yet ready to start on their own).

P.S:

WSECC : Women Self Employment Counselling Centre... our Organisation IDF was on a working on a contractual basis for a period of 5 years..with the KSWDC : Karnataka State Women Development Corporation.

:-)