Success Story of Manjula

38 years old Manjula W/O Mallikarjun is hailing from Kabbaliga Tribal community. She was married to Mr. Mallikarjun, a coolie worker, when she was quite young. They have three girls and one boy. They live at Humnabad Taluq.

After her marriage with Mallikarjuna, Manjula had a tough life as he continued his education and she had to go for coolie work to sustain the family. With her meager income, she found it hard to manage the family expenses. Husband could not find a job too.

Gradually, Mallikarjun too began to go for agricultural coolie work which is only seasonal. So their struggle continued. The low income from the seasonal work was insufficient to educate the children and to meet all the expenses. Manjula was quite unhappy about her situation.

Meanwhile, the animator of ORBIT visited the area and encouraged the neighbourhood women to form a SHG in their village, two years ago. Divya Self help group was formed and Manjula was elected as the president of the group. Though she was educated only up to 6th std, she showed initiative. The members got good training and awareness programs through Women Empowerment Programme of ORBIT. Manjula developed her leadership capacity; she learned to look at life in a new perspective. She decided to better her life. She got interest to work for the development of women.

She took internal loan from the SHG and began a petty shop. It supports her family, besides her income from the seasonal coolie work. The first daughter is married, a month ago. Second one’s marriage is fixed. Third one is studying in 9th std. Their son too is married.

Husband also goes outside to work as a painter. His talent of drawing helps him in his job of painting.

At present her family is living happily. Though the income is not very high, they are happy in life. Manjula feels proud of being the member and leader of the self help group.