In Gudumdevri village of Marwahi block, Sita Maravi has turned a small loan and a steady monthly transfer into a livelihood that changed her family’s trajectory. Through the Vandana Women Self Help Group, she accessed 25,000 rupees via bank loan, CIF and RF to start a kirana store. Later, she took 50,000 rupees from the group’s cluster fund to begin poultry farming. With hard work and basic management, her annual income has risen to about 2 to 2.5 lakh rupees. She is now called a Lakhpati Didi. She also receives the Mahatari Vandan Yojana’s monthly 1,000 rupees, which adds stability to her cash flow. She thanks Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, calling him “Vishnu Bhaiya”, and says the schemes gave her the push she needed to stand on her own feet.
This is what happens when finance meets agency. A self help group provides peer support, shared learning and access to credit that a single woman might not get from a bank. The kirana store meets daily village demand. The poultry unit adds a higher margin activity with regular sales. Together, they diversify income and reduce risk. If one business slows, the other can cushion the household. The monthly cash transfer from Mahatari Vandan acts as a small but reliable buffer, helping with routine expenses and freeing up working capital for the enterprises.
Why does this model work. It is simple, scalable and rooted in local demand. A village needs a shop that stocks essentials. It also needs eggs and meat that are fresh and affordable. When a woman runs both, she captures value at two points in the local economy. She becomes a supplier, an employer and a decision maker. Her income changes how she is seen at home and in the community. She can pay school fees, invest in better stock and plan for expansion without asking for permission.
The state’s role must now be to deepen and widen this success. More women’s groups should get timely credit with clear terms and minimal paperwork. Training must go beyond formation. It should cover bookkeeping, inventory management, animal health and market linkages. Common facility support, such as cold storage for eggs or bulk procurement for kirana items, can raise margins. And digital tools should be introduced so that women can track sales, manage loans and access new customers online.
Sita’s story is not unique, but it is instructive. It shows that a small amount of capital, when combined with collective action and steady policy support, can lift a household out of precarity. It also shows that “Lakhpati Didi” is not just a label. It is a threshold where a woman moves from survival to strategy. She starts thinking in terms of growth, not just subsistence.
The challenge ahead is to ensure that this path is open to more women. Credit must reach the right groups without leakage. Markets must be accessible without middlemen taking excessive cuts. And success stories like Sita’s must be used to mentor new entrepreneurs. If Chhattisgarh can turn hundreds of such journeys into a movement, the dream of women led self reliance will not remain a slogan. It will be visible in the ledgers of village shops and the coops of poultry units across the state.
