Srinagar, Dec 14 : Poverty and depression brought her to the edge. She was almost ready to take the extreme step, however, devotion and struggle turned the tables and today with a bit of help from government schemes she stands tall. Shehzada Akhtar is a successful business woman.

Twenty-six-year-old Akhter of Mitrigam hamlet in south Kashmir’s Pulwama fought her battle with poverty, working as a labourer in apple orchards to earn a meagre livelihood during summers.

Come winter, and she would be huddled up with the other girls doing embroidery work on crewel to support the family.

Still Akhter’s family could not make both ends meet as her father had borrowed a huge amount from neighbours and acquaintances.

Then one day lady luck smiled and Shehzada met Nelofer.

Her village mate, Nelofer had gone to Andhra Pradesh along with the officials of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), a poverty alleviation project implemented by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India .

The basic idea behind NRLM is to organise the poor into SHG (Self Help Groups) and make them capable for self-employment.

In 2015, the NRLM officials visited the Mitrigam and apprised Shehzada to make a SHG group of 10 girls of the village and open an account in the bank and deposit Rs 25 every week each to register under the NRLM UMEED scheme.

“I had kept my fingers crossed. How would I manage to collect Rs 25 to deposit in the bank” Shehzada told UNI .

“However, I decided not to lose the opportunity and began to work in fields, orchards, homes and other places to earn the requisite amount,” she added.

“When poverty hits you, you fail to understand life. Nobody even helps you for a penny until you fight your own battles and earn,” she remembered.

All the group girls managed to deposit Rs 25 each week in the bank for three months as was told by the officials of the NRLM.

“It was really testing times.

“When we managed to deposit Rs 3,000 and withdrew them as per the scheme to help anyone in the group…we all were just excited just to have learned how to deposit and withdraw money from a bank,” recalled the business woman who today owns a dairy farm.

One of the girls in the group around that time had requested help to pay her child’s school fees and everyone readily pitched in. “We all happily handed over the money to her.

“I remained in constant touch with the bank and gradually learned every aspect of bank transactions, personal finance,” Shehzada said.

She said that in the meantime Project Resource Person (PRP) from the NRLM came to her village and did an audit of their bank account.

“PRP went through every aspect to check whether we had regularly deposited the prescribed money and how it was spent among the group.

“Luckily, they registered our group in grade “A” and gave us Rs 15,000 under Revolving fund (RF) and it was disbursed equally among the three girls of the group under Micro Credit Plan (MCP).

“One member of the group had learnt stitching and purchased a machine, another one purchased goats and I could not understand what to do as I owed money to many people in the village from whom I had taken loans from time to time,” Shehzada said.

She said: “Later NRLM under Community Investment Fund (CIF) released Rs 40,000 in to our account and all the girls insisted that I keep the money to purchase a cow, as I knew about rearing cows. But I was nervous seeing such a big amount for the first time in my life.

“I had a candid conversation with my father and suggested him to purchase a cow, but we were anxious about where we would keep her as there was no cow shed in our house.’

“Purchased the cow, we did and kept her under tarpaulin as it was summer season,” she said.

“The day I purchased the cow the same day the UMEED programme provided us with a milk collection automatic machine. It is used for checking milk fat. If the milk fat rate goes high one can sell the milk for Rs 35 to Rs 40 per kg in the market.

“I started selling milk and maintaining my bank account regularly paying instalment of the scheme amount also in time.

“NRLM released a second instalment under CIF for Rs 25,000. The group partners allowed me to spend the whole amount so they could check the outcome and then emulate.

Shehzada purchased a second cow and it cost her 15,000 more. However, the purchase increased milk production.

“My customers helped me with Rs 15,000 in advance to pay the owner of the cow.”

Shehzada linked her milk business account with the bank under the RLNM scheme to get further loans.

She was able to get Rs 10 lakh in loan and without any guarantor.

Now Shehzada has a herd of 22 cows that produces 300 kg milk per day.

In 2017, the then Deputy Commissioner Pulwama allotted her a shop in the town for selling milk. She assigned her two brothers for selling milk, curd and cheese at the shop.

A group of girls are working in Shehzada’s “Milk Desh Dairy Farm”. “We are also purchasing milk from other farms and selling them at the shop.

“People, who once gave us a hard time, because we owed them money, now have great regards for my hard work and dedication which helped me turn my life around,” said Shehzada, who draws her inspiration from Mother Earth.(UNI)