By: Amarjyoti Borah
While the Covid pandemic and the subsequent lockdown since March 2020 damaged many business units, a struggling shop owner managed to not just turn around her fortune but also expand and create a village-level business network to help a few others grow. Located in the severely flood-affected Na-Bordua village in the Garmari Gaon Panchayat in the Morigaon district, this small grocery shop started in 2014. After the lockdown was announced, the shop was nearly on the verge of closing down in 2020.
“We are poor and we don’t have any agricultural land or any income source. We started a small shop in 2014 and gradually built it, and it became our family’s livelihood source. However, the Covid changed everything,” stated Charu Moni Hazarika.
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The 45-year-old Charu, who runs this grocery shop, said that a few weeks after the lockdown was announced, their business went broke.
“During the lockdown, many in the village received supplies in the form of relief from the government, and people ended up purchasing in a very limited and measured amount from the shops. Moreover, the pandemic times saw a rise in purchases with credit. Those were tough times,” informed Charu.
She continues, “We were tensed and frustrated, and apart from our shop we were also thinking about our family’s survival. This is when we received support from Oxfam India.”
Oxfam India helped the family financially by supporting them with an amount of INR Thirty Thousand which enabled them to restock their shop with supplies; apart from that it also gave her and her family counseling on expanding their business. Since then, there has been no looking back for Charu; with profits earned in 2020, they invested in agriculture, subsequently expanding their source of income. More than the financial support, they hugely benefitted from the guidance on income generation and finance.
“We never used to look at the small shop as a business to earn a profit, but only saw it as a means to survive. Apart from support, the people at Oxfam also gave us guidance on banking and ideas to expand our business,” said Charu.
She informed that Oxfam India officials gave them the suggestion to start another business at the earliest and also suggested ensuring that it is food-related. She adds that they also encouraged them to expand their business and reach the people in the village and the nearby villages.
“We provided the financial assistance in 2020 when the first phase of lockdown was announced, and we immediately advised them to be prepared for the worst,” said Mukuta Bordoloi, a local community leader trained and groomed by Oxfam India. Some bit of persuasion also worked. “We also requested all those whom we know to purchase rations and supplies from them, and this helped them a lot. There are also people living a bit far from the shop in other villages who used to purchase from other bigger shops. We requested them to purchase from here too,” added Mukuta.
The shop didn’t face any crisis and gained and was able to make a profit even in the subsequent lockdowns in the years 2020 and 2021. “We invested INR15000 out of the profits earned last year in taking agricultural land on lease. My son, who didn’t have any source of income then, started cultivating the field,” said Charu. Now Charu has started selling the vegetables as well from her shop.
Most of the households in the village practice farming and grow some other vegetables. But there is no vegetable ‘shop’ as such in the village. So, Charu reached out to other farmers in the village to convince them to use her shop to sell their produce.
“This has helped all of us in two ways; one – the farmers nearby are getting a place to sell their produce, and two – more people are getting associated with the shop. We sell our groceries and vegetables, and also the vegetables which we receive from the farmers,” said Charu.
Her 25-year-old son, Punakon Hazarika, who had planned to migrate to a bigger town in search of a job has changed his plans. Now from his vegetable cultivation and his mother’s shop, he has been comfortably able to earn INR5000-6000 every month. “My friends who migrated are earning in the range INR10000-12000, but a major portion of their earning is spent on living expenses,” said Punakon.
He has bigger plans in sight and now plans to start a second grocery shop. Explaining his plans he said, “During Covid lockdown, we saw how other businesses suffered, but food business survived. So, we have decided that our next business will be food-related, and we are thinking of expanding in the form of a second grocery shop.”
Satisfied with their returns from farming, Punakon and Charu also plan to take more land on lease for cultivation, once they have managed to save enough money. “We have taken 3 bighas of land on lease where we cultivate vegetables but we plan to take another 5-8 bigha on lease. Apart from vegetables we also plan to cultivate mustard this time,” Charu added.
Mukuta further informs that seeing their success, many others in the district have approached them for similar support and guidance, and this includes many youths who have no earning opportunity in the district and end up migrating to other states to take up work as migrant labourers.
On being asked why only one shop was given support, Oxfam India’s project officer Iftikar Hussain said that the organization gave support by looking at several factors, including whether those getting support will be able to build on the support received.
“We tried to look at various factors before deciding who will get support, and we also ensured that those who received support are spread across and not confined to one location. We also did a rough assessment to understand how serious they are and whether they will be able to build a future for themselves,” said Iftikar.
The mother-son duo of Charu and Punakon are certainly building a robust future not just for themselves but also for their community.
