Subhalaxmi Cooperative, A Movement For Women’s Empowerment In Odisha

Jharsuguda: Supported by Vedanta, India’s largest producer of aluminium and value-added aluminium products, Rupsi Mehr, a housewife from Kelendamal in Jharsuguda, Odisha scripted her own success story and how!

When she first heard about Subhalaxmi, her family barely managed to make ends meet but Rupsi’s biggest worry then was not being able to send her two children to school.  Looking for avenues to augment her family’s income, she enrolled herself in a self-help group called Maa Laxmi, which operated under the broad umbrella of Subhalaxmi. What started as a reluctant induction, kick-started Rupsi Mehr’s empowering journey towards becoming an entrepreneurial success story in the region. Today, she is leading a group of other such empowered women to realise their dreams of being self-reliant, through a unique avenue- mushroom cultivation!

Her venture has touched new heights. With more than 400 mushroom beds, her unit produces over 600-650 kgs of mushrooms every single day and around 15000-18000 kgs of mushrooms in a single month. The stellar numbers are a result of her hard work and Subhalaxmi’s interventions in the community.

Subhalaxmi’s mushroom cultivation training provided Rupsi Mehr with the right resources and knowledge to begin her venture. Today, she is earning more than Rs 90,000 per month. Apart from changing her own destiny, she has successfully provided employment to five other people from her village. Speaking on her entrepreneurial journey, Rupsi Mehr said, “A few years back, I would have not even imagined that I would be providing employment to others, I just wanted to provide for my family and send my kids to school. Today, I am not only financially independent, but I am also leading a group of women under Maa Laxmi SHG. I am grateful for the immense support that I have received from Vedanta. I hope to inspire other women in my village to start their own entrepreneurial journeys.”

Rupsi Mehr’s story is one of the many success stories that have emerged from Subhalaxmi Co-operative- Vedanta’s marquee project in sustainable livelihood and women empowerment at Jharsuguda. It is one of India’s largest women co-operatives with a membership base of more than 4,100 women and promotes sustainable livelihood opportunities among rural women, creating avenues for entrepreneurship through skill development and microfinance support.

The member-owned, member-managed and member-controlled women’s cooperative has been extending sustainable livelihood opportunities to its members through various training and capacity-building programmes for skill enhancement of women on various farming and non-farming activities. Subhalaxmi Cooperative’s services delivery model has four basic components at the core: Capacity Building & Livelihood Promotion, Financial services (saving & credit & insurance), Social development and collaboration and partnership.

Speaking on the success of the Subhalaxmi Project, Sunil Gupta, CEO of Vedanta Limited, Jharsuguda, said, “Vedanta has always tried its best to catalyze positive transformation in the lives of communities residing in the periphery of its operations. Subhalaxmi members have made us proud by paving their path towards self-reliance and Vedanta is proud to be an enabler of women empowerment in the region. I hope to see more spirited entrepreneurs like Ms. Rupsi Mehr emerge from within the community, with the support of our initiatives.”

 Subhalaxmi Cooperative has emerged as one of the model community-based organisations in the Jharsuguda, designed to create a landmark for the underprivileged women of the locality in uplifting their socio-economic conditions and ensuring the livelihood security of their families. What started with a corpus of Rs 1,000 is now one of the largest women-cooperative in the country with 4,100+ women in 339 SHGs, where loans amounting to more than INR 31.35 lakhs have been given to more than 16,900 members to date. It is worth noting that 83% of the loans have been availed for microenterprises and hence more than 1,361 women micro-entrepreneurs have emerged from the co-operative, who are engaged in various farm & non-farm activities (tailoring, agriculture, fabrication, paper plate & cup making, animal husbandry, etc). The initiative currently reaches out to 73 villages.

Subhalaxmi Cooperative’s Mahila Kalyan Panthi initiative has been looking after the financial needs of its women members by disbursing more than Rs 22.82 Lakh to date as one-time cash grants for meritorious students, expecting mothers, funeral support and loan waivers among 1034 beneficiaries till date. Walking the talk on being self-reliant, the co-operative has conducted various livelihood trainings and capacity-building programmes for more than 1900 members. Today, the co-operative members have generated cumulative savings of  Rs 1.82 crore from a total fund of Rs 3.53 crore. As per a study conducted by Taru Pvt. Ltd.-an independent research agency, 94.7% of those surveyed in the intervention areas said that they are being positively impacted by Subhalaxmi Co-operative.

This inspiring women-led movement has won its fair share of accolades, with various national and international awards over the last few years. In 2021, it won the prestigious BRICS solution for SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) award for Gender Equality- its first international award. Apart from that, the co-operative has won various coveted awards like the  FICCI CSR Award in 2021 in the ‘Women Empowerment’ category, and the Apex India CSR Excellence Award in 2019. Kalinga Award by Institute of Environment & Quality Management Systems in 2017 and was also identified and awarded as one of the change agents of Odisha by the organisation ‘Yes We Can’.

Vedanta’s social interventions in the domains of sustainable livelihood, quality education, women empowerment, health, water and sanitation, bio-investment and community infrastructure reach out to a total of 72 villages in Jharsuguda and nearby areas, benefiting nearly 80,000 people in a year. It empowers more than 4000 women from over 339 SHGs, provides doorstep healthcare services to about 32,000 people annually, gives educational support to more than 6400 students, and has planted more than 1.48 lakh trees in partnership with locals at the community level.