About women entrepreneurs in the city

Most women led entrepreneurial ventures are fortified with innovative ideas that can usher positive changes in society. This criterion also helps to harness funds and support from Self Help Groups (SHG), start ups and woman centric organisations that are essentially working to empower women financially. 

Women are breaking the shackles of subjugation in the current times. There are many women entrepreneurs in India and even in Assam today. And hearteningly enough, there are many organisations that are springing to aid, facilitate and mentor women entrepreneurs.

According to industry experts, women led enterprises usually score high on social objectives. Hence in other words, most women led entrepreneurial ventures are fortified with innovative ideas that can usher positive changes in society. This criterion also helps to harness funds and support from Self Help Groups (SHG), start ups and woman centric organisations that are essentially working to empower women financially.

Here are a few lesser know organisations in Assam that support the entrepreneurship goals of the womenfolk.

Hrdoyh

Hrdoyh is basically an online shopping platform that was founded by an Assam based woman entrepreneur, Parishmita Das. Established in the year 2019, the primary role of this firm is to support and promote the usage of traditional Assamese cloth materials like Eri, Paat, Muga etc and bring these to the forefront of the globalised market. Hrdoyh facilitates mass (bulk) purchase of the traditional weaving materials for the domestic and rural women weavers of Assam. This is actually a great help for women entrepreneurs who want to come up with their own designer labels in terms of traditional (or even contemporary) Assamese attire as both the availability (in bulk) and purchase of the materials are steeped with a slew of challenges that arise from some inherent dynamics of the larger/macro production and supply chain.

The founder informed that although right now they have only an online presence they are planning to open the first retail shop in Guwahati's Ganeshguri area by the coming September. Hrdoyh has numerous handloom collections in its store and caters to the variegated needs of people. The in-house handloom items cater not just to women but to men and children too. All in all, this is an initiative to empower local women weavers to showcase their innovative craftwork. Silk items are collected from weavers of the rural areas of Dhakuakhana, Dhemaji and the Upper Assam districts. Hrdoyh is a registered and certified platform under Silk Mark Organization of India.

North Eastern Development Finance Corporation

The Corporation extends financial support to aspiring women entrepreneurs. Under this Corporation, business ventures that already exist and are run by women are also eligible for economic support, subject to the fulfillment of certain criterion. The economic support is provided in terms of expanding, modernizing and diversifying the business enterprises. Women entrepreneurs who are between 18 to 50 years are included under this Corporation. The help is provided in the form of term loans for projects (not exceeding 15 lakhs). Approximately 75% of the project cost is said to be granted as a term loan and 25% of the project cost is said to be included by the promoter. The loan needs to be repaid in a span of 3 to 7 years with 8% as the interest rate.

NEthing

Founded by Banamallika Choudhary in 2017, NEthing is about creating a space for all creative things; this also includes intellectual activities. According to Choudhury it is a place that has a bookstore and café and displays locally made environment friendly products. It is a place where people can come and share their stories, artwork, songs, plays, writings etc. Choudhury stated that this is a feminist business model. NEthing is based in Guwahati and Jorhat (it houses book stores and local product stores, a space for events, cafe and a common working space) where women from various backgrounds especially from difficult conditions of living come together to meet, discuss, celebrate and work. She added that in this project, there is a feminist learning centre that provides co-learning and resonates the marginalized voices of women. To support women's leadership NEthing also conducts workshops. Scholars, researchers and feminist voices from the region present an array of topics in these workshops ranging from gender, sexuality, human rights to environment and development. The activities that are organized by NEthing are held in small towns and villages of North East, in the tea shops, houses and public places.

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