Making millions in a man’s world

NEW DELHI: They worked around glass ceilings, created wealth in a man’s world and converted deprivation into rich enterprise.
Women entrepreneurs nurtured and supported by the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), a non-profit body under the Confederation of Indian Industries, are streets ahead of young men. In the five years that the BYST has given away the JRD Tata award to young entrepreneurs, women have bagged it thrice.“And many other winners are waiting in the wings,’’ says Lakshmi V. Venkatesan, who runs the trust.
Meet some of India’s most unlikely millionaires, representatives of an ever-growing sisterhood of success.
She would make Rs 10 a day, selling milk. A cook’s job improved her station somewhat. Abandoned by her husband, this school dropout could have been lost to the world. Instead, at 33, Vijaya Mayuri is a Reliance Industries contractor for laying optic fibre cables in Chennai, with a turnover of Rs 2 million.
‘‘I wanted to do something of my own,’’ she says in Tamil. Starting off with a beauty parlour, she approached BYST in 1998 and made 21 times her investment by 2001. Looking for another business to plough this money into, she overheard a conversation while crossing the road and got to know that HFCL was looking for sub-contractors in Chennai to lay cables.
‘‘I wanted to get into the business but was dismissed by HFCL as I was a woman,’’ she recalls. She has now gone on to become a contractor.
After the birth of her first child, Neeta Jain learnt of her imminent blindness. Today the owner of a Rs 1.5 million commercial designing and DTP unit, Neeta can run her business with her eyes wide shut. Having learnt DTP and computer-usage with screen-reading software, Jain went on to set up her business supported by BYST and mentor Ashok Dayal.
Sitting in her Okhla Industrial Area office she says, ‘‘when I got married, I wore a ghoonghat and was expected not to speak in front of the family elders. Today I meet clients and suppliers freely. My husband’s support was crucial.’’
To be a bahut badi businessman was Anisa Begum’s dream. The winner of BYST’s JRD Tata best entrepreneur award for 1996, this burkha-clad woman is today the owner of nearly a million-rupee worth herbal cosmetics business. Starting off in a 4’ by 8’ room in Okhla with four children and electrician husband, she brewed a herbal oil — her haqim father’s recipe — to buy food for the family. Her first customer at a Delhi exhibition was Sonia Gandhi.
From here, she grew with BYST’s support. However, the biggest blow came from her husband: he set fire to her factory and made off with her money. She has started again, but ‘‘I have lost faith in men and am planning to turn it into a all-woman enterprise,’’ she says. This 45-year-old woman ensures your faith in stree shakti.