Revathy hails from a very poor family in Ramanatapuram village in Pakkam Panchayat. Her father was an alcoholic who forced her to discontinue her education after the 9th grade and got her married at a young age. Her husband, who was an alcoholic too, discouraged her from going out to work. Due to poverty, she was at times unable to pay the house rent or the school fees. She put her children in a free school run by an NGO. She had gone to a beautician’s course and was also innately talented in art and crafts. One day, her husband, in a drunken state, met with an accident and has been unable to work for almost six years. Soon, Revathy joined Chinmaya Karpaga Vinayagar SHG and Mahila Mandal, which marked a turn of events in her life. Seeing the hopeless state of herhusband, she learned tailoring and did some odd stitching jobs. Revathy shared her sad state of affairs with Smt. Lalita (CORD staff). It took Lalita several visits to the house to convince her husband and counsel him. Initially, he did not let her inside the house. Slowly, with Lalita’s persistent efforts, he took her good counsel and allowed his wife to go out for a job.Revathy joined the 2-week jute bag-making course facilitated by CORD (in association with INDSETTI). After the course, she tried to gather 10 of the 24 women who attended the course to start her own enterprise. But as it needed initial investment, many were apprehensive and backed out. After a lapse of 4 months, when CORD approached her with an order of 600 jute bags, she once again gathered 3 more women from the training and took up the order. It was a huge step for a beginner, but she did it. Since then, she has taken up many such orders, mostly from various Chinmaya Mission centers. She is the leader of the group of six, whom she mentors and monitors. She has also learned many other skills, like jewelry making, screen printing, garment making, hand painting, paper bag making, and hand embroidery, facilitated by CORD. Being talented, she has picked these up quickly, and with these additional skills, she is able to earn a regular income of about Rs. 5,000 per month and also help five other women like herself earn their livelihood. Besides, she teaches a 2-month tailoring course to other village women. So far, she has trained two such batches. With her hard-earned money and the help of SHG loans, she has built her own house.Thus, through the Mahila mandal and SHG programs, she has attended many leadership, VVRP (Village Volunteer Resource Person), vocation skill development, and capacity building trainings at CORD, all of which have slowly enabled her transformation into an empowered entrepreneur. Her husband, who is finally now able to go to work after a lapse of 6 years, is also a changed man, a teetotaler, and a supportive husband. Revathy is now our IGS and entrepreneurship VVRP mentor who mentors other women in rural villages like herself. She is very grateful to Pujya Gurudev and to CORD.
