Monalisa Patsani
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: There was a time when women were mostly confined to household chores. But times are changing are so are the social roles of women. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Orissa POST speaks to a couple of young women entrepreneurs.
Shruti Narula is known for her delicious cakes, cup cakes and mousse. In August 2015 she started her bakery ‘Cupcakes-n-More’ which instantly became a hit. She started off with making theme-based cakes and customised cupcakes. “Theme-based cakes and cup cakes are not a novelty in other parts of the country. When I started the business here I was not confident that it would grow. But I was wrong,” she says.
Inspired by her sister, Shruti does not use preservatives in her confections. “The whole idea of home bakery is to offer people healthy confections. Making theme-based cakes for weddings, birthdays and other special occasions was a new concept in the city. The idea, design and theme of the cakes are based on customer choice. When we started promoting the idea on social networking sites, we started receiving good response,” she says.
Shruti believes it is important for a woman to be independent. “This business has given me an identity. I always believe that one needs to be independent. We need to follow our dreams and taking risks is very important in business,” she says.
Supreety Mishra, another young entrepreneur, is working hard to bring about a sea change in the lives of thousands of village women. She launched Go Vikash, a cooperative firm that provides sustainable livelihood to women engaged in agriculture and horticulture.
Go Vikash is into dairy farming. “We have a family business of manufacturing LPG cylinders and regulators. I came up with an idea of working in the agricultural sector. Go Vikash is an initiative through which we encourage farmers to adopt modern technologies and skills. The farmers of our state need extensive training,” she says.
Supreety also promotes organic farming. “Organic farming is not very popular because of the low quantum of production. Initially, it was really difficult to convince farmers of the benefits of organic farming. At a small level, farmers can reap good profits from organic farming,” she says.
“It is important that a woman should be financially self-dependant. Girls are inborn managerial skills and they don’t need an MBA degree. I derive satisfaction from bringing a smile to the faces of poor villagers,” she says.
