SoochnaPreneur Pulls her Family out of Poverty

By Digital Empowerment Foundation

Published on: Sept 20, 2022

“I was given digital training, a printer, a tablet and a lot of guidance from the DEF team. I never thought that a printer and a tablet could change my life completely. These two digital devices brought my family out of the financial crisis we were going through.”

A mother of two, she realised the importance of being independent when her family was on the verge of poverty. She said “we were almost on the streets when I was approached by Abhinav sir (DEF’s District Coordinator). He asked me if I wanted to become an entrepreneur and of course I said yes.” Kirti had no idea that with just one printer and one tablet she would become an independent woman, she said “I was given digital training, a printer, a tablet and a lot of guidance from the DEF team. I never thought that a printer and a tablet could change my life completely. These two digital devices brought my family out of the financial crisis we were going through.” Along with digital training Kirti was also given entrepreneurship training and with the experience and income of running her SoochnaPreneur centre she also opened a grocery store. Now she sits at the store with her husband providing digital services to those in need. She is earning 7,000 rupees per month on an average. She mentioned that when the government launches a new scheme her income increases to about 20,000 rupees that month. From being in a financially vulnerable position she is now serving those in need by providing government entitlements, digital financial services and other basic digital services like photocopy and scanning for which earlier people had to travel outside the village.

SoochnaPreneur is an initiative with a vision of supporting, strengthening and enhancing the capacities of grassroots communities to access and avail information and entitlements in critical areas of health, education, social and financial inclusion, livelihood and employment.