CASE STUDY

Achievement Speaks For Struggle and Hardwork

 

POOJA SHARMA

"I was afraid from inside but I knew my family was always there."  
                                        
Women in India are expected to be confined to domestic frontiers since a very long time, but they are scuffling hard to get away from these retrograding restrictions.  From trying to break free from the shackles of social discrimination, cultural bias, tags of being an inferior sex to fulfilling their responsibility of maintaining a home and a family, Indian women are now finally acknowledged, appreciated and admired for their new roles of ‘entrepreneurs’.

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. This is the reason for success of Pooja Sharma. She is the head at ZingnZest common facility center(CFC) at Chandu village, Haryana. From an extremely weak financial background, Pooja became a part of self-help group(SHG) in 2007. In 2013, she became a part of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Shikhopur and got connected with HSRLM, PUSA and different Government agencies. She was also trained in food processing and packaging by KVK. Seeing this, in 2017, the project team of New Leaf thought of strengthening her own initiatives and leveraging the same for the benefit of other women in the village and started ZingnZest initiative there. She brought change in the lives of many people.

She had to struggle a lot before becoming a part of this organization. The patriarchal norms and structures deeply rooted in the society restrict women from going and working beyond their household limits which restricts them from contributing to the family income and same happened with Pooja. She faced various obstacles, but it was her determination and support of her husband and children that motivated her to not stop and continue with her dream. She had always wanted to earn a living and become independent and support her family. So it was ACCESS Development Services that helped her to achieve it. She has influenced lives of many by creating various independent groups to help the women to become self-sustained.

 For her great resoluteness towards her work and improving life of others, she has achieved various awards- Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Puruskar, National Krishi Puruskar, facilitated by Chief Minister of Haryana in occasion of Republic Day, also by Governor of Haryana, and others. It is her hard work that has made her reach to this point. 

Contribution: Content by Shakshi Singh | Photo by Kunal Kishore