As the world celebrates Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, conversations often revolve around urban founders, tech innovators, and corporate leaders. Yet, across rural India, countless women are rewriting the meaning of entrepreneurship through hard work, innovation, and collective strength, quietly transforming their communities.
These rural women entrepreneurs may not pitch to investors, but through farming, livestock rearing, and community-based food systems, they are building enterprises that define self-reliance and sustainable development in a powerful new way. Here are some inspiring stories that capture the true spirit of women-led rural entrepreneurship in India.
1. Anita Moody: Cultivating Prosperity on Drought-Prone Land
Anita Moody from South Kamalpur village in Bankura had long faced repeated crop failures and migration pressures. In 2020, she took a bold step, growing watermelons on barren land, a first for her region.
By 2022, after joining PRADAN, Anita transformed from a farmer into a community leader. She mobilized women to set up a Farmer Producer Company (FPC), promoting collective marketing, shared resources, and sustainable practices like solar irrigation.
Within three years, her income jumped from Rs 26,100 to Rs 2.8 lakh, a 980% rise. Watermelon cultivation expanded tenfold in the village, and women gained financial independence through bank accounts. Anita’s journey proves how climate-smart farming and collective strength can uplift an entire community.
2. Kanti Oraon: From Food Insecurity to Economic Independence
Kanti Oraon from Telia village in Jharkhand once struggled to provide even two meals a day for her family. With PRADAN’s support, she learned improved farming techniques and diversified into vegetable cultivation and livestock rearing.
Today, she earns an additional Rs 60,000 annually. With her income, she purchased a solar submersible pump, a power tiller, and saved Rs 1 lakh. She now plans to set up a paddy milling center in the village after buying a rice hulling machine. Her story shows how access to knowledge, markets, and credit can dramatically uplift rural women.
3. Siya Maravi: Leading a Grassroots Green Revolution
In Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district, Siya Maravi leads the Narmada Organic Manure Committee, where a team of 10 women operates a Bio Resource Center (BRC). They prepare and sell liquid “Jeevamrit,” super compost, and vermicompost, helping farmers reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers.
Their biggest innovation is a solar-operated automated Jeevamrit unit, capable of producing 2,000 liters of organic input in just four days. So far, the group has sold 48 tons of vermicompost and 9,500 liters of Jeevamrit. Under Siya’s leadership, women have increased their incomes, gained direct market access, and encouraged the community to shift toward sustainable farming.
4. Lalita Mahata: Changing Identity with a Pair of Bullocks
Lalita Mahata from Bankura district proudly says, “I am the first woman in my village to buy bullocks with my own money.”
She is part of the Ranibandh Mahila Farmer Producer Company, which helps women participate in farming decisions, understand market prices, and sell produce without middlemen. This change was not just economic, women gained control of agricultural resources for the first time. Lalita’s bullocks now symbolize the rising economic freedom of rural women.
5. Renu Devi: Transforming Hundreds of Families Through Goat Farming
Renu Devi from Jharkhand, once fearful of vaccinating goats, is now one of 35 trained Pashu Sakhis (animal service providers). She provides vaccination, deworming, and health services to more than 2,000 goat-rearing families.
Thanks to her services, women like Lallo Oraon have increased their annual income up to Rs 1.1 lakh. Entrepreneurs like Renu are building trusted, community-based systems of expertise, true pillars of rural entrepreneurship.
PRADAN has so far supported 8.25 lakh rural families, strengthening livelihoods and promoting women-led enterprises. In Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal, rural women are learning new skills, taking leadership roles, and turning traditional livelihoods into thriving enterprises.
These women show that entrepreneurship is not limited to startups and boardrooms, it thrives just as powerfully in villages, farms, and local communities.
