CSR Success Stories

Laxmi Maled (Belagavi, Karnataka)

Laxmi Maled: An incredible achiever!

It all started with a simple exercise. In 2013-14 women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) were formed in Yadwad village (Belagavi district, Karnataka) by Dalmia Bharat Foundation (DBF). During the formation of these SHG’s they used local facilitators, one of whom was Laxmi Maled. She had incredible leadership abilities and could rally people around with ease.

The association with DBF’s SHG program was enough to sow the seed of forming a large cooperative of women in Laxmi’s mind. She had seen the benefits arising out of the micro-credit program and wanted to scale that up. She realised her dream when in January 2015, she led the formation of Pragati Grameen Mahila Abhivruddi Sshakari Sangh, a cooperative society of 191 women of Yadwad. The Sangh, which started with a corpus of 1.91 Lakh Rupees raised through the savings of its members, has today expanded its membership to 250 shareholders and the corpus to Rs. 60 Lakh. It has become a preferred financial institution for the locals and has thus far advanced money to 17 Joint-liability Groups, 18 Self Help Groups and over 130 individuals. With the availability of credit to the unbanked, Yadwad now has abundant milk producers, petty shop owners and tea and vegetable vendors from amongst the poorer section of the community.

A remarkable achiever and newsmaker that Laxmi has become, Doordarshan has also found it worthy of sharing her story with the world and she has also been shortlisted for the National Entrepreneurship Award by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). DBF is proud of its association with her and her remarkable achievements!