Seven women take a leap to entrepreneurship in Odisha's Berhampur

BERHAMPUR:  The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) has transformed seven women ‘safai mitras’ into Berhampur Swacchta Bahini entrepreneurs by helping them own and operate septic tank cleaning machines.

They will now be in charge of liquid waste management - a job hitherto managed by men - in the city.

By doing so, the BeMC has become the first urban local body in the country to help women ‘safai karamcharis’ become self reliant, tweeted the Ministry of Housing Affairs.

For the purpose, the civic body in collaboration with the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation facilitated loan of around Rs 77 lakh for the women under the Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers Scheme, which provides financial benefits to sanitation workers for their rehabilitation in alternative occupations. 

The seven women are Sibani Das, Sujata Samal, Gulapi Das, Swapna Sethi, Pinki Das, Sakuntala Das and Sudasna Sethi.

“They were all members of different Mission Shakti SHGs and trained to work as sanitation workers at the septage treatment plant (SeTP) in Berhampur. All of them belong to the Scheduled Caste community and prior to joining the SeTP they worked as daily wage construction workers for Rs 120-Rs 150 per day. For the past several months, they have been working in the SeTP and after their orientation by BeMC, they expressed interest to avail loan under the Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers Scheme,” said Sidheswar Baliram Bondar, BeMC Commissioner, adding that through this initiative, the civic body has created an avenue for their social and economic development.

BeMC helped the Berhampur Swacchta Bahini to avail loan for procuring machines and equipment for mechanised cleaning of septage tanks in the city.

The Swacchta Bahini will be led by a group leader to take work orders and ensure timely payment of EMIs. 

They will be trained by the vendor providing the machines and also by BeMC on various aspects of operation and maintenance and business development. 

The members plan to engage other work force for operation of the machines and executing the work orders.