How Asima Sardar used ₹50,000 to empower her entire community
Asima Sardar represents thousands of women who are rewriting the narrative of rural entrepreneurship
In Parulia village of Nadia district, West Bengal, 38-year-old Asima Sardar stands as a quiet but powerful example of how rural women can transform their lives when given the tools, training, and confidence to lead.
Before she started her entrepreneurial journey, Asima was a housewife, equipped with determination but limited in formal skills. With just ₹50,000 invested initially, she struggled to maintain business records, track profits, or understand licensing processes. Yet her curiosity and commitment pushed her forward.
Through the Udyamini programme, Asima underwent intensive bookkeeping training, spice packaging sessions, and the FastTrack Business Acceleration course. She learned to calculate profits and losses, determine pricing, maintain machinery, and navigate the FSSAI licensing process independently.
Her confidence grew with each step. Over time, she emerged as a capable leader managing both the farm machinery bank and the spice processing unit of her Producer Group.
Her impact is visible in numbers and in the lives she has touched. In 2023, her group earned a modest monthly income of ₹10,000–12,000. Today, under her leadership, the combined turnover of their machinery services and spice grinding unit has risen to ₹30,000–35,000 per month.
Farmers from nearby areas rent tools from her unit, and households rely on the community spice grinder she manages. Asima also supports other women, inspiring housewives to earn independently and guiding them through licensing, business planning, and confidence-building.
She now represents the entire Nagarukhra cluster, playing a pivotal role in mobilising government support and strengthening the rural women entrepreneurship network.
Her dream is to expand both machinery services and spice production while onboarding more women into her growing circle of entrepreneurs.
Asima’s journey is not just her own triumph—it reflects a larger movement of rural women entrepreneurs (RWEs) who are stepping into leadership roles across India. She is among many such women who will participate in the Rural Udyamita Conference 2025, a landmark gathering scheduled for December 12 at NEDFi, Guwahati. This event will showcase stories like hers—stories of courage, innovation, and determination that are reshaping India’s rural economy.
The conference is being hosted by the Council for Social and Digital Development (CSDD), Digital Empowerment Foundation, North East Development Foundation, and Unifiers Social Ventures.
Together, these organisations have been working to build an enabling environment for women like Asima.
The event is co-organised by the Udyamini RWEP Collaborative and supported by key institutional partners, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Assam State Rural Livelihoods Mission (ASRLM).
The Rural Udyamita Conference 2025 aims to bring together policymakers, financial institutions, non-profits, grassroots leaders, and entrepreneurs to deliberate on the systems needed to strengthen rural enterprise.
Sessions will focus on credit access, market linkages, digital literacy, capacity building, climate-resilient livelihoods, and emerging opportunities in sectors such as solar, clean energy, horticulture, handloom, and micro-businesses.
The organisers envision a platform where RWEs can share their experiences, forge connections, and receive recognition for their contributions to local economies.
At the heart of the event lies the mission of Udyamini—a four-year collaborative initiative (2023–2027) implemented through the Rural Women Entrepreneurship Programme (RWEP).
The programme has been instrumental in nurturing a vibrant community of digitally empowered women from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
These women are not only supporting their households but also strengthening local value chains by offering essential services, creating jobs, and building resilient communities.
Come listen to Asima and several other successful Rural Women Entrepreneurs at the Rural Udyamita Conference 2025. Register here.
