MORIGAON, May 7 - This is the story of a woman entrepreneur, who completed her studies after getting married and then started a business in making jams, jellies and pickles and has now made a name for herself by making pickles out of fish. Her story illustrates that nothing is impossible for a woman nowadays and that only working in a job is not the only way to financial independence and security.
Ilamoni Borah of Jagibhakatgaon, of Mayong Block, Morigaon district got married in 1995. After her marriage, she completed her matriculation, XIIth and a degree in Bachelors in Arts. After completing her degree she started to look for a government job, but was unsuccessful. She did not however want to confine herself to household chores and wanted to be independent and carve out an identity for herself. She started her journey towards evolving as a successful entrepreneur by attending a 13-day training organised by NABARD, Morigaon on microenterprise development programme on fruit and vegetable processing. She further augmented her skills through a five-day training organised by DIC Morigaon. After getting trained she summoned her courage, patience and self confidence to start a small business on her own with an amount of Rs 1000 only.
During her initial struggle to popularise her products, she had to persuade many shopkeepers who reluctantly agreed. Gradually with time, her products got popular and she applied for a loan and was granted a loan of Rs 5 lakh through the DIC to start her work on larger scale. With support from her husband Atul Bora, she started a small scale industry preparing pickles, squashes, jams, jellies, pithas and larus. Eventually, her pickles, jams and jellies found a place in shops, bakery and stores of Morigaon district and nearby Guwahati city shops. She was called to impart hands on training in her acquired skills by various organisations like NABARD, DIC during 2015-16. To add to her glory, she was awarded a certificate by the Superintendent of Police on the 70th Independence day as a token of recognition of being a successful entrepreneur of Morigaon district during 2016.
She then formed a women�s group named Rongali thereby motivating the women folk of the village in taking up this business as a tertiary profession during their free hours. Eventually, she started packaging her products under the name �Trinayan Gramin Food Products� and coined her brand as RUCHI. With rising popularity of her products, she started participating in various exhibitions in the district through ASRLM, DRDA and other organisations. She came in contact with the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Morigaon through an exhibition organised by the KVK where they were showcasing various technologies and upcoming avenues for agriculture and allied sectors. After coming in contact with KVK, she participated in various exhibitions organised by KVK where she showcased jam, jellies and pickles made from locally available vegetables, spices and fruits. With her desire to reach that extra mile, she requested KVK Morigaon to equip her in making pickles out of fish as it will fetch more prices compared to vegetable and fruit pickles. An exposure visit and training on entrepreneurship development through fish pickle making was organised in collaboration with the College of Fishery Science, Raha where Ilamoni Bora with 25 other ladies from Jagibhakatgaon were imparted hands-on training on preparation of fish pickle. Within a month of training she prepared, packaged, exhibited and sold fish pickle at the Vibrant North East 2017 at Guwahati. With vegetable pickles, she was earning Rs 150 per kg. However, fish pickle with more protein content sold at Rs 1200 per kg. With a gleam in her eyes, Ila Bora proudly says her net income from selling pickles in 2016 was Rs3,80,000.00 and this year she expects more with a new technology of fish pickle in her bag. Today, she says every woman should come forward and try to create an identity for herself.