Ranjan's Story of Becoming Self Reliant

 

LED is the newest and most exciting technological advancement in the lighting industry, which appeared relatively recently and gained popularity in our market because of its high-quality illumination, long life service and other advantages. Here is the story of Ranjana Begum Barbhuiya of Rahmat Self Help Group under Kaushalya Mahila Cluster Level Federation of BMMU Silchar. Ranjana bought significant changes in her life by engaging herself in LED bulb assembling business after coming into ASRLM SHG fold and after availing different financial support from the mission. The woman took up the initiative after her son had received LED bulb assembling training from a certain institute. Mrs. Ranjana took a loan of Rs. 20,000 from her SHG to finance her venture followed by bank loan Rs. 30000 and Community Investment Fund Rs. 25000.

Initially, they struggled to source components locally, and eventually found vendors from Delhi to supply the equipment. By 2019 end, the equipment had arrived. They had started assembling the components to make a bulb. As the lockdown began in the early 2020, they approached local shops to sell her produce. It costs them around Rs. 70 rupees to assemble a single LED bulb of 12W which they are selling at a wholesale price of 92 rupees with an MRP of 120 rupees that is much lesser than other brands in the market; additionally they are also giving one year warranty of it. This unique aspect, combined with the low cost, made it acceptable in the market.

But due to the lockdown, their business was hampered.  So they think about how to do business online, it leads them making GST and they have started listing their product in online e-commerce site like Amazon and Snapdeal. In recent development they have also built an android application and a website of their business. They named it "Maa LED Bulb" under the umbrella of Barbhuiya Enterprise. They are selling now more than 1,000 pieces of LED bulb of different capacity per month with monthly turnover of Rs. 30,000 to 40,000. Now Ranjana is thinking to grow her business more and also planning to train her fellow women in her village to make these LED bulbs so that they can also be a self-reliant as her.