Entrepreneur who defied gender stereotype

Back in the 70s, it was a matter of social shame for women to work outside home and become self-dependent. But financial problems in her family compelled Indira Sapkota of Kathmandu to break the stereotype and turn to her sewing and knitting skills to supplement family income.

She began with a sewing machine at her house, and employed a few women a year or so later. The business bloomed over the years and she began earning sufficient money to run the family.[break]

However, her interest was not limited to meeting the needs of the family alone. Turning her private sewing and knitting cottage industry into a welfare organization, she stepped into the field of social service and changed the lives of thousands of women from lower social strata for the better.

Sapkota, now 72, is an inspirational figure whose work stands out as a model for social change and women empowerment.

She has so far trained over 7,000 mostly illiterate women with sewing and knitting skills and helped them be financially self-dependent and lead decent lives.

“I just shared my skills and experiences with them,” says Sapkota, a resident of Ghattekulo in Kathmandu. Most employees at her Nepal Grihini Udyog (NGU) are women from poverty-stricken families.

Dubbed informally the “Light of Nepal” by former Indian ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, the septuagenarian is still active and operates a school in Baluwa VDC in Kathmandu for the children of backward Nagarkoti community, besides running a multipurpose cooperative, and a pickle factory in addition to her knitting and sewing business.

“I have run the organization till this age. Now I plan to hand it over to others and retire,” says Sapkota, while having lunch in a recent afternoon, and relating the tale of her struggle against the odds.

Beginning from scratch

When she and her husband separated from their joint family in 1975, Sapkota found it difficult to run her house and educate four children with Rs 500 per month her husband drew as salary from the National Trading Limited.

Married off at the age of 13, she had studied up to grade 9 only. While she was skilled in sewing and knitting, making money out of it was a matter of embarrassment for a Brahmin woman at that time. “But meeting the needs of the family outweighed social shame,” she said.

Without the knowledge of her relatives, the housewife started a small sewing and knitting enterprise in her own house, working whenever she was free from the household chores. In the afternoons, after her husband left for office and children went to school, she made rounds of shops at New Road requesting shopkeepers to sell her sweaters and baby suits. Soon, she pleasantly surprised herself by earning four times what her husband made as an employee at National Trading.

Her business had been exposed to society by that time, despite her efforts to carry it out in secret.

Her in-laws and relatives even shunned her, while people began calling her a “wool-carrying sister”. But nothing could discourage Sapkota. Learning from her own experiences, she only went on making progress in the business.

The self-employment initiative that began 35 years ago evolved into a cottage industry that specialized in producing mattresses, quilts, pillows, diapers, towels, and shoes for newborns, apart from clothes for breast-feeding mothers. “You don’t need to go abroad for employment; you can make lots of money here if you can think a bit, work hard, and have patience,” says Sapkota.

Until a few years back, the demand for the clothes made at the NGU, under the brand name of AAD (meaning aid), was so high that she employed over 250 women. But the decade-long conflict had adverse impacts on the NGU as well and she downsized the production scale.

In the field of social service

Sapkota became active in the field of social service especially after the death of her husband 24 years ago. “I had undergone hardships as a woman, so I became sympathetic toward women,” says Sapkota.

She not only trains women with the skills of sewing and knitting and pickle-making, but also guides them on how to register their enterprises with the government office, obtain raw materials and sell them. The training package fully equips women with skills to begin a business of their own. The nominal charge she gets from training the women goes to the social welfare scheme she is implementing.

Since 2002, she has been operating Gram Sundar Lower Secondary School at Gokarna which teaches over 150 children for free. She pumps Rs 50,000 into the school every month.

“I will expand it up to higher secondary level if I get financial aid from others,” adds Sapkota. She is also involved in sensitizing people about environmental hazards, and frequently distributes pamphlets about garbage disposal and sanitation in the neighborhood.

For the welfare and rights of senior citizens

Seeing the condition of the elderly in Nepal, Sapkota has also developed a scheme for their welfare. She wants to set up a residence for old-age citizens at the backyard of the school in Gokarna.

“We will permit senior citizens to build houses in the government-provided 70 ropanis land and live there for the rest of their lives,” says Sapkota who actively participates in the National Senior Citizens´ Network to ensure rights for senior citizens in the new constitution.

“There is a law barring the parents from throwing away their kids, but no law against the children for evicting their old parents from the house,” she adds.

According to her, the provision of dividing property equally among claimants leaves the neediest members of a family without a stable source of income. Children want parents to part with parental property as soon as they grow up, and this is problematic.

Sapkota´s husband passed away in 1986. She would have enjoyed having her children around in her old age. But then, she had to make a hard choice between managing NGU and spending time idly at home. Her sons wanted her to choose the latter, as they saw her active involvement with NGU as a message to the society that she was not being taken care of financially by them.

"I refused to give up working for the Udyog and that estranged me from my sons," she said, "They want me to stop associating myself with something that is dearest to me. Why should I stop using my skills?"

She cooks herself and lives alone. Practicing yoga in the early morning and making herself busy throughout the day have helped the aging grandmother remain healthy.