Jahan Ara is a feminist social worker, a volunteer teacher and a Community Correspondent for our KashmirUnheard team. A concerned resident of her area, she works on the social issues that exist in Padgampora, a village in Awantipora Tehsil in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir which is the reason she joined Video Volunteers. She has reported on the non-functionality…

Jahan Ara Khaliq

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Here is a story of entrepreneurship, from Kashmir, India. Barring a few tribal matrilineal communities, most of India is patriarchal. Hence, we get to see few women entrepreneurs doing business. As we are progressing, the Government is promoting and nurturing entrepreneurship amongst women through various schemes, Self Help Groups (SHG’s) is a major one among them. 

The Government is promoting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in agreement with the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act of 2006. These enterprises primarily engaged in the production, manufacturing, processing, or preservation of goods and commodities. 

This story is of Heena Parray, a young Kashmiri woman from Jawbhera Awantipura area of Pulwama District. She is quite popular in her area for her business, a fishery.

She had an entrepreneurial, independent streak from her childhood. When she mentioned the  fishery idea to her parents - to her delight, her wise parents and family members readily agreed to help her. The initial money was arranged by selling a part of their land, her parents had faith in her abilities and her foresight. She did not take any bank loans yet.

Now her fishery is making profits and she has expansion plans. She invites experts to come and monitor the growth and health of the fishes. She wants to install a bigger processing machine with technicians from Gujarat, so that she can supply her fish to a bigger market, even internationally. 

She laments the aspirations of the younger generation for governmental jobs. She encourages people to start their small businesses. Dependency on the Government jobs only creates despair among the young and able adults. She says proudly that now she employs 6-10 people in her fishery and she is able to provide for those families. 

We wish her all the success in her business. Please share the video so that young girls like her across the globe get inspiration.