INTRODUCTION ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR

Being the second most popular country of the world, India has both in abundance, the

challenges and perspectives in entrepreneurship. There are two wheels of society which run

the whole economy of a nation, male fraternity and female fraternity. Entrepreneurship is a

major contributor of economic growth. Its impact is manifolds on the development of a

nation. Women being the better halves in a society, play an important role in entrepreneurship

development. It is a fact that a woman constitutes the family, which leads to society and to

Nation. Social and economic development of women is necessary for gross economic

development of any society or a country. Entrepreneurship is the state of mind which every

woman has in her as an additional quality/ trait in a recessive form. Due to drastic change in

environment, now people are more prone to accept leading role of women in patriarchal

society. The increasing dependency of mankind on service sector has created many

entrepreneurial opportunities especially for women where they can excel their skills with

maintaining balance in their life.

Essentially it focuses on “Women Entrepreneur”, with special reference to Indian women that

how they manage efficiently in between their work life and their family life by satisfying the

requirements of both.

(a) Women Entrepreneurship:

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When we speak specifically about the term “Women Entrepreneurship” we mean, an act of

business creation and ownership that not only empowers women economically but also

increases their financial strength as well as position in society. Hence women-entrepreneurs

have been making a considerable impact in all most each segment of the economy which is

more than twenty five of all kinds of business. The need to run and manage the vast emerging

developments occurring globally in general and in India particular requires a lot of

entrepreneurs. Women fraternity, constituting the half of the literate youth power, plays a

crucial role in entrepreneurship development.

(b) Women Entrepreneur:

The women of current era represent a modern, educated, working woman who has a family to

run, children to raise, while doing the job. These women wish to achieve academic and

professional excellence without risking their career and or money on it. The factors

responsible for women to be Entrepreneurs include, Financial compulsions, Change in life

style, Rapidly disappearing secured jobs, increased Inflation, International market forces,

Populist moves of the Governments, Forcing to enhance family income, Multiple sets of the

same commodity, Each commodity very expensive, Escalating costs of education, Peer

pressure for outing, life style expenses etc.

Some of the major challenges an Indian working woman faces:

(i) Work – family balance

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(ii) Be fully traditional or modern?

(iii) How to say no to the traditional expectations, loading work at will?

(iv) The increasing influence of technology has brought about a major shift in how we work,

relax, entertain, travel, and learn and so on.

Entrepreneur is a recent concept that means having entrepreneurship qualities and using them

to develop the same organization you are employed with. It is defined as “A manager within

a company who promotes innovative product development and marketing.”

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 KALANA SAROJ

Kalpana Saroj is a real life story of determination, perseverance, bravery, tenacity and

indomitable courage of a lone woman fighter who rose from the lowest strata of life to

capture the ivory towers. She is strong, resolute, tough, spirited and at the same time has a

tender heart which instantly reaches out to help the needy. No doubt the icon that young

ladies look forward to be, she was recently awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Award for Woman

Entrepreneurs.

Kalpana Saroj works actively for the up-liftment of the Adivasis, destitute children, aged and

infirm. She took up the cudgel against racism and caste discrimination. Kalpana Saroj’s

efforts for the up liftment of the downtrodden masses has been eulogized in the local as well

as international press and Television time and again.

That’s Kalpana Saroj the winner. The lead lady, battling crises as they come, beating the

down turn, burning targets and creating milestones. But then, what’s winning without a good

fight?

An Indian Dalit (formerly untouchable) woman, who once attempted suicide to escape

discrimination, poverty and physical abuse, becomes the CEO of a multi-million dollar

company. Her life reads like the plot of a Bollywood film, with a narrative which has defied

so many obstacles, to conclude with a happy ending. The "rags to riches" cliche can be

overused, but it goes some way in describing the story of Kalpana Saroj, a woman who

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struggled on so many occasions on her way to the top. Born into a low-caste Dalit family,

she was bullied at school, forced

into marriage at the age of 12, fought social pressures to leave her husband, before she tried

to take her own life.

Today, she is a multi-millionaire. At the helm of a successful company, she rubs shoulders

with prominent businessmen and has won awards for her professionalism.

The first time she came to Mumbai, she did not even know where to go. She was from such a

small village. Today her company has two roads named after it in the city, summing up the

extent to which her life has transformed. India's caste system is an ancient social hierarchy,

which places people into different categories by birth. Those born into the lower castes have

historically faced discrimination. Some of her friends' parents would not let her in their

homes, and she was not even allowed to participate in some school activities because she was

a Dalit. She used to get angry. She felt really nervous because she thought even she is a

human being.

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FROM CHILD BRIDE TO MULTI-MILLIONAIRE IN INDIA

Even though her father allowed her to get an education, wider family pressures saw Kalpana

become a bride at the age of 12. She moved to Mumbai to be with her husband who was 10

years older, but was shocked to find herself living in a slum. But that was not the only

hardship she had to endure.

She was treated badly by my husband's elder brother and his wife. They would pull her hair

and beat her, sometimes over little things. she felt broken with all the physical and verbal

abuse.

People from all backgrounds and caste work in Kalpana's company. Leaving a husband is

widely frowned upon in Indian culture, but Kalpana was able to escape the violent

relationship, thanks to her supportive father. When he visited her in Mumbai, he was shocked

to see his daughter emaciated and wearing torn clothes and took her back home. Many

villagers were suspicious of her return, viewing Kalpana as a failure.

She tried to ignore the judgemental comments thrown at her, focusing instead on getting a

job. She learnt tailoring as a way to make money. But, even with some degree of financial

independence, the pressure became too much. One day, she decided to end her life. she drank

three bottles of insecticide, termite poison. Kalpana was saved after her aunt walked into the

room and found her frothing at the mouth and shaking uncontrollably.

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The big change :

It marked a watershed for her when she decided to live her life, and do something big, and

then die. So, at the age of 16, she moved back to Mumbai to stay with an uncle and work as a

tailor. She began by earning less than a dollar a month, but tirelessly learnt how to operate

industrial sewing machines, and as a result saw her income rise. But the money she earned

was not enough to pay for her sister's treatment which could have saved her life, a moment

which defined Kalpana's entrepreneurial spirit.

she was highly disappointed and realised that money did matter in life, and that she needed to

make more. She took a government loan to open a furniture business and expand her tailoring

work. Kalpana is one of the few Dalits to have succeeded by unleashing their entrepreneurial

spirit. She worked 16 hours a day, a routine she has not managed to shake off to this day.

In the following years, she remarried, this time to a fellow furniture businessman, and had

two children. Her reputation led to her being asked to take over the running of a metal

engineering company, Kamani Tubes, which was in massive debt. By restructuring the

company, she turned things around. she wanted to give justice to the people who were

working there. she had to save the company. she could relate to the staff who needed to put

food on the table for their family. Now, Kamani Tubes is a growing business, worth more

than $100m.Kalpana employs hundreds of people, from all backgrounds and castes. She has

met prominent businessmen such as Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, and in 2006 won a

prestigious award for her entrepreneurial spirit.

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Kalpana regularly visits her home village and does charity work to help those in her

community. As a Dalit and a woman, her story is all the more remarkable in a country where

so few CEOs are from such a background.

"If you give your heart and soul to your job and never give up, things can happen for you,"

she says. It is a mantra that has helped Kalpana through the worst of times and still rings true

for her.

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 KALPANA SAROJ AS AN ENTREPENEUR

Kalpana was pulled out of school and married off at the age of twelve to a 22 year old man.

She joined her husband in a Mumbai slum and was tormented by her in-laws. Fed with

hunger and degradation, she returned to her parents in a State of poor health. She attempted

for suicide too. Later, she worked for Rs. 2 per day. But now she is a CEO of a metal

engineering company and heads an Rs.3 billion (Rs.300 crore/$60 million) business

enterprisemeet Kalpana Saroj, winner of Rajiv Gandhi Award for Woman Entrepreneurs.

Early Life:-She was Born in a poor Dalit family. Her father was a police years older to her.

She joined her husband in a Mumbai slum and was verbal and physical abused by her in-

laws. All this eventually led to a suicide attempt. She returned back to her parents a year later.

She tried joining the police force at age 13, but failed. Downcast, she tried her hand at

nursing, tailoring and other odd jobs but only succeeded in antagonizing the villagers by

these attempts ‘to step beyond her social boundaries’. Kalpana’s thirst for letters did not die

and she joined school again and cleared her 9th standard. Conscious of the fact that her

parental home is not the place where she could spend the rest of her life, she decided to turn

into her own bread-winner. While her childhood friends went to colleges, she bought a

sewing machine. She bore the insults for 10 years before leaving the rural slum in which her

family stayed to come to Mumbai. Sheltered by her uncle, and later, by a benevolent Gujarati

family, she unleashed herself on a long march. She joined a hosiery unit on a wage of Rs two

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a day and began climbing the ladder of success. Impressed by her immeasurable energy and

professionalism, her employer hiked her salary to Rs 400 a month.

Entrepreneur: Finally, at 22, she left Ruparkheda for Mumbai. She married again, but in

1989, her husband died. All that she inherited was an ailing steel-cupboard manufacture

business. By sheer dint of effort, the mother-of-two revived the sick firm. One thing led to

another. The unit helped her to make ends meet and raise her two children. She even

managed to put some money away. Saroj dabbled with politics, started a construction

company. She entered the business in 1995, when she managed to clear encroachments and

other claims on a piece of land. She bought the land with Rs 5 lakh saved up from the almirah

business. In 1997, with the help of institutional finance, Saroj erected a residential and

commercial complex at a cost of Rs 4 crore, and sold it for a tidy profit. Subsequently, she

continued to ride the realty boom. Ever since, Kalpana has not looked back.Along the way,

she dabbled in the sugar industry, buying a stake in the Sai Krupa Sakhar Karkhana in

Ahmednagar, and becoming a director on the board.

Biggest challenge:

Her biggest challenge came in March 2006 when her firm, Kalpana Saroj and Associates,

took over the ailing Kamani Tubes and turned it around to a profitable enterprise. A brand

leader in non-ferrous tubes, the company was started by Mumbai's well-known industrialist

Ramji Kamani, a close associate of the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who

visited the Kurla factory twice.However, a family discord affected the firm adversely. By

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1975, it was on a downslide and was declared "sick" after the owners abandoned it.Later, a

court allowed the workers' union to run the company.The experiment failed. By 1997, the

company had run into debts of over Rs.1.6 billion (Rs.160 crore).Almost a decade later, in

March 2006, as per a court directive, Kalpana Saroj and Associates were given charge of the

company, its 560 employees and the total debt burden. Saroj took up the challenge.

According to Kamani Tubes Managing Director M K Gore, in an effort to boost employees'

morale, she cleared in one go Rs.850 million (Rs.85 crore) in salary arrears totted up over 17

years.It worked.Gradually, production resumed and touched 3,000 tonnes of non-ferrous

tubes and pipes. Business apart, Kalpana Saroj has keen interest in Education. All the year

round more than 2000 students are benefited through services rendered by institutions

sponsored by her which provide library, hostel and financial help to the needy students.

Kalpana Saroj works actively for the up-liftment of the Adivasis, destitute children, aged and

infirm. She took up the cudgel against racism and caste discrimination. Kalpana Saroj’s

efforts for the up liftment of the downtrodden masses has been eulogized in the local as well

as international press and Television time and again.

WORK VENTURES

Her husband and his family caused her tremendous physical abuse; unable to bear her burden

anymore, the child bride was finally rescued by her father and taken back to their village.

Kalpana had to face the prejudice of the villagers as a bride who returned from her marital

home and attempted suicide; at 16, she was sent to Mumbai to live with relatives. Kalpana

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started working for a garment factory but she wanted more. Using loans given by the Indian

government to the untouchables, she was able to start a successful tailoring business. Not

stopping at that, she next started a venture in furniture.

Her break in real estate came when a land occupied by gangs came up for sale – it was a land

no one wanted but the owner wanted to sell it. The courageous woman she was, Kalpana

managed to negotiate – despite being threatened by the gang – and that was the beginning of

her very successful real estate business. Ever the entrepreneur, without any MBAs from

prestigious business school except what life had taught her, armed with nothing but

determination to succeed, this woman from the backwaters of India next rescued a business

from bankruptcy as it was forced to go into liquidation. The workers of Kamani Tubes, a

metal engineering company, were about to be laid off but Kalpana stepped in. Within months,

she brought the loss-making venture into profitability, thinning out the debts.

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REMARKABLE CLIMB FOR SELF-MADE DALIT MILLIONAIRE

Ms. Saroj described a remarkable journey from a place called Akola in Maharashtra state to

Mumbai in the mid-1980; perhaps five years before India liberalized its economy. In Akola,

she was married at 12 and dropped out of school at 14. The marriage didn’t work out. She

also began working as a teenager, after her father was suspended from his police officer job.

In Mumbai, at first she earned just two rupees a day (about .05 U.S. cents) as a seamstress,

though her earnings increased as she became comfortable using a sewing machine. Later,

with a bank loan, she ran a furniture shop.

In her life, as with many of India’s newly rich, real estate provided the big break. In 1997, she

bought a plot of land in the city that was going cheap because the property had an obstinate

tenant and faced possible legal problems.

Ms. Saroj says she followed the files that related to her building from one government office

to another until she sorted out the tenancy issue. She eventually did put up a building on the

site (she called it Kohinoor Plaza, after the world’s biggest diamond). Along the way she says

she faced threats from local mafia who weren’t pleased to see someone they saw as an

interloper getting into the property business.

After her building plans were passed, a man came to her warning that a contract for 500,000

rupees ($11,363) had been put on her head, and that she had better get out of town, she said.

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“Where you come from the land needs water to produce, here in Mumbai the land wants

blood,” Ms. Saroj recalls the man telling her. She went to the police station and reported the

threat to the cops, who rounded up the goons whose names she says she had managed to get

out of the man who told her about the contract. “Then the matter got solved,” she said.

She sold Kohinoor Plaza in 2000 and parlayed that money into other land deals. Ms. Saroj

says that because of that she got a reputation as a woman who could help people in Mumbai

solve complicated problems.

In 2006, she took over Kamani Tubes (she had previously been on its board), a metal tubing

factory that had 1.1 billion rupees of debts and that faced liquidation. She says she expects

the factory to clear its debts over the next year. She also owns a sugar factory.

Ms. Saroj puts her success down to her persistence – she says she is unwilling to believe she

can’t do something once she sets her mind to it. “There are many roads,” she said. “If one

way doesn’t work out I try to think of another way. If that doesn’t work, I think what’s an

alternative?” The millionaire now works out of Ballard estate, from offices around the corner

from those of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, at Reliance House.

Along the way she paid for the weddings of a younger brother and sister and gifted them an

apartment each, sent her daughter to study hotel management in London and her son to train

as a pilot in Germany.

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As for the helicopter, Ms. Saroj says she does indeed plan to buy one this year, as well as a

plane but not for personal use (at least not at first, she says). Pointing to the fact that her son

had to go overseas for training, she says she plans to set up a school for pilots at a multi-

billion dollar aviation hub being planned for the district where she grew up, at an airport

named after Dalit icon Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

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 REVIVAL OF KAMANI TUBES

Navinbhai Kamani doesn't betray any emotion over the fate that has befallen him and his

industrial empire. Now, in his eighties, he has "detached" himself from the past; the glorious

years when Ramjibhai Kamani, his father, rubbed shoulders with Gandhiji and later Pandit

Nehru, paving the road for an industrial India, along with the Tatas, Birlas, and the Bajajs.

"Father even stepped out of business for a while, taking to spinning khadi in rural Gujarat,"

he recalls

Navin bhai now leads a spartan life in a rented house in Mumbai's Worli amid constant

threats of eviction. The fact that, in June 2011, the Board for Industrial and Financial

Reconstruction (BIFR) released Kamani Tubes Ltd (KTL), a group company comatose for

decades, to chart an independent course doesn't stir him at all. As chairman of KTL, he had

handed over his embattled company to workers in 1988, after a prolonged spell of labour

trouble.

A Supreme Court-directed move, it was then hailed as a bold experiment in worker

ownership and management. Unfortunately, KTL, which made non-ferrous metal tubes and

pipes, hit the rocks within a decade, with the company retiring sick in 1995. Yet, when the

stoic Navinbhai learns that the current KTL chairman, Kalpana Saroj, who bought the

company and nursed it back to health in a daring revival scheme, starting 2006, is a dalit, he

perks up and his brows rise.

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What caught her eye were large advertisements put by IDBI for the sale of Kamani Tubes in

Kurla, set up by a venerable Gujarati family that was once right up there with the Tatas and

Birlas. Designed to manufacture copper-alloy tubes and pipes, the unit closed down in 1985

but reopened in 1988 on a Supreme Court order and was handed over to a workers’

cooperative society. But the workers couldn’t run it either and in 1995, it was on the verge of

liquidation, with even BIFR having thrown up its hands.

The workers came to her in 2005 and begged her to take it over. Many were Dalits. The

situation was so bad that they hadn’t been paid for months. Many had no money even for

food and medicines. She felt she needed to do something.

She went to IDBI and they agreed to make her president. She had to start looking after the

day-to-day management of the company immediately. The more she unravelled the

company’s affairs, the deeper was her despair. The company had no assets. The land it was

standing on was rented. Its building housed government tenants who were paying rent of 25

paise and 50 paise a month. And for obvious reasons, no one wanted to touch the company

until they got back what was already owed to them.

Saroj’s priority was to secure trust -- of the workers, the creditors and lending agencies. A

long slog followed with Saroj going from office to office, begging for a break, just one

chance. She looks back with gratitude at all the help that did come. The red letter day was the

day she retired the debt of the company. Some time last year, newspapers reported her

meeting with the former owner, now in his 80s, Navinbhai Kamani. Saroj handed him a

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cheque for Rs 51 lakh -- his dues, including provident fund, as part of the restructuring of

KTL.

Navinbhai's financial condition was precarious; and I think the money did him some good.

KTL may make a small book profit this year. The Kamani brand is selling in west Asia

through Al Kamani in Kuwait and Kalpana Saroj LLC in Dubai to cater to the huge demand

for copper tubes, especially from the water and sanitation sector. Her daughter is studying

hotel management in London and her son is training to become a pilot in the US. She plans to

set up an aviation academy in Maharashtra, because there aren’t enough opportunities for

Dalit children in India. It is entrepreneurs like Kalpana Saroj that inspired Milind Kamble,

Chairman and Managing Director of the Rs 100 crore-Fortune Construction, to give Dalit

entrepreneurship a profile. Kamble started out as a sub-contractor; and success spurred him to

focus on securing a share for Dalits in the nation's GDP. And so was born the Dalit Indian

Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

DICCI was born to break the old boys’ network of Ficci and CII. DICCI recently helped

launch a venture capital fund with a Rs 100 crore corpus, underwritten by the Planning

Commission. The first big function DICCI celebrated last year was at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal

Hotel, a black-tie event where single malt flowed.

Capitalism will save the Dalits, says Chandrabhan Prasad, advisor to DICCI. Not everyone

agrees, but Prasad says Dalits need to remember where they came from him. This is a story,

in his own words, of his childhood of great poverty and want.

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Saroj visited him some time ago to write out a cheque for Rs 51 lakh his dues, including

provident fund, as part of the KTL restructuring exercise. Navinbhai's financial condition was

precarious; and the money did him some good. She, still immersed in the minutiae of blowing

life into the company, however, fails to comprehend the significance of the situation; a dalit,

once a denizen of the city's slums, bailing out the scion of a once mighty industrial empire,

and the recipient expressing silent gratitude! Kalpana Saroj of Kalpana Saroj & Associates

(KSA) has indeed traversed quite a distance from Murtizapura, a hamlet in the interiors of

Maharashtra.

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KALPANA SAROJ REWROTE HER OWN DESTINY AND THAT OF

KAMANI TUBES

Kalpana saroj comes from that part of the world where regressive beliefs still hold currency.

Here, for instance, women are considered as being only capable of cooking meals and giving

birth. she moved out of this hellish world in a small village in Vidarbha to another bit of hell

at age 12 a slum in suburban Mumbai‚ after being married off. She wasn’t allowed to study,

underwent unspeakable torture and eventually, my marriage failed. she returned home to a

society pushing back against me‚ but she pressed on. She realized that education was the key.

So, at first‚ she decided to remedy my lack of education by getting back to her studies which

she had left half way in a bid to get a job. However, things didn’t work out. She then moved

back to Mumbai with the intention of getting a job either by joining the Police force or

government services. But because she was young and uneducated, she failed to make any

headway.

Back in the day, in line with our society’s norms, her mother had encouraged her to learn

stitching. Women were always made to learn practical skills such as cooking, stitching,

crafts‚ etc. This is when she first got inclined towards entrepreneurship. She could earn Rs.

10 by stitching a blouse. She thought that if she could stitch four blouses a day, she could

make Rs. 40‚ which would amount to about Rs. 1,000 a month. She took a loan of Rs.

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50,000, invested in a sewing machine and a few other things to set up her first venture, which

was a boutique business.

When she was in Mumbai, she closely observed the unemployment scenario here and noticed

how it was linked to crime. At 16, she started working with unemployed people in my area

and tried to facilitate a better future for them through an NGO. Earlier, people used to pursue

local political leaders all the time for help. Once she asked a local political leader to help her

get a loan of Rs. 50,000, so that she could start a business. He said if she could bring him Rs.

10,000, he would get her the loan. She realized then that was to pay off bank officials. This

sparked off something in her. She pledged that from now on, she would help people too, but

in a different manner. Gradually, she began to help people in various matters, including a

litigation case over a plot of land where people like her were wronged. This eventually

encouraged her to enter the real estate business and a few other businesses like a sugar

factory in Ahmednagar. By this time her boutique business had grown and from the profits of

this business she invested in a furniture business and a beauty parlor.

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HELPING HAND:

Mrs.Saroj was living in Kalyan during this period, where she was becoming known for her

work with the marginalized. A few workers of Kamani Tubes Ltd., heard of this and

approached her for help. At that time, the company was a part of the Kamani Group of

Industries which included Kamani Metals, Kamani Tubes and Kamani Engineering.

Kamani Group’s case was a historic one in India. In 1988, the Supreme Court had decided to

make the workers the owners of the company. Since banks too wanted to encourage this

trend, four banks gave loans to the company and the government too pitched in. Due to issues

between the workers, union and management, Kamani Tubes went bankrupt and was facing

liquidation. She came into the picture only in the year 2000 when the company had a debt of

Rs. 116 crore, 140 litigation cases and two workers unions. Kamani Tubes had no significant

assets to its name. The factory in Kurla (Mumbai) was not operational. Machine parts had

been stolen. The office space was occupied by tenants who had been there for years. The

four-acre land the factory stood on was divided between Kamani Metals and Kamani

Engineering. Thinking of the plight of the workers, I decided to take the plunge.

She met with representatives of the banks, the Board for Industrial and Financial

Reconstruction (BIFR) and the government. Their brief to her was simple if she wanted to

help, she could pay Rs. 2.5 crore and take charge of the company. That is what she did.

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BRINGING IT BACK:

She had studied the company’s problems and realized that the debt had built up because of

interests and penalties. She approached the Finance Minister around 2005 and requested that

these (interests, penalties) be waived off. Her grounds for the request were that if the

company goes into liquidation, the banks would get nothing. But since she was trying to turn

the firm around, if they were waived, it would be possible for me to pay the debt back.

Her good intentions were noticed. The minister called up the chairmen of all the banks and

got them to waive the extra charges off and the liabilities came down to about Rs. 45 crore.

This was just one part of the problem with this firm. The other was the 140 litigation cases.

They were tackled systematically and the company was finally released from the BIFR in

June 2011. she restarted the factory on her own land in Wada (Thane). Gradually, the

company has limped back to normalcy with a better production and distribution network. It

has paid off the workers and was able to give back the dues of the original owner, Navinbhai

Kamani. The company is expecting a turnover of Rs. 80 crore from the tubes business and

about Rs. 60 crore from the recently started steel business. All her businesses together bring

in Rs. 300 crore today. she knew nothing about the business of making tubes. she put

everything at stake her name, her money and more, with Kamani Tubes. Her ideology has

been to always do the best she can and do it for others. That is why she knew that she could

turn this company around.

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KALPANA SAROJ - INDIA'S ORIGINAL SLUMDOG BILLIONAIRE

One can call her India's real life slumdog billionaire. Kalpana Saroj, a Dalit woman who

broke social shackles and left her ramshackle home in the poorest part of her village 26 years

ago to begin life afresh, today heads a Rs.3 billion (Rs.300 crore/$60 million) business

enterprise. From the daughter of a Dalit police havaldar in Vidarbha's Akola district to

chairmanship of a Rs.68 crore company, it has been an eventful journey for Kalpana Saroj.

To her credit is the revival of the defunct Kamani Tubes Limited.

Today, Saroj presides over her building construction, sugar, steel and brass-tubes

manufacture business. She has no elitist education or background to speak of. Her life is

indeed a saga of struggle, hard work and resultant success.

In 2002, she saw workers at the defunct Kamani Tubes Limited dying of poverty and

sickness. In March 2006, she bid for and bought the company with accumulated debts of

Rs160 crore including unpaid wages of Rs 50 crore. She had seen poverty. She have risen out

of it herself. So she was confident she could improve their lot. The government had given

Saroj three years to pay our accumulated wages of Rs50 crore. She paid them off in three

months and added an ex-gratia payment of Rs2.40 crore towards PF and wages till date said

by Govind Khatmol, secretary, Kamani Kamgar AU Sahkari Society. Knowing that money

paid in instalments was no good to anyone, Saroj convinced a group of financiers to pay off

the workers' dues at one go. She thought if each man received a lakh or two, he could put it to

good use. Her only concession to vanity is gold ornaments which set off her no-nonsense

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attire with élan. Saroj has done her share of social work. She speaks with obvious pleasure of

her visit to Kargil to encourage the jawans. Saroj draws her strength from her roots, her

painful past and simplicity of Buddhism. Buddhism says, find your own path. Experience,

and then accept it is her mantra

This mother of two then started a construction company. 'In 1995, I bought a piece of land at

a throwaway price and managed to clear encroachments and other litigation on it,' Saroj told

IANS. In 1997, with the help of institutional finance, Saroj erected a residential and

commercial complex at a cost of Rs.4 crore and sold it for a tidy profit. Often referred to as

someone who turns an ailing business to a profitable one, Saroj took over Kamani Tubes. A

brand leader in non-ferrous tubes, the company was started by Mumbai's well-known

industrialist Ramji Kamani, a Gandhian and close associate of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Today Saroj's interests include various industries such as construction, hotel, sugar, non-

ferrous tubes and art galleries. She is all set to enter the steel business soon. Also fighting her

own battle in a man's world is Kadam, 28, who runs her own event management firm

alongside leather and jewellery manufacturing businesses. 'Event management is a strictly

male-dominated business. You will see girls working for the firms, but not owning them,'

Kadam said. 'I still face dirty competition from my male counterparts in this business. But

with the support of my husband and family, I will make it big here,' she added.

Today, she presides over varied businesses. The single factory Sai Krupa Sakhar Karkhana in

Ahmednagar, in which she holds a substantial stake, is graduating to an integrated sugar

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complex. Capacity has been enhanced to 7,500 TCD (tonnes of sugarcane crushed per day),

and a 60 KLD (kilo litres per day) distillery is coming up. They are also building a 35 MW

co-generation power plant. A diversification into steel manufacturing and mining has come

about recently. Initial investments of Rs 10 crore for a 100 tonnes per day steel plant has been

made at Wada, on the outskirts of Mumbai. A bauxite mining initiative across 1,230 acres in

Udgir, along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border, is being drawn out. Meanwhile, she has also

resurrected the Kamani brand in the Gulf through Al Kamani in Kuwait and Kalpana Saroj

LLC in Dubai to cater to the huge demand for copper tubes, especially from the water and

sanitation sector.

In a nation where Dalits are even now looked upon by many strata of the society, her success

story fosters the belief that nothing can stop a person who is willing to fight through all the

odds.

Among India's multimillionaires, she has been featured by the BBC, Wall Street Journal and

Los Angeles Times among other leading international publications. Periodically, Saroj

returns to her village to distribute food and clothing, set up schools, offer jobs to abused

women. Her story is right out of the blockbuster movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. In a society

that still treats its daughters much less than its sons, Kalpana Saroj’s story stands out as a

triumph of courage and determination. Married at the age of 12, destined to spend the rest of

her life in a slum in Mumbai with her husband’s family, Kalpana belonged to the caste of the

untouchables – a Dalit.

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 WOMAN FOR SOCIETY

Kalpana Saroj, an Entrepreneur, an Activist & a Woman For Society. While most find it

impossible to believe her story that looks like a plot picked right up from a movie, a few

consider her to be the original Slumdog Millionaire. Discriminted for being a ‘Dalit’, married

off at the tender age of 12 and physically abused thereafter, Kalpana’s early life was a series

of misfortunes.

What would only make others quit and look down upon life; Kalpana took it as a challenge,

she eventually left her husband and headed back to her village with the help of her father.

Thereafter she headed to Mumbai in search for a new beginning. What followed was a story

of inspiration, guts and determination, characteristics that made Kalpana a true Woman for

Society. With the help of government loans, Kalpana started her own tailoring business,

worked hard and turned it into a success. She grew from one phase to another and eventually

even diversified into other businesses such as Film Production and real estate, thus building a

name for herself as a successful entrepreneur. Her biggest move however was yet to come.

Around the turn of the century, Kamani Tubes approached her for help as the company was

in deep debt and was lying virtually closed for the past 17 years. Kalpana successfully

helped turn the business around, turning it into an over $100 million profit making business.

Her leadership, her organizational skills and her business acumen and that unyielding

determination paved way for this turnaround. Watch her story in her own words about what

other’s can take from her life. Apart from her keen interest in business, Kalpana has also

27
helped thousands of students by sponsoring libraries, hostels and financial help for students

all by herself. She was recognized for her work with the Padma Shri Award in 2013 for Trade

and Industry, and was also appointed to the board of directors of Bhartiya Mahila Bank, by

the government of India. For her unrelenting passion for helping people and positive look on

life, she is a Woman for Society

Dalits still face discrimination in India's caste system, but Kalpana Saroj has worked her way

up from poverty, becoming a manufacturing tycoon. She was called dirty, ugly, a "little

packet of poison," the offspring of donkeys. These days, Kalpana Saroj is called something

else: a millionaire. Saroj, a dalit, or "untouchable," epitomizes what was once unthinkable in

India: upward mobility for someone whose caste long meant she would die as she was born:

uneducated, dirt-poor, doomed to a life of dangerous and filthy work.

The manufacturing tycoon one admirer called her "a real slumdog millionaire" is among a

legion of dalits embracing new opportunities in business, politics, the arts and academia as

prejudices ease and economic reforms open new doors in a culture that traditionally

emphasized fate and reincarnation. Emerging from extreme poverty and pariah status to a

position of strength and wealth has certainly been satisfying, she said. That fact that she is a

woman — in a country ranked by the United Nations as among the world's most dangerous

places to be born a girl, given high female infanticide, inferior healthcare and nutrition —

made her rise more extraordinary.

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And although her ascent hasn't been without its share of speed bumps or caste-related jibes,

she said, she has tried to channel anger and frustration into getting things done.

Saroj was born in Repatkhedha, a tiny village in the western state of Maharashtra, the eldest

daughter of a homemaker and a policeman. Dalits were barred from drinking from Brahmin

wells, and school for Saroj was an eight-mile walk on dirt paths, interrupted by occasional

beatings by upper-caste children.

Saroj lobbied to return to Mumbai, threatening to try suicide again when her family balked.

Once there, she got a job removing lint from finished garments at a hosiery company for 15

cents a day. During lunch breaks she practiced on the sewing machines and became a tailor

for $5 a day.

"It was the first happiness in 15 years," she said. "I've earned millions. But that initial $5 was

the most satisfying."

When Saroj was in her early 20s, her sister became ill and died because they couldn't afford a

hospital. "I realized, if it's all about money, I need to control it," she said.

She borrowed $1,000 under a lower-caste government program, opening a furniture and

blouse-making business that prospered. She learned about some property ensnared in liens

and acquired it for $5,000 in savings and an IOU for a fraction of its worth. Eventually she

secured the necessary clearances and found a partner to build a shopping complex.

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 KALPANA SAROJ: A SYNONYM OF SUCCESS

Kalpana Saroj is a Synonym of Success. It is a name of a journey from Daily Wage of Rs. 2

to Rs. 500 Crores Corporate Empire. It is a journey of Cow Dung Cake Maker to Padma

Shree Award. Success Story of Kalpana Saroj receiving Padma Shree Award for Trade and

Industry from President of India, Honorable Pranab Mukherjee.

“I always believe in doing the best I can and doing it for others. That is why I knew I could

turn defeats into victories.”-Kalpana Saroj

Initially, she was supported by her uncle in Mumbai. She got her first job at a daily wage of

Rs. 2. Later, she started to do side by side personal work of stitching blouses. She got Rs. 10

for each blouse. In the meanwhile, her sister died because the family did not have enough

money to arrange for a proper treatment. That broke her down further. That was the turning

phase in her life Rise of Entrepreneurial Spirit in her. She thought if she could make four

blouses a day, she could earn Rs. 40 a day and about Rs. 1000 in a month. She figured that

the harder she worked, the more she would get in return. She started to work 16 hours a day.

She arranged for some loan and invested in Boutique Business. When her boutique business

flourished and fetched her a good profit, she invested in Furniture and Beauty Parlor

Business.

From the very early days of Mumbai, Kalpana had soft corner for the marginalized and

generous nature towards others. She had suffered a lot so that she could easily empathize with

others. Before testing her entrepreneur skill, she helped a number of unemployed in shaping

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her future through an NGO. She tried to help in any manner she can including litigation cases

over land-plots. In one such case, she got an opportunity to buy a plot for her own from the

savings of her business. With the help of institutional finance, she erected a building complex

on it and sold for good profit. This way she entered into the business of Real Estate and

Construction. It was not an easy business for a woman especially for the one came from Dalit

Community of India. It is supposed to be the business of Power Magnets. It was a tough

business, and she had to frequently confront shady elements and opposition of all hues. Then

she entered into Sugar Industry and many more businesses.

Soon, she became famous for charity works and helping others. This drew the attention of

some workers of Kamani Tubes Limited who approached her for help. The Kamani Brand

was once in the same league as the Bajajs and Birlas. But at that time, the company was on

the verge of liquidation with a debt of over Rs. 160 crores. Factory was not in operational

condition. Its machine parts had been stolen long ago. There were 140 litigation cases against

the company. In addition, over 500 workers were clamouring for their dues, which ran into

several crores. But these hurdles could not shake her determination to alleviate the conditions

of poor workers. She took up the challenge. It took nearly a decade for Kalpana Saroj to get

the charge of the company legally. She, to boost the employees’ morale, paid Rs 85 crores as

salaries in one go which had been pending for last 17 years. The company regained its

normalcy with a better production and distribution network.

At present, Kalpana Saroj has a Corporate Empire of Rs. 500 Crores. And, she was awarded

with the prestigious Padma Shree for Trade and Industry in the year 2013. In an interview

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when she was asked “What motivates you to put everything at stake — your name, your

money for a company which had been remain closed for over 17 years?” She replied “I

wanted to give justice to the people who were working there. I had to save the company. I

could relate to the staff who needed to put food on the table for their family.” Kalpana Saroj

is an idol of DETERMINATION, PERSEVERANCE, HARDWORK, COURAGE,

EMPATHY and COMPASSION.

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 CONCLUSION

Today, this former Dalit child bride is worth US $ 112 million – and was the recent recipient

of Padma Shri award for Trade and Industry, one of India’s highest honours. Kalpana’s

children beam with pride beside their mother who is actively participating in charity work in

her village today. Among the things that broke her heart was watching her sister die of an

illness that could easily have been treated. Kalpana puts in 16 hours a day and can be

frequently found doing business rounds. What lessons can we learn from her story of rags to

riches – what insights can we obtain from what she has had to endure to touch the sky?

One lesson is that there is no limit to what we can achieve at any age, if we set our hearts and

minds to it. Hugh Hefner, the Playboy founder said that age is but a number provided you are

healthy. Harry Bernstein achieved literary success at 93 having over 40 of his novels written

from the age of 24 onwards, rejected over a period of time. Nola Ochs graduated from

university at 95, entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest college graduate.

Age is indeed but a number – one is never too old or too young to taste success. What matters

is a goal worth achieving, a dream worth clinging on to. Entrepreneurship is hard work but

the dream must be there to capture your heart.

Giving up was never an option for Kalpana. She didn’t throw her hands in the air and

complain. She didn’t curse the darkness of poverty and illiterate upbringing. Instead, she

chose to light a lamp, a lamp that lit her life and that of others around her. She chose to trust

her instincts in making courageous business decisions. She worked hard – hard work is today

33
anathema to some who only pursue get rich quick schemes. She turned Kamani Tubes

around, reducing its debt and increasing its profitability without having a degree in

accounting. She used the skills and talent she was born with just a little harder and continues

to do so as she watches her empire grow. Kalpana and thousands of other would-be

entrepreneurs like her are disciplined when it comes to managing money. They may be

accused of being thrifty at times but they know the value of money they have experienced

the lack of it so intensely that having it does not really change them except perhaps to buy

more comforts and security. Kalpana’s story reads like a Bollywood script but it is much

more than that. There are hundreds of Kalpana’s among women whose only assets are their

talent, their steel determination and their commitment to making a success of whatever their

chosen path is. Not only for the sake of their families but also for their own sakes, salute

women who make tough choices in choosing their destinies.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITES:

 http://www.womenentrepreneursindia.com/

 http://www.kalpanasaroj.com/

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-18186908

 http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/01/04/a-remarkable-climb-for-a-

self-made-dalit-millionaire/

 http://www.sify.com/news/kalpana-saroj-india-s-original-slumdog-

billionaire-news-mumbai-jegsITdhdffsi.html

NEWSPAPER/REFERENCE BOOKS:

 The Asian Age-08-Nov-2014

 Wall Street Journal (blog)-03-Jan-2011

 Daily Beast-25-May-2012

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