Pooja Sharma (entrepreneur)
Pooja Sharma | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sharma in 2022 | |
| Born | c. 1980 (age 43–44) |
| Awards | Nari Shakti Puraskar (2022) |
Pooja Sharma (born c. 1980) is an Indian entrepreneur. She is the first woman in her village to work outside the home. She set up a self-help group that employs 150 women in a bakery, and has received awards in recognition of her achievements, including the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian honour for women.
Career
[edit]Pooja Sharma lives in the village of Chandu, near Gurugram in the Indian state of Haryana.[1] She went to school until the education offered became co-educational, and her parents made her leave school rather than have her educated with boys. She married in 1999.[2] In 2005, Sharma and her family of a husband and three children had financial difficulties, so Sharma became the first woman in the village to work outside the home. She was first employed as a primary school teacher, then in 2010 took on a haveli which was owned by her father-in-law. She bought cows and began to produce milk; when officials from Krishi Vigyan Kendra visited the village, she rejected their idea of learning to sew as unsaleable.[1] She requested training in something marketable and was trained in food production.[1]
With an all-female team, Sharma established Kshitiz, a self-help group, but had to persuade her husband and the husbands of her employees that this would be acceptable.[2] Sharma said that she was the first woman in the village of Chandu to go out to work.[1] She sold dalia (porridge), laddoos, jowar (sorghum) and soy nuts.[1][2] In 2017, a non-governmental organization helped Sharma set up a bakery, in a mansion believed by some local people to be haunted,[2] that now employs 150 women and supplies Gurugram restaurants with biscuits made from flaxseed, oatmeal and walnut.[1] Sharma has trained over 1,000 women from Haryana.[3]
Awards and recognition
[edit]The state government of Haryana presented Sharma with awards for agricultural leadership in 2015, and for farming innovation in the following year.[2] In 2016, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research awarded her both the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Krishi Puraskar and the Innovative Krishi Samman.[4] She received the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India's highest civilian award for women, on International Women's Day 2022.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Jain, Kankana Roy (1 September 2019). "Breaking shackles while baking bread". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Nitnaware, Himanshu (8 November 2021). "Started From a 'Haunted Mansion', This Woman's Healthy Snack Biz Earns Rs 8 Lakh/Yr". The Better India. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
- ^ a b Kainthola, Deepanshu (8 March 2022). "President Presents Nari Shakti Puraskar for the Years 2020, 2021". Tatsat Chronicle Magazine. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
- ^ "Pooja Sharma honored with 'Nari Shakti Puraskar'". Drishti IAS. 10 March 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2022.