Muntaz' Story
The journey out of poverty can involve many setbacks. Perhaps no one understands this better than a grandmother called Muntaz Begum, from the town of Kurnool in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Muntaz never had the opportunity to go to school and is illiterate. At the age of 18, she and her husband started a small bakery. The bakery’s mud oven was in the same room in which they slept and lived. Slowly, as their family grew, the business also expanded. Thirty-seven years and several small loans later, Muntaz’s bakery is a thriving business that provides baked goods to over 200 shops in the local area. The business is large enough to employ their five sons and daughters-in-law and provide education for their many grandchildren. In a household of 25 people, there are plenty of mouths to feed.
Despite the success of their business, Muntaz and her family found out how vulnerable their livelihood was when catastrophic floods swept through the town of Kurnool in October 2009. Their house was inundated with water, sweeping away possessions and valuable machinery and filling the bakery with mud. Muntaz and her family were forced to temporarily move out of Kurnool. For four months, they were unable to operate their business. The family tried to earn a living by purchasing and selling baked goods from local suppliers who had been less affected by the floods.
A long-term client of Saadhana, the local microfinance institution (MFI), Muntaz took a loan of Rs. 70,000 (A$1,707) to help re-establish the business. She rebuilt the oven and is planning to purchase another piece of machinery to replace those which were lost. In February this year, Muntaz and her family reopened the bakery. “Without Saadhana, it would have been very different,” Muntaz says. The family is working hard to make up for the lost machinery. Before the flood, the bakery produced 7,000 items each day. Now, they can only produce 4,000. After costs, the family generates an income of Rs. 1,500 (A$37) a day.
The journey out of poverty is a long one, with many obstacles. Microfinance can help people like Muntaz protect and increase their source of income, smooth out income fluctuations and increase resilience in the face of unforeseen events, such as illness, death or a natural disaster.
On Muntaz’s street, collapsed homes and piles of rubble are testament to the devastating impact of the recent floods. Inside, the bakery is a hive of activity as dough is kneaded, baking trays are filled and Muntaz’s grandchildren play and eat fresh biscuits.
In the past, small loans enabled Muntaz and her husband to build a small business which supports an entire extended family and is a cornerstone of the local economy. Now, another loan has helped the family recover from disaster and begin again. Through her hard work and perseverance, Muntaz has provided her children and grandchildren with food, clothing and shelter. She’s also been able to give them the gift of education, which she never had. But according to Muntaz, her greatest achievement in 37 years as a small business owner is this:
“I am not dependent on anyone. I am self-sufficient. Even my children do not need to depend on anyone,” she says proudly.