Inspirational Story : How one man changed India’s Poorest District
“Don’t underestimate the power of a common man!” This dialogue of Shahrukh Khan from the movie Chennai Express is completely true. It is a norm in India to discourage people to go ahead and change things on their own. But there are some who dared and changed the social scene of places. A similar incident happened in Banka district of Bihar which is considered as the poorest district in Bihar.
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Banka District
Banka district is situated in Bihar and was established in the year 1991. Earlier it was the richest and largest Sub-Division of the district Bhagalpur but is now among the poorest districts of India with very low facilities.
Click next to see how Banka support its residents
Livelihood
The main source of income in this district is agriculture. There is a small weaving industry too. In addition to that, it is also one of the major religious centers in Bihar as it has the famous temple of Goddess Durga. Still, tourism helps little and the district is a recipient of the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme.
Click next to see the income of people
Income of people
The income of people who worked in the weaver industry was around Rs 30 per day. This very low as the World Bank has declared that anyone earning less than $2 (Rs 120) per day is considered below the poverty line. The people in this district were earning just one-fourth of this sum.
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Naxal Prone Area
This district is a high Naxal prone area. It is estimated that 9 out 11 blocks are Highly Naxal-affected. It has a literacy rate of just 60%.
Click next to see the Man who took the initiative
Udyan Singh
Udyan Singh is a native of this district. He is a diploma holder in Civil and he worked for Railways for five years. He then switched into ad film making and made over 100 ads in Delhi. He is also credited to make acclaimed serial Ek aangan ke ho gaye do for Doordarshan.
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Poor state of weavers
When Udyan Singh visited his village, he was shocked to see the poor state of weavers. The most shocking thing for him to know was that the weavers were not able to afford to send their children to Schools. This left a mark on him and he returned to his village in 2012 to help them out.
Click next to see his venture that became a success
BankaSilk
Udyan Singh started BankaSilk which was launched in 2015 without any middleman with an investment of 25 Lakh. He hired trained workmen from NIFT to help in the designing clothes. He made sure that at least 8 members of the same family were employed and their children were receiving a good education. There are currently 5,000 weavers employed making them self-sustaining.
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Success
Apart from helping people out, BakaSilk is doing pretty good and is high in demand. Its products are designed for professional and upper sections of society and is sold on websites like Indianartizans, indianroots,sabsaman. They have their own website too!
The products are of good quality and this new company recently registered a turnover of Rs. 4 Lakh. Apart from that, big clothing giants like Pantaloons and Fabindia are in talks with BakaSilk!
Udyan Singh wanted to change the life of the weavers and provide a platform where they could earn more for their hard work. We wish him all the best for the success of his venture and progress.
Click here to see BakaSilk Website
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