Battling Poverty with Puffed Rice and Microcredit

At 20, Hemo Lata Das married a Hindu priest (otherwise known as a Baishnab or Sadhu). He tried to support their family by begging door-to-door. This did not generate much income. He did not permit Hemo to work outside of the home for it was against his religious beliefs. With four children, three of them daughters with costly dowries on the horizon, the family’s financial hardships were extreme and often hard to bear.

When Hemo’s husband died 11 years ago, she thought her situation was hopeless, but she learned of Grameen Bank from a friend. With her first loan, ten years ago, she bought puffed rice in bulk and sold this popular snack food door-to-door in her village.

She has taken out 18 loans in the ten years she has been a Grameen Bank member. She is still poor, but is able to meet her most basic needs. While she continues to battle poverty, she claims that Grameen Bank helped her to keep her family together. Without her loans and the income they provide, she would have been at the mercy of the village moneylender. To obtain working capital, he would have demanded her daughters’ work instead of go to school to pay the exorbitant interest on his loans.

Hemo has shown great initiative and entrepreneurial skills. As breadwinner for her family of four, she has built a new home with a tin roof. She is determined to continue to work hard and make further improvements in her family’s life.