Few years back, 11 women from Chandikhole village stepped out and decided to build a secure future for their family. They formed a group named Maa Chandi Self Help Group. The members of Maa Chandi Self Help Group are all women from the district of Jajpur in Odisha, India. One of them is Mrs. Sovagini, who was selected as their president. The lady in the front standing third from the right-hand side in the photo is Sovagini.

Sovagini is 36 years old and is living with her husband and her three children. Her husband is a farmer and has been involved in the activity of cultivation for a long time. She got the idea of doing vegetable cultivation from her husband, so she gathered some other women from her neighbourhood and told them about her plan. They liked her idea and appreciated her. She took the leadership of the group and started to cultivate vegetables and sell them in her village.

Initially she started with growing only a few vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, and onions but later on she grew bitter gourd, snake gourd, cucumbers, lady fingers and 'brinjal' (eggplant). She has very good relationship with her customers as she sells fresh vegetables to her customers.

Now she has a new idea: to purchase some more land for cultivation so that she can grow more vegetables on a larger scale, for which she has requested for a loan to utilize it in purchase of land, vegetable plants, seeds and fertilizers.