Building self-reliance among rural women through Women Marts

Discover the success of Women Marts in Visakhapatnam, where self-help group members run profitable retail grocery outlets.

They are not highly qualified as their educational qualification is from Class V to X, but being shareholders, their investment per head is only ₹200 to ₹250 and are able to enjoy entrepreneurial status.

A total of 71,852 women who are members of the Self-Help Group (SHG) in Anakapalli district jointly run four retail grocery outlets – known as Women Marts. The annual turnover is nearly ₹2 crore. All these women made a retail business of nearly ₹5.60 crore within one year with their total contribution of around ₹1.5 crore.

There are 49 Women Marts in the State including the four in Anakapalli. A fifth mart is being planned in the district, and once it opens, Anakapalli district will have the highest number of Women Marts in the State.

The District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) looks after these government-aided marts, but the business is fully owned and operated by the SHG members.

There will be a Board too, consisting of 11 members who will be known as directors. The 11 members elect the chairperson of the board. Profits and losses in the business are shared equally by shareholders.

Elaborating on the functioning of the marts, DRDA District Project Manager (Cheyutha) Ch. Vara Prasad said that they were established in the district in the past one year. The first mart was inaugurated on December 9, 2022 at V. Madugula, the second one in Sabbavaram (July 15, 2023), then in Chodavaram (September 24, 2023) and the last one in Makaravalapem (January 8, 2024).

People can get quality groceries for cheaper than the open market as well as Rythu Bazars. Each mart is able to run the business at minimum profitability ratio despite selling goods in the competitive retail market without compromising on quality.