KALPANA SAROJ

Kalpana Saroj is a female Indian entrepreneur and a Tedx

speaker. She was born on 1961 to Dalit parents in a small
village in Maharashtra. In her village, it was uncommon for Dalit
girls to get even the basic school education and the practice of
child marriage was pretty common.
Her father was a police constable and despite the heavy
criticism from society and relatives, he sent her to the local
village school. She was good at studies, but, the discriminatory
behaviour of teachers never allowed her to nurture her talent.
Even the parents of other children didn’t like a Dalit girl
studying with their kids.
Her father couldn’t resist the pressure of society anymore and
she was married when just 12 and a student of class 7. She
came to Mumbai with her husband and in-laws. They used to
live in a slum. For her husband’s family, she was nothing but a
free maid for cooking, cleaning and washing. She was not
allowed to go out or maintain any contacts with her family.
Her father went to meet her six months after the marriage and
he couldn’t even recognize her. It took him no time to
understand the whole scenario and he decided to bring her
back to the village.
After returning home, she tried to resume studies, but, the
judgmental comments of society didn’t let her do it. She
suffered even more and consumed 3 bottles of rat poison. She
was immediately taken to the government hospital and was
able to treat her back to good health.

Getting started again

This failed suicide attempt completely changed her attitude towards
the life. Now, she decided not to leave this world as a loser, but, to
achieve something big and then die. At the age of 16, she convinced
her parents to let her move to Mumbai at her uncle’s place because
there were no job opportunities in the village. In Mumbai, she
started with a job at a garment factory as assistant tailor. Her salary
at that time was just 2 rupees a day (around 1 dollar a month).
Within a few months, she mastered the art of operating an industrial
sewing machine and become a senior tailor to get a decent hike in
salary. Things started to improve, but, suddenly life again took an
ugly turn. She lost her younger sister because her family couldn’t
arrange enough money for her treatment.

The turning point

This incident made her realize the importance of money. Now, she
decided not to settle with an ordinary job, but, to become an
entrepreneur.

One day, she heard about a government loan scheme for dalits on
radio. She immediately applied for it. But, it took a few months to get
the money because of the complex bureaucratic process. With this
loan money, she installed a few sewing machines in her home and
started working 16 hours a day. It turned out to be a profitable
venture. With that profit money, she started a furniture business
along with the existing tailoring business and gradually, expand the
furniture business.

During this period, she remarried, at the age of 22 to Samir Saroj, a

businessman involved in steel furniture business. She has two kids
from this marriage- a son and a daughter.This marriage didn’t last
long due to her husband’s untimely death.

The major breakthrough

One day a man came to her with a proposal of buying his land at a
throwaway price of 2.5 lakhs. This piece of land was caught in some
legal troubles and he needed urgent money. Kalpana grabbed this
opportunity- she gave him 1 lakh in advance and paid remaining
amount within a few months. She fought the legal battle for around
2 years and finally got it cleared from all the legal issues. With that,
the price of that plot shoot up to 50 lakhs in no time and it paved the
way for her to enter the very lucrative real estate and construction
business.

Becoming the Chairman of Kamani Tubes

Getting impressed with her entrepreneurship skills, the worker’s
union of Kamani Tubes- a meal engineering company under massive
debts- approached her to take charge and get it back on the track.

Kamani tubes, established in 1960, was closed in 1985 due to conflict

between the management and worker’s union. In 1989, the Supreme
court of India ordered to re-open it and handed over the operative
charge to the worker’s union. The workers couldn’t run it properly
and it went under huge debts and eventually, it came on the verge
of closing down again.

Becoming the Chairman of Kamani Tubes

Getting impressed with her entrepreneurship skills, the worker’s
union of Kamani Tubes- a meal engineering company under massive
debts- approached her to take charge and get it back on the track.

Kamani tubes, established in 1960, was closed in 1985 due to conflict

between the management and worker’s union. In 1989, the Supreme
court of India ordered to re-open it and handed over the operative
charge to the worker’s union. The workers couldn’t run it properly
and it went under huge debts and eventually, it came on the verge
of closing down again.

Social welfare activities

Kalpana has founded “Kalpana Saroj Foundation”- an NGO that
guides poor and socially backward people about various
government welfare schemes and inspire them to take benefits
from them. Also, her NGO provides quality education to poor,
needy children by funding various educational institutions.

Awards and recognition

Kalpana has bagged several awards and recognition for her
entrepreneurship skills and social welfare initiatives. The most
prominent ones are listed below:

1. She was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian
award in India, in 2013 in the field of Trade and Industries.
2. Ninth Rajiv Gandhi award for women entrepreneurs in 2006
3. Despite of having no banking background, she was
appointed to the board of directors of the Bhartiya Mahila
Bank in 2013 - a government owned banking company,
primarily for women.
4. She has been a representative of the World Peace
Committee.
Advice:
Hard work is not overrated. It is fail proof. What you want- whatever
it is- you shall get if you apply yourself wholeheartedly and work
towards it with a single minded vision.
“Hardwork is like stairs and luck is like lift, lift may fail at times but
stairs will always reach you to the top”.