Molly Antony is an animator of ESSS for seventeen years and has been working as a member of the Eroor West Kripa self-help group for the last twenty years. She is living with her husband, son, daughter in law and two grandchildren. Her husband was a carpenter. She was working as a saleswoman in Suguna Chicken Shop, but her returns are meagre. The family’s financial situation deteriorated further when her husband Antony had a heart attack, and doctors advise him not to indulge in heavy work. Molly was also unable to go to work regularly due to his hospitalisation and treatment. With that, the responsibility of the family fell on the shoulders of their son. Even though he is working, his income is insufficient to meet the family’s household expenses and hospital expenses. Hence, they borrowed money for meeting hospital bills.
This problematic situation forced molly to think about some additional source of income. The training from ESSS gave her the confidence to start any income generation programme. Many business ideas came to her mind but finally decided to begin the home-based fish farming unit. She built infrastructure and deposited 1200 fish seeds. The project’s total cost was Rs. 100000/- In that Rs. 50000/- is raised through ESSS- Canara Bank Linkage Loan. Her SHG group provided the remaining. Total 200 Kg fish obtained and it sold for Rs. 250/Kg with a net profit of Rs.26000/-. Now she expanded the business by building one more tank. In that way, they reduced the cost per day considerably while increasing the profit by 30% in a quarter. Now the family is happy and is able to live peacefully.
