Last year, they had successfully imposed ban on the sale of liquor by ransacking liquor dens in this village, located some 40 km from Solapur city. Now, they have come up with a business model, setting an example for the entire state to follow. The women of Sadepur village in South Solapur taluka have introduced the concept of Village Super Bazaar (VSB), providing all the essential commodities under one roof. The villagers are both the customers and the owners of the VSB, as every villager is a member of the VSB committee. The women run the bazaar and all the 11 women directors of the VSB are heads of self-help groups.

An NGO, Jai-Jui, has helped them in implementing the concept. “We have observed that villagers face difficulties in purchasing essential commodities. They have to travel long distances to reach a market and also spend more money. In a bid to provide a solution to the problem, we have started the VSB and the concept has worked,” claimed Jai-Jui president Praniti Shinde.

First, the NGO conducted a survey in the village. They involved the entire population of Sadepur by making them active members of the VSB and then invested Rs 20,000 as the capital amount which bubbled to Rs 50,000 in barely two months. As the village has 500 acres of well-irrigated land and gets bumper crop of banana, grape and sugarcane, thanks to the Bhima river, many believe that the money generated will be utilised in the village itself.

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