The Story of Lakhimi Baruah, Padma Shri Winner

 Awaz e Khwateen


Lakhimi Baruah was born in the heartland of Upper Assam, a place called Jorhat.

Life tested Baruah from the beginning. She lost her mother the day she was born. During her early teenage years, she lost her father as well. Young Lakhimi was raised by her relatives.

She had to drop out from college due to financial constraints in her family. Lakhimi did not give up on her education, she went on to complete her graduation even after getting married, while working in a bank.


She started a Mahila Samiti in 1983 at Dakshin Sarbaibandha area of Jorhat district, where she worked with a large number of economically and educationally backward women.

Years of hardship had taught Lakhimi the importance of financial independence. She had only one vision to make women from underprivileged backgrounds financially independent.

Lakhimi was aware of how deprived and illiterate women barely manage to benefit from banking services. Lakhimi saw poor women queue up for a loan for hours. After their patient wait, they would be turned away at the counters because they wouldn’t have the requisite documents with them. It frustrated Baruah, who used to sit behind one such counter feeling helpless, so she decided to make a change.

Finally, she started Assam's first women-run Co-operative bank Konoklata Mahila Urban Cooperative Bank for women.


Lakhimi started the bank with a seed capital of Rs 8.45 lakh only and 1500 women members.

Till now her bank has provided credit to thousands of women and made a positive change to their lives in Jorhat, Sivasagar. and Golaghat districts.

In her bank women can open accounts with us with zero balance or as low as Rs20. Till now, her bank has given loans to over 8,000 women and around 1,200 women self-help-groups. The turnover of her bank for the last year was nearly Rs16 crore and a profit of Rs30 lakh.

Lakhimi Baruah’s success story is a result of her vision and empathy. Lakhimi Baruah's efforts were recognized. She was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, for contributions and efforts to financially empower women of Assam. 


 


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