Dwarka: Women entrepreneurs bringing and being the change

With the steady growth of the startup ecosystem, many Indian women have pursued their entrepreneurial dream and succeeded in their businesses. Several homemakers who dedicated their time to family are starting homegrown ventures.

Starting something from scratch has never been easy; it takes a lot of hard work and courage. Here in this story, we will introduce you to some superwomen of Dwarka whose ventures in dancing and baking have taken new heights.

Meet Divya Mitra Jhamb, 37, a resident of Dwarka, Sector-10, She is a double master in. M.COM and MBA and worked for 11 years as an accountant of a private company. However, when after she had to leave her corporate job, she decided to pursue her career as a baker.

When asked about her journey, she says, “When my daughter was born four years back, I took a break from corporate life and things completely changed. During that break, I realized I want to pursue baking. A part of it came from the thought that I didn't want my daughter to eat unhealthy cookies and cakes. I started baking healthy flour (atta) cookies and much more and that's how this journey started."

Divya says that she found peace in baking and had the urge to make baking healthy. In 2018, she started baking and experimenting with her recipes. Finally, after a lot of research and her own recipes, she started her venture March 2020 by the name of ‘Classic Crumbs’.

She received good response after she started and that inspired her. She further started to bake customised items. Her menu has products made of jaggery and wheat-based products like cookies, dry cakes, healthy atta muffins, cookies and cakes. Her products are FSSAI approved. Divya guarantees that all her goods are top-notch and healthy, with no compromise on quality.

While talking about how her family reacted to her doing this venture, she says, "My husband was extremely supportive of this. There was no point when I had to face difficulty from my family's side."

She further says, “It’s been three years that I have been doing this business. 'Dwarka moms' group helped me a lot through my journey and now I’m happy that my business is reaching all over India.”

When we asked her what message she wants to give other budding women entrepreneurs, Mitra said, “It’s going to take time and it might be a tough journey but keep pursuing what you want to do.”

The other woman entrepreneur is Poulomi Mukherjee, 40, a resident of Sector-4, who did B.Ed, M.phil in Geography. Apart from these qualifications, she is also a trained Kathak dancer. She was working as a teacher in a private school but after Covid hit, she quit it and started teaching dance to girls and women.

When asked about her journey, she says, “I was a social studies teacher in a schools in Dwarka but I was always a passionate dancer. When I was 16, I used to choreograph many dance performances in West Bengal.”

She further says, “In 2019, I left my school job and started my own dance academy by name 'Poulomi’s Dance Academy'. In my academy, I don't just teach dance. I also teach social studies because I want kids to score well.”

When asked about her classes, she says, “I’m very limited about the batch. For social studies, only 7 to 8 students so as to give them equal attention and for dance classes, I only teach girls and women, both online and offline. I teach different kinds of dance, Kathak (footwork, body gesture), semi-classical and many more. My academy is not only for teaching, it gives a platform to perform too.”

When asked about the challenges she faced while starting this journey, she says “When I stopped teaching in school and started my academy, I was clueless. However, the community of Dwarka moms helped me a lot and guided me a lot in advertising and much more. During the lockdown, I started my academy. I started taking workshops and offline classes as well and made a lot of videos with all my students. That’s how I got recognized among people in lockdown.”

For the new and upcoming women entrepreneurs, she says,  “Follow your heart and passion, if you have a dream, give your 100 per cent to it. Be honest to you passion.”

Women entrepreneurs like Divya and Poulomi are setting examples of women empowerment and are inspiring many women to start their entrepreneurial journey.