Agartala (Tripura): On a fine morning of 1989, just graduated Archita Roy went through a newspaper advertisement inviting applications for training in various sorts of business projects. Driven by her spirit to stand out apart from the crowd, she readily filled the form at a time when women of her age are mostly taught to be good housewives or pursue careers in government sectors. Now, her friends often lament and feel jealous of Archita that their friend has emerged as one of the noted women entrepreneurs of Tripura. Only recently, her efforts were recognized by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region through a tweet.
“On average, my hatchery unit produces 2,20,000 eggs at a time. For me it's big as I have started my hatchery with a capacity of only 2,500 eggs at a time”, Roy said while narrating her journey so far. Roy, a humanities graduate from Women’s college Agartala, did not get married and continued her hard work in the business that she started in the year 1995 and now she had her clients all across the state. Every month she brings eggs from states like Hyderabad, Haryana and Karnataka and after the necessary treatment, one-day-old chicks are shipped to clients as per necessity.
Speaking about her journey she said, “in the year 1989, I underwent training on entrepreneurship. During the training, I selected hatchery and then started working towards the goal of establishing myself in this field. Today, I feel, I am successful in the field that I have chosen at that point in time”.
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Through her hatchery, it was not that only she was earning a good living. She had given employment to a total of 8 people including a woman who was working full-fledged in the hatchery. “I feel it is better to work in the direction of self-reliance not sitting idle waiting for a government job. Every year, a lot of people get the tag of being over-age for a government job. If at least ten youth take initiative to do something on their own, the scenario would have been different all along” Roy added.
According to her, in the initial stage, she got a loan of Rs five lakh under the industrial development scheme of the state government and on repayment, she became eligible for another subsidized loan of Rs 20 lakh. “It helped me a lot. Now the total investment in my hatchery will be around Rs 1 crore”, he added.
On being asked about her message towards the aspiring women entrepreneurs, she said, “when I started, I have faced a lot. My suitable age for marriage was over. Little time did I get to attend social gatherings as I was always busy establishing my name in the business. Today, my friends who once used to taunt me, appreciate my work and often say that I am in far better condition than them who are mostly housewives”.
On her future plans, she said, she wants to expand her hatchery unit and has recently started dealing in poultry feeds. The name of her hatchery that was named after Maharani of Tripura Kanchanprabha Devi was later renamed as Kanup Hatchery and is located at Amtali, in the outskirts of Agartala city.
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