Kalpana Saroj ’s Journey from a Child Bride to a Million-Dollar Entrepreneur
Kalpana Saroj is depicted as the ‘original Slumdog Millionaire’, a commendation however backhanded as it could be insulting. Brought into the world in destitution and exposed to cruel maltreatment, she defeated all odds to become quite possibly the most sought-after businesswoman in the country. Today she is in charge of a $112 million realm that is developing quickly. How Kalpana Saroj did that is as grievous as it is confidence avowing. The things you need to learn from her journey, she says, is that elite-level degrees and extravagant MBAs are not what make an entrepreneur. Coarseness, steadiness and a superhuman capacity to have confidence in yourself does.
Early life
She was born in Vidarbha. Her father was a constable and she used to live in the police quarters assigned to them. She had three sisters and two brothers. She was a bright student and loved school. In the quarters where they stayed, she and the other children would play with abandon. It is the adults who posed the problem. They expressed displeasure if she ever came over, scolded their children for playing with her and forbade them from visiting her home or accepting any food she offered.
This attitude, though hurtful, was not surprising. It is the behaviour of the faculty at school that shocked her. They tried to make her sit apart from other students, constantly prevented her from participating in extracurricular activities and undermined her aspiration. It didn’t matter anyway as later she was pulled out of school in class seven and married off.
Child Marriage
Her father was not a very educated man, but courtesy to his job in the law enforcement, he was liberated in his views and wanted her to complete her education. But in the Dalit community where she grew up, child marriage was the norm. Kalpana Saroj ’s father’s refusal was drowned out by the clamour and clangour of the extended family- people who placed little to no worth in the life of a little girl. Her father was powerless against their united front. She felt helpless.
Married Life
In the kind of society where she grew up, it was a given that life post-marriage would not be a bed of roses. She was mentally prepared for all the slavery that was expected of her. But even she couldn’t have foreseen the hell that was to come next. She was a scrawny kid of twelve, responsible for all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. for a household of about ten people. But that wasn’t enough. They were a sadistic lot and she was the easiest scapegoat around. Also,They would look for the slightest excuse- too much salt in food, a house not scrubbed clean enough, and so on- to hit her, brutally kicking, punching, and thrashing. They starved her and heaped emotional and physical abuses on her. When her father came to see her six months later, he was horrified. He said he saw a walking corpse, not his daughter.
Walk of Shame
In her community, divorce was a taboo and looked down upon. When Kalpana’s father brought her back home, not a single eyebrow was raised at what she had been made to go through. What caused the hysterics was the ‘shame’ she was bringing upon her family, community and society at large by daring to return home as a married girl.
She was determined not to be a burden on her father. She applied at a local women’s constable recruitment camp, nursing school and even the military. But either her age or lack of education got in the way. Forlorn, she picked up some tailoring skills and started sewing blouses at rupees ten apiece.
But the levels of hate and taunts kept rising. Her father gently encouraged her to go back to school, but she could not fathom putting up with the humiliation and vitriol coming her way every time she tried to leave home. People kept whispering that only if she died would the dishonour that she had wrought upon her family be expunged. So she obliged. Kalpana Saroj even tried to but luckily was saved.
A New Life
She convinced her parents to let her move to Mumbai, where she stayed with an uncle and committed to tailoring gigs full time. A little while later, due to bureaucratic shuffles, her father lost his job. She was the eldest daughter and only earning member of the family. She put down her savings as deposit and rented a small room at forty rupees a month. Her siblings and parents lived with her. The space was cramped and money was tight.
Amidst this, her youngest sister fell ill. They could not afford her treatment. Her family scrounged everywhere, but to no avail. She could not help her. That’s when she realized that life without money is useless and she was going to earn lots of it. She started working sixteen hours a day, a habit she still maintains.
Getting Started
She went through various government schemes and applied for a loan (Mahatma Jyotibhai Phule scheme). With that small seed fund, she started a small furniture business where she sold cheap versions of high-end furniture from Ulasnagar. Kalpana Saroj did not give up the tailoring gig either. Circumstances gradually began to improve. Consequently, She learnt everything about being an entrepreneur from the ground up through this business- sourcing raw materials, the art of negotiating, identifying market trends and, above all, holding her own among a sea of crooks trying to take advantage.
She also started a small NGO where they aggregated and distributed knowledge about the various government loans and schemes available to people like her. In addition, she did not want a single child, boy or girl, to go through what had happened to her. She wanted to let them know that they could do wonderful things with their life if only they cared to find out how.
Seizing Opportunities
It took her two years to pay off her initial loan. Meanwhile she was on the lookout for other business opportunities and an interesting offer came her way. The proprietor of a litigation locked land needs cash urgently. He offered to sell her his property for a pittance because the land was practically worthless to him. She ‘begged, borrowed and stole’ the funds to buy it and then threw herself into the ensuing legal torture that unfolded.
The next two years she was in and out of the courts, trying to get her property cleared up. After that was successful she wanted to get the land developed, but had no resources for the same. So she took on a partner who agreed to invest if his share was sixty five per cent of the profit. Soon a building came up on that land. With her thriving furniture and real estate business, she felt life had come a full circle. But the best was yet to come.
The Strange Case of Kamani Tubes
Ramjibhai Kamani was a disciple of both Nehru and Gandhi, a pioneering entrepreneur in a newly independent India. After independence he came to Kurla and opened three companies- Kamani Tubes, Kamani Engineering and Kamani Metal. His ideas were firmly rooted in worker rights and their welfare. He had big visions for the country’s economic progress and wanted to be a key player in the nation’s development.
All went well for him. But in 1987, not long after his death, dispute broke out among his sons. The Union at the time went to court to demand that the ownership be transferred to the workers since the owners were acting against the best interests of the company. At that time such changes were sweeping across countries like France, Germany and Japan. In India Kamani became the first company where the Supreme Court passed the ownership from the legal heirs to the Workers Union. But if there are going to be three thousand owners, who is going to do the actual work?
Soon tussles and the inevitable ego clashes broke out. The union leaders had no vested interest in the company, they were just out to make a quick buck. Since this was the first time the rights of the workers had been supposedly upheld, people assumed that Kamani industries was at the forefront of a revolution.
Banks poured in with loans, extensions, and credits. The government provided them with various funds and benefits. They had huge capital and no expertise with which to utilize it. From 1987 to 1997 the company kept limping along. Shutting it down was not an option. Since the workers were the masters, who were supposed to do the shutting down? Once the investors realized what was actually going on, they came down heavily. The Electricity and water supply was cut. Once IDBI surveyed the situation and realized that the workers had become defaulters, the court mandated that a new promoter is brought in.
140 litigation cases had been filed against the company. A debt of 116 crores had been incurred. Two unions were battling it out for supremacy. Of the three Kamani firms, two had already gone into liquidation. The third seemed set to go down the same way. That is when the workers came to Kalpana Saroj, entreating her to save their company and, thus, their livelihood. Her flourishing NGO and her business acumen had earned her a decent reputation among certain circles. Her knowledge was nil, but the thought of 566 starving families gave her a purpose.
Battle
Kalpana Saroj ’s first order of business formed a core team of ten, each an expert in their respective fields. Then they hired some consultants and created a proposal on how to go about fixing the damage. When she took her proposal to the board (which consisted of several IDBI and bank representatives), they said they would give her the go ahead if she agreed to sit on the board and took charge of all liabilities. She agreed. They appointed her president. This was in 2000.
From 2000 to 2006, they were just running in and out of courts. She realized that penalty taxes and interest were the main contributing factors of the 116 crore amount. She approached the then finance minister and pleaded with him to forgive the penalty and interest. “If the company goes into liquidation, then no one will benefit,” she told him. “This way at least the lenders can get their money back.”
He held extensive talk with the banks. Not only were the penalty and interest amounts forgiven, they deducted 25 percent from the principal amount as well. Now that the debt had been reduced to less than half the original sum, life got much easier.
In 2006 she was appointed chairman of the company. The court transferred ownership of Kamani tubes to Kalpana Saroj. They were told to pay off the bank loans within seven years; they did it within one. Similarly, they were instructed to clear the workers back wages within three years; they did it within three months. They gave out five crores and ninety lakhs, instead of the requisite five crores only.
While they were paying off debts and clearing liability, it was imperative to focus on restarting manufacturing and getting the firm back on its feet. They started by replacing all the machinery which either had been stolen or fallen to disrepair. The union had also sold the land in Kurla, on which the factory operated, long before she came on board. In 2009 she shifted the factory to Wada, where she had bought a plot of seven acres.
Future
Ramji Bhai Kamani had started Kamani industries with a vision for what the newly minted nation of India would look like and the radical role companies like his would play in the nation’s growth. She shares those dreams and will take this company forward in the way he envisioned it- on principles of justice, fair play and equality. She is in the process of acquiring the other two branches of the Kamani firm that had gone into liquidation- soon she will have reunited the empire that once was.
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Sonal Singh
Hello, I'm Sonal Singh. Hope you liked this article. Do comment below and let me know. Have a great day.
