Helping rural women become better entrepreneurs

Credit: DH Photo

Credit: DH Photo

Gayathri Suresh has been selling orthopaedic footwear, clothes and accessories for close to three decades. Recently, this Bengaluru-based paramedic and entrepreneur even ventured into manufacturing these products.

But with the pandemic, Gayathri was forced to look for customers online, beyond Bengaluru.

Rati Shrinivasan, who ran her Kanjeevaram saree and canvas craft business in Dharwad, too faced a similar situation. She was part of a group of women who had just launched a venture providing food for those in need.

But both Gayathri and Rati were new to digital marketing and using social media.

That is when tech entrepreneur Deepali Gotadke of Hubballi helped them out and introduced them to various aspects of e-commerce.

“Deepali taught every aspect of e-commerce — right from product photography, to handling the payment gateway and using social media to connect to customers,” recalls Gayathri, showing her newly launched e-commerce portal.

In Rati's case, Deepali helped her set up a cloud kitchen and get it listed on popular food delivery services.

Over the past six years, Deepali has helped more than 1,600 women entrepreneurs across South Asia leverage technology and grow their businesses.

She believes the women she helps will "help other women become financially independent".

In 2020, the portal that Deepali set up (https://www.wesellonline.org/ ) was re-launched by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). They also added one more portal (https://unescap.wesellonline. org/) to train women entrepreneurs from south Asia. Currently, around 384 women are using the portal to display their products (around 500 products and 92 services) and connect to potential customers.

Deepali has developed an online e-commerce course, in which over 700 women have taken part. She has also created social media groups to link women entrepreneurs from across the globe.

Her journey

Deepali’s journey is inspiring in itself. Originally from Maharashtra, Deepali shifted to Hubballi in the 1990s and learnt Kannada. A computer science engineer, Deepali was always fascinated with learning new technologies.

Initially, she developed some software for her family business. After that, she worked as a lecturer in a college and then at a web designing company in Pune to get practical exposure.

“Back then, the internet was emerging in India and my trip to the US drew me to e-commerce. I began going deeper into it and came up with ClickHubli.com, the first e-commerce portal of north Karnataka in the year 2000,” said Deepali.

In 2003, she began selling Kasuti sarees (hand embroidery of Dharwad) online. She got in touch with women from local slums and got the sarees embroidered and put them up on the portal. Without using models, Deepali wore a few of them herself for the photoshoots.

After she got her first order from South Africa, there was no looking back.

This was the time before ‘Amazon’ or ‘Flipkart’. Soon, Deepali came up with portals to deliver flowers, cakes and other items in Hubballi-Dharwad, engaging her cousins and friends to take care of orders in other cities through a network of florists and bakers.

Today, she has eight e-commerce portals and her network has spread over 300 cities in India.

In 2008, she began offering web design, development and digital marketing services. Overcoming barriers like the neglect of the government in allotting land for women entrepreneurs in IT parks, she and her team developed over 650 websites including major government websites.

She developed an app for designing Kasuti and promoted the art internationally. This led to an opportunity to develop a logo on Kasuti for Sui Dhaaga, a Hindi movie of Yash Raj production.

However, at the peak of her entrepreneurial journey, Deepali felt that it was time to share her experience and knowledge with other women entrepreneurs facing various hurdles.

“This urge made me venture into social entrepreneurship,” says Deepali who later connected with the UN and other local organisations to train women free of cost both online and offline.

Mitali Shah, a polymer clay artist from Hubballi, who attended one such workshop said, “Earlier, I used to sell handcrafted polymer clay or terracotta products at local exhibitions. But Deepali helped me overcome my inhibition and showcase my products online.”

After having guided so many women entrepreneurs, one thing that Deepali observes is the dearth of women in the technology sector. “I see most women running businesses related to women’s clothing, accessories, art, beauty, wellness and the like. Very few, including those with degrees in science and technology, have big businesses in the technology field. They feel it's a man’s club. This must change,” she opines.

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