She needed 20 women, contributing 10 rupees each, to start the group. With most in the village living in poverty, it wasn’t an easy ask. It took Shantha two years of persuasion and creativity to convince the women to join in. She knocked on the same doors over and over and offered the women new ways to find scarce money, such as selling a bit of leftover rice for small change which could then be used for their contribution.

But that was just the start of the obstacles in Shantha’s way. She had to open a bank account in order for the fund to qualify for the “self-help” loan. But the bank wouldn’t take her seriously because she was a woman, she said. After six months of trying, she approached her former colleagues at the government office and asked for advice. “They said I should approach the bank with all the women, and be more forceful,” she recalled. “They said I need to learn to deal with such issues myself.”

A week later, now with a bank account, Shantha’s microfinance group was off the ground. Their first business: buying cows to sell milk.

“Today, we have a great track record…with the bank,” she said.