Bharat Chandra Mohanta, aged about 31 years hails from Gojapathar village of Damahuda Panchayat, Saharapada Block, Keonjhar. His family consists of his parents, wife, 3 years daughter and one unmarried brother. He has opened a garage at his home. His brother works in a poultry company in Hyderabad and earns about Rs.15000 per month.

A couple of years ago the family’s income was not sound though they own some land for cultivation. They were sheltered in a small mud house with thatched roof. Those days Bharat and his brother were studying in college. They had been encountering hardships for the daily conveyance cost to attend college as well as buying books and study materials. Because of such stress, Bharat had to stop his higher studies after the 12th examination. His brother was being supported as a sponsored child by CYSD-Plan project since then.    So Bharat on request was selected for vocational training on ‘Two-wheel Repairing’ back in 2010.  He underwent extensive vehicle repairing training in ‘Rabi Garage’, Thakurmunda. He was very regular and sincere in learning the technical knowledge from the Trainer. He was supported with tool kits to start up his own garage.

Immediately post – training, Bharat opted to open an automobile workshop in his own house. However, owing to financial deficit of buying the spare parts and other accessories of repairing, his mother, a member of Padmalaya SHG, Gojapathar helped him a lot. His mother applied for a loan of Rs10,000 from the SHG and repaid the amount in installments as soon as  Bharat started earning from the garage. Now, on average he earns Rs.400 per daily. In order to make little additions to his income, he also runs a vehicle repairing shop in Damahuda weekly market. Usually the customers of nearby 7 villages of Damahuda Panchayat come to him. He renders services, like puncture repairing, tyre pressure checking, spark plug cleaning, greasing, servicing, etc. for bikes as well as bicycles.

Later on, his parents arranged his marriage with a beautiful bride and now he is the father of a three years daughter. His wife is also a member of Laxmi Narayan SHG of Gojapthar. In order to expand the stock of spare parts in the shop, she had also borrowed Rs 15,000.  Besides this garage work, Bharat has been helping his father in paddy farming. With the support of

sampling support from CYSD, they have initiated lemon and cashew plantation. This year, the family could earn Rs.20, 900/- from lemon and Rs. 5000 from cashew farming.

“Being self-reliant, I am planning to expand my enterprise by shifting it to comparatively a bigger locality like Machhagarh or Damahuda to cater more number of customers and deploy one/two helpers to assist me in garage work”, said Bharat.