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| Lucyamma, Emmanuel Concrete Casting, Kannur |
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15 years ago, Lucyamma had stepped out of engineering college with a B.Tech degree and high hopes. But as interviews and tests for job did not yield anything positive, her parents started doubting whether the hardships encountered for her education had been worthwhile. Soon she was married off to K.T.Mathew, a school teacher.
It was during the initial years of marriage that their life seemed to be on the financial brink. With a monthly salary of Rs.900, her husband had to run the family, which included living in that house paying Rs.600 as rent. Just then illness prevented her from even engaging in private tuition.
The situation turned slightly hopeful when she started pursuing the idea of setting up a hollow brick unit of her own. The label, woman-graduate-in-engineering came to her aid now as she negotiated the red tape for a licence.
With loan from Kerala Financial Corporation and another Rs.3-lack loan from her husband’s best friend, she launched the unit in 1996. The background in civil engineering became useful as she designed the concrete mix and modified the machinery to suit her needs.
Slowly the unit progressed from hollow bricks to window and doorframes and then to interlocking tiles, which are in demand now. 40 employees, most of them temporary hands, work in her factory.
Today the family has all required amenities: house constructed 2 years ago, a car and so on. She expresses her gratitude to her parents, elders, friends and God for the state she is in now.
Courtesy: K.J.Lucyamma, Gruhalakshmi, December 2002
Contributed by: Administrator
