Women empowerment in PWD
A commerce postgraduate from Bombay University Vidya Milind Lolge, 40 is amongst the most prominent contractors across the nation whose work has set milestones in terms of quality and efficiency. But the voyage towards success was not trouble-free.
A DECADE ago, no one was ready to employ her; those who showed willingness offered a salary of not more than Rs 1500 per month. The situation is changed today and her expense on the monthly salaries of the 65 people employed in her own company is more than Rs 1.25 lakh. Ten years on site experience has made her successful. She is probably Maharashtra’s first lady contractor in a male dominated Public Works Department (PWD) who has crossed projects amounting to Rs 100 crores.
A commerce postgraduate from Bombay University Vidya Milind Lolge, 40 is amongst the most prominent and busy contractors across the nation whose work has set milestones in terms of quality and efficiency. But the voyage towards success was not trouble-free. After she got married, Vidya’s husband lost his job. She accepted it as a challenge and went in search for work. Her trust that a PG degree could help her become employed proved false when over a dozen companies refused to take her on. After a long search a Rajashree cement dealer employed her as an accountant clerk at Rs 1200 per month.
“He was good man who advised me to self employ as the commerce education is meant to produce more self-employees. I decided to start my own business,” Vidya Lolge says. The decision was finalised, but investment was our biggest concern. The shop owner provided her cement bags on credit. She rented a shop and started searching the building repair work sites and sold them cement bags at rupees two to three less than the market rate. In the beginning the dealer supplied 50 bags a month and she paid repaid credit on daily basis as per sale.
Later, the ACC cement company appointed her as dealer for the Solapur district in 1994, where she came into contact with contractors. They spoke the language of civil engineers but actually they were people with less education. Experience made them experts in the field. Vidya decided to enter the construction line. In 1997, a PWD deputy engineer provided her a project of public toilet repairing at the contract amount Rs 25,000. She completed it and benefited by Rs 7000 in her first ever assignment. After spending two years in PWD works, she switched over to irrigation department works.
The first job she completed was a canal project that amounted to Rs 45 lakh. As she was not a registered contractor then she completed it under the licenses of other contractors. After getting enough experience Vidya decided on doing a full fledged contractorship. She set up her Jidd Construction Company and shifted to Pune. She successfully completed projects in Solapur, Nashik, Marathwada and Pune region. “At the beginning people underestimated me. Many engineers opposed me. Labourers remained surprised that a woman came to the site and supervised their work. However, I did not take any advantage of being a lady. I formally filled tenders and got projects by going through rigorous competition,” she added. As a result of hard work, she is today boss to two civil engineers, four supervisors and about 55 full time labourers.
Her monthly expense on their salaries exceeds Rs 1.25 lakh. With the total work she has completed in 10 years she has crossed a figure of Rs 100 crores. While recounting the landmark projects, Lolge named her dream project of Dimbhe dam in the tribal area of Pune district. Constructions of eight such dams were sanctioned and she was the only lady amongst the eight contractors. A Rs 1.5 crores tender was sanctioned for this work, but Jidd construction completed it in 1.10 crores within a month. She saved the government Rs 10 lakh. Lolge constructed the Bhimashankar road that was declined by many contractors.
But this is only one aspect of her achievement. Vidya is trying to share her success with the society. She is making special efforts to bring women from tribal communities into the mainstream. For that she has allotted PWD’s maintenance works to women groups. “Basically these are not self help groups (SHGs), these are the women separated into five groups. They are from scheduled tribes like Kaikari, Takari, Bhamta and Pardhi. Upon requesting the PWD officials they have been allotted repairing and maintenance work,” she said. These women bagged the first contract of one lakh rupees and succeeded, saving Rs 40 thousand. Each woman in this group got eight thousand rupees from the first job. Now they are getting jobs of up to Rs 2.5 lakh and Lolge is trying to double this amount. She has formally trained them in how to conduct themselves with officers, at courtesy meetings, communication skills etc. Now they themselves prepare their estimates and project reports.
Lolge questions, “For how many years could they fight for Rs 5 to 10 per packet of pickles, papads or toilet cleaners prepared under SHG?” Lolge is working on a proposal to allot the PWD maintenance works permanently to such women’s groups. She pledges to submit the proposal to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule who is working a lot for SHGs.
“He was good man who advised me to self employ as the commerce education is meant to produce more self-employees. I decided to start my own business,” Vidya Lolge says. The decision was finalised, but investment was our biggest concern. The shop owner provided her cement bags on credit. She rented a shop and started searching the building repair work sites and sold them cement bags at rupees two to three less than the market rate. In the beginning the dealer supplied 50 bags a month and she paid repaid credit on daily basis as per sale.
Later, the ACC cement company appointed her as dealer for the Solapur district in 1994, where she came into contact with contractors. They spoke the language of civil engineers but actually they were people with less education. Experience made them experts in the field. Vidya decided to enter the construction line. In 1997, a PWD deputy engineer provided her a project of public toilet repairing at the contract amount Rs 25,000. She completed it and benefited by Rs 7000 in her first ever assignment. After spending two years in PWD works, she switched over to irrigation department works.
The first job she completed was a canal project that amounted to Rs 45 lakh. As she was not a registered contractor then she completed it under the licenses of other contractors. After getting enough experience Vidya decided on doing a full fledged contractorship. She set up her Jidd Construction Company and shifted to Pune. She successfully completed projects in Solapur, Nashik, Marathwada and Pune region. “At the beginning people underestimated me. Many engineers opposed me. Labourers remained surprised that a woman came to the site and supervised their work. However, I did not take any advantage of being a lady. I formally filled tenders and got projects by going through rigorous competition,” she added. As a result of hard work, she is today boss to two civil engineers, four supervisors and about 55 full time labourers.
Her monthly expense on their salaries exceeds Rs 1.25 lakh. With the total work she has completed in 10 years she has crossed a figure of Rs 100 crores. While recounting the landmark projects, Lolge named her dream project of Dimbhe dam in the tribal area of Pune district. Constructions of eight such dams were sanctioned and she was the only lady amongst the eight contractors. A Rs 1.5 crores tender was sanctioned for this work, but Jidd construction completed it in 1.10 crores within a month. She saved the government Rs 10 lakh. Lolge constructed the Bhimashankar road that was declined by many contractors.
But this is only one aspect of her achievement. Vidya is trying to share her success with the society. She is making special efforts to bring women from tribal communities into the mainstream. For that she has allotted PWD’s maintenance works to women groups. “Basically these are not self help groups (SHGs), these are the women separated into five groups. They are from scheduled tribes like Kaikari, Takari, Bhamta and Pardhi. Upon requesting the PWD officials they have been allotted repairing and maintenance work,” she said. These women bagged the first contract of one lakh rupees and succeeded, saving Rs 40 thousand. Each woman in this group got eight thousand rupees from the first job. Now they are getting jobs of up to Rs 2.5 lakh and Lolge is trying to double this amount. She has formally trained them in how to conduct themselves with officers, at courtesy meetings, communication skills etc. Now they themselves prepare their estimates and project reports.
Lolge questions, “For how many years could they fight for Rs 5 to 10 per packet of pickles, papads or toilet cleaners prepared under SHG?” Lolge is working on a proposal to allot the PWD maintenance works permanently to such women’s groups. She pledges to submit the proposal to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule who is working a lot for SHGs.
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