Entrepreneur Pinky Gupta (right) at the fair in Patna on Monday. Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Sept. 27: The five-day fair for women entrepreneurs, organised by Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh, ended today.

Manorama Singh, former MP and wife of former Bihar chief minister, late Chandrashekhar Singh, and Anukampa Rai, president of Women Welfare Association, Electricity Board, spoke on the last day at the fair. Usha Jha, secretary of the Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh, gave a vote of thanks at the concluding session.

Uma came from Noida to Patna with sari and salwar suits from Pune. She was quite content with the business she did at the fair.

She came with Narayanpeth sarees, Puneri suits, Paithni and Indori check saris. She said: “The first two days of the fair were really good. The women picked up many saris and salwar suits. Some of them even took two to three pieces at a time.” At Uma’s stall, the saris ranged from Rs 450 without blouse piece and Rs 650 with the blouse piece. Silk saris were of Rs 1,900 without blouse piece and Rs 2,200 with blouse.

Speaking of Narayanpeth sarees, Uma said: “These saris generally come in small checks in pure silk as well as cotton. Plain ones are also available. These pieces are very popular.”

Women display their wares at the fair

Another women entrepreneur who had put up their stall was Pinky Gupta from the Kankerbagh area. A first-timer at such a fair, Pinky came with beautiful glass-encased idols of gods and goddesses. She had been working with such idols for many years. Pinky said: “I am well able to prepare a medium size idol in 15 days.” Pinky prepares her idols with great care and adds a lot to them. After giving shape and colour to the plaster of Paris she uses jewelleries, colourful stones, pearls and other decorations to give a different look to the gods and goddesses.

Geeta Gupta came with appliqué work and Madhubani paintings to the fair. She had a range of bed sheets, pillow-covers, cushions, saris, salwar suits and kurtis at her stall named Ramaji Fashion Craft. Prerna Yadav turned up with pots and paintings. She also sold diyas priced between Rs 10 and Rs 100.Shobha Srivastava’s stall had pickles made from different fruits like jackfruit. She sold her pickles with papads and chana ka sattu.

Women entrepreneurs returned from the fair with mixed reactions. While some were delighted with the outcome of the fair, some seemed upset.

Some complained that they could not sell enough of their things in the five days. One of the women entrepreneurs said: “The income from the fair was not good enough.”

If we had a business of around Rs 10,000, Rs 4,000 went into the stall charges while the remaining Rs 6,000 was not enough to satisfy our needs. You cannot ignore employees and transportation charges.” Another entrepreneur said that branding was not done properly.