Pooja Sharma (born ) is an Indian entrepreneur. She is the first woman in her village to work outside the home. She set up a self-help group that employs 150 women in a bakery, and has received awards in recognition of her achievements, including the

Nari Shakti Puraskar The Nari Shakti Puraskar is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is the highest civilian hono ...

, India's highest civilian honour for women.

Career

Pooja Sharma lives in the village of Chandu, near

Gurugram Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

in the Indian state of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

. She went to school until the education offered became co-educational, and her parents made her leave school rather than have her educated with boys. She married in 1999. In 2005, Sharma and her family of a husband and three children had financial difficulties, so Sharma became the first woman in the village to work outside the home. She was first employed as a primary school teacher, then in 2010 took on a

haveli A ''haveli'' is a traditional townhouse, mansion, manor house, in the Indian subcontinent, usually one with historical and architectural significance, and located in a town or city. The word ''haveli'' is derived from Arabic ''hawali'', mean ...

which was owned by her father-in-law. She bought cows and began to produce milk; when officials from Krishi Vigyan Kendra visited the village, she rejected their idea of learning to sew as unsaleable. She requested training in something marketable and was trained in food production. With an all-female team, Sharma established Kshitiz, a self-help group, but had to persuade her husband and the husbands of her employees that this would be acceptable. Sharma said that she was the first woman in the village of Chandu to go out to work. She sold

dal In Indian cuisine, ''dal'' (also spelled ''daal'' or ''dhal''; pronunciation: , Hindi: दाल, Urdu: ) are dried, split pulses (e.g., lentils, peas, and beans) that do not require soaking before cooking. India is the largest producer of pu ...

ia (porridge),

laddoo ''Laddu'' or ''laddoo'' (; ms, kuih laddu; id, kue laddu) is a spherical sweet originating from India and spread through the Indian subcontinent and the Malay world. Laddus are primarily made from flour, fat ( ghee/butter/oil) and sugar or ...

s, jowar (

sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...

) and

soy nut Soy nuts are soybeans soaked in water, drained, and then baked or roasted. They can be used in place of nuts and are high in protein and dietary fiber Dietary fiber (in British English fibre) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food ...

s. In 2017, a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

helped Sharma set up a bakery, in a mansion believed by some local people to be haunted, that now employs 150 women and supplies Gurugram restaurants with biscuits made from flaxseed, oatmeal and walnut. Sharma has trained over 1,000 women from Haryana.

Awards and recognition

The state government of Haryana presented Sharma with awards for agricultural leadership in 2015, and for farming innovation in the following year. In 2016, the

Indian Council of Agricultural Research The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India. It reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture. Th ...

awarded her both the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Krishi Puraskar and the Innovative Krishi Samman. She received the

, India's highest civilian award for women, on

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Pooja 1980s births Bakers Businesswomen from Haryana People from Gurgaon district Nari Shakti Puraskar winners Living people