Five years ago, with support from Maharashtra State Livelihood Mission (MSRLM), Vandana formed a Self-Help Group in Shevate village tucked deep in Vikramgad taluka roughly 150 Kms from Mumbai and began her entrepreneurial journey with just one agarbathi-making machine. What started small soon grew into a thriving enterprise as the group experimented with multiple fragrances and different types of agarbathis. They steadily expanded their production capacity with support from NeevJivan Foundation and they acquired two more machines and scaled up their operations.

Today, they sell their products under the brand names “Mauli” and “Pankh.”

“Our earnings are now sufficient to support our needs without depending on our families. We dream of making our brand known not just in our taluka or district, but across India—and even beyond. In the next 2–3 years, we are confident of reaching sales of Rs. 1 crore, and we are determined to achieve this.”