It is often said that great ideas are born out of necessity and one woman who proved it true is Mamtha Pillai. She owns an outlet called Meraki Home Garden at Thiruvanathapuram and just like everyone else, the pandemic and the lockdown led to her business suffering a setback. But this did not deter her from thinking one step ahead. She not only came up with an idea to improve her own business but it led to helping many other women entrepreneurs out there in these tough times. This one unique idea is the ‘Trivandrum Flea Market: An All Women’s initiative’. It’s an online flea market for products sold by women! Till date it has successfully organized more than a dozen virtual live exhibitions and Facebook Live sales.

Many entrepreneurs were engaged in selling their products at stalls or exhibitions and they were particularly left in a lurch last year. Women entrepreneurs who dealt with perishable goods like food couldn’t work out how to sell their products considering the restrictions but this one platform has helped even them on many levels. Mamtha Pillai worked it all out carefully and with thought. Even though she knew that Instagram could have been a better platform for this initiative, she chose Facebook, reason being it was easier for first time social media users, especially senior citizens. The first Facebook Live Flea Market was conducted in July 2020 and it was a huge success. Being online this market helped women entrepreneurs from all over India sell variety of products like pickles, snacks, desserts, cakes, chocolates, art works, jewellery, handicrafts, art linen etc. They all found customers through this online flea market. They even organized their first physical exhibition on March 14 at the House of Roses, in Thiruvananthapuram. They plan to continue with their virtual sales even after the pandemic settles down and in fact they have a very special event coming up -‘Celebrating Mom’ that coincides with Mother's Day to be held virtually on May 7th, 8th and 9th. We hope that such wonderful women-led initiatives keep on emerging!!!

Source (Image and Info): The Hindu