Working as a supervisor to support her family, Reshamdevi Mallick faced many hurdles – some due to the choice of her life partner – but gained enough confidence to sell her family’s car and start a farmer-producing company.

“When the pandemic showed no signs of letting up, my life partner Rajesh Mallick and I shed sweat and tears to set up Greenflag Farmer Producer Company Limited. Our hard work paid off when we had a turnover of Rs 50 lakh in the very first year.

“But a long spell of turmoil had preceded that. “I met Rajesh in 2004 when I was a class-12 student. He used to visit his sister in the hostel where I was also staying.

“We wanted to tie the knot. But our parents opposed it since we belong to different religions. When we couldn’t convince them, we decided to live together without getting married.