27/08/2026
60 Days, 60 Stories: Empowering Belgaria's Future
Story 9/60 | August 25, 2026
From Displacement to Determination: Soni Verma's Mushroom Story
When land subsidence forced Soni Verma's family out of Dhanwadi in 2020, they arrived in Belgaria Phase 2 carrying more than their belongings — they carried the weight of a life interrupted. Her father's photo-framing business, once thriving in Jharia, was suddenly out of reach. Then came the lockdown, and with it, months of quiet struggle stitched together by "work from home" framing orders — small acts of resilience that kept the family afloat.
It was community mobilizer Gita Singh who first spoke to Soni about mushroom cultivation. Soni admits she was afraid — afraid of losing the little money they had. But something in her shifted. Alongside her partner Akansha Kumari, she began training in March, learning the craft of growing Oyster mushrooms from scratch. Fear turned into what she now calls junoon — an obsession, a passion. In the punishing summer heat, the two women would walk to the cultivation room holding umbrellas, refusing to let the sun stop them.
By April 5th, their first batch was ready to harvest.
Their initial investment was modest — just ₹6,000, shared between the two women. Today, that capital has been fully recovered, and the venture generates ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 in profit even as harvesting continues. Soni has learned that success here is a daily discipline: water the bags morning and evening, watch the moisture, watch the temperature. Get it right, and a day can bring ₹500. Get careless, and it drops to ₹100. Nothing is left to chance.
What started as an unfamiliar product in a market used to Button mushrooms is now something neighbors ask for by name. "Today, bring my mushroom," they tell her — a small sentence that marks a big shift, from curiosity to trust. The Forest Department's Sunday Market in Dhanbad has given her venture a wider stage, and a guarantee that unsold stock will never mean total loss.
For Soni, a graduate, this is not a side activity — it's a full-time business, approached with the seriousness her education has taught her. "We are not less than anyone," she says, a line that captures everything her journey has been about. She's already looking ahead to becoming a Lead Farmer, ready to teach others what was taught to her — because, she believes, that's simply what you do when someone hands you a future.
Soni and Akansha now dream of a permanent, independent enterprise — one built entirely on their own hands, long after the project's formal support ends.
