Married off at 12, she survived domestic abuse and earned Rs 2 per day. She is known as India’s first female entrepreneur. What is Kalpana Saroj's networth?

She was married off when she was just a slip of a girl at 12. At 16, she was suicidal. However, Kalpana Saroj eventually survived her horrific past and went on to build a business empire. As per a Jagran Josh report, Saroj is regarded as India’s first female entrepreneur. In 2001, she took charge of the struggling Kamani Tubes Company and turned the financially distressed business around, transforming it into a profitable enterprise.

Her remarkable rise from a child bride born into a Dalit family to the leader of a multimillion-dollar company is a story of extraordinary courage, perseverance, and determination. Saroj’s journey demonstrates how relentless effort, self-belief, and the ability to overcome deeply rooted social and economic barriers can pave the way to remarkable success.

Married Off At 12

Saroj, the oldest of three daughters and two sons, was born in 1961 in the Marathi Buddhist village of Roperkheda near Akola, Maharashtra, India. Saroj's father was a police constable in Akola's Repatkhed village. At the age of twelve, Kalpana Saroj got married.


In an interview with the BBC, Saroj revealed how she moved to live in the slums of Mumbai after her marriage. However, that was not the only hardship she faced. “I was treated badly by my husband's elder brother and his wife. They would pull my hair and beat me, sometimes over little things.”

The Turning Point

At the age of 16, with the help of her supportive father, she left her abusive in-laws and returned to her village. However, she faced judgement and intense scrutiny from the villagers. Although she tried to ignore the naysayers and took up tailoring as a job, the bigotry became intolerable, and she tried to commit suicide.

“I drank three bottles of insecticide, termite poison," she told the BBC. Her survival made her determined to make a name for herself. She returned to Mumbai and decided to work as a tailor. At this point, she revealed she would earn just Rs 2 per day in an interview with The Open Magazine. "I would get Rs 2 per day. But I was relieved that I had a job at least," she said. However, she learned to sew and stitch clothes and her prospects improved. She eventually was making Rs 500 per month.

However, Kalpana's business energy was demonstrated when her earnings were insufficient to cover her sister's potentially life-saving medical care. To start a furniture company and increase her tailoring business, she took out a government loan. She then established her own furniture store, which eventually became successful.

How She Revived A Dead Business

She had built a reputation as a business-savvy woman over the years; this led her to an opportunity of a lifetime. In 2001, Kamani Tubes, a metal engineering company that was undergoing bankruptcy and unable to pay 3,500 employees, asked her to take over the firm and give it a new lease of life.

However, Kalpana did not just want to save a sinking company; she also wanted to ensure the employees were not neglected.

“I wanted to give justice to the people who were working there. I had to save the company. I could relate to the staff who needed to put food on the table for their family," she told the BBC.

She streamlined processes, reorganised the company, and gave it her unrelenting determination. The failing business was brought back to life under her direction. She made sure the employees were paid, paid off the company's debts, and turned it into a successful business. According to the BBC article, Kamani Tubes' business was valued at over $100 million in 2012.

In a 2013 interview with the Wall Street Journal, she revealed her personal networth was $112 million, or a staggering Rs 1,000 crores. That same year, she was honoured with a Padma Shri award for Trade and Industry

Kalpana’s journey from being a battered child wife and survivor of suicide to becoming one of the richest self-made female entrepreneurs in history, without any formal degrees – just through sheer perseverance and a can-do attitude – is nothing short of magical.

Her story is a powerful reminder that true leadership can come from the most unexpected circumstances. It proves that unwavering determination can withstand even deep-rooted discrimination and adversity.

More importantly, it shows that those who start life with the fewest advantages can sometimes achieve the most extraordinary transformations. By overcoming barriers that could have easily limited her ambitions, she redefined the boundaries of what women from marginalised backgrounds could accomplish