|
Sustainable Livelihood
through Corporate Linkage
Subroto Roy
sroy@sdalt.ernet.in
K utchh,
famous for its handicrafts, added one more product to its portfolio.
When we at Development Alternatives, with the help of its sister
concern
TARA, introduced hand
made paper products in the region. The region is best known for
its colours and artistic skills, especially the embroidery skills
and block printing. These were ideal skills to apply in making
handmade paper products.
With the support from
FICCI-CARE, a group of 45 women have been trained making hand made
paper products (HMPP), in record ten months. These women, from the
earthquake ravaged villages of Kotda and Ajapar in Bhuj districts
can not only make products, but are now well versed in costing and
pricing of the products as well. An eye for quality has been
ingrained into the whole process. With the help of templates and
semi mechanized tools, they can now compete with other manufacturers
at present at the national market.
For establishing
marketing linkages and managing the whole system, a team has been
placed there (by DA) that includes a professionally qualified
marketing executive, two production supervisors and an assistant.
This team, along with the group of women, is running the system as a
business entity. The products have been designed with the help of
experience and knowledge gained by DA, through
TARA, which is
actively engaged in the promotion of HMPP from TARAgram, Orchha.
Professional help was taken from designers from NID to design new
products that emphasize the inherent characterstics of hand made
paper, both in process and the end product.
The products are
carefully designed to cater to specific market corporates. They
include items that may find a place on a CEO’s desk and in
conferences and support the current corporate drive of building up
an eco-friendly image. The products are now being marketed under
the brand name of “KOLORS OF KUTCH”.
The initial response
has been very encouraging as corporates and institutions in
Ahmedabad and Mumbai have promptly placed orders for visiting
cards, letter heads, greeting cards and calendars, files, folders,
document boxes and other gift items.
There have been
regular monthly orders for over one lakh rupees that provide wages
of 40 rupees per day to every group member. The professional cost
is still borne by project funding to ensure sustainable livelihoods,
without subsidizing the market structure. To keep pace with real
market needs , the group participates in retail meets organized by
FICCI – CARE, Ministry of Handicraft (Dillihaat) and local fairs.
In fact, the products have even travelled abroad to
Atlanta for the
retail meet organized by CARE.
The next step is to
ensure a stable source of orders, where associations like FICCI and
CII play a major role. Each federation has more than 100 companies
on their list, some of them fortune 500 companies and MNCs. A tie
up for products such as office files, carry bags, diaries, greeting
cards and folders even for 10 companies would be sufficient to
sustain the group for years to come.
It becomes evident
through such Initiatives, where the products are linked to corporate
needs, (wealth creators of a nation) can bridge the income disparity
between the urban and the poor and can provide a long term source of
livelihoods. We at Development Alternatives would like to thank
FICCI CARE for supporting such an initiative and look forward to
similar partnerships between industry and NGOs towards the creation
of sustainable livelihoods for the poor. q
|
Networks Test E- Workshop on “Guidelines for Effective
Ecologically Engineered Wastewater Solutions”
February 10- 21, 2003 |
|
The International Ecological Engineering
Society (IEES) is launching “Net-Works” as a new Internet gate
providing easy access to information on sustainable
environmental technology. Target groups of “Net-works” are
practioners, decision makers, NGOs and Universities in
developing as well as industrial countries. It will facilitate
dissemination of knowledge in Ecological engineering,
provision of referring E-courses and E-workshops and the
development of a worldwide “constant exchange” process.
As a “Net-Works” start-up event, a first
e-workshop is being organized. In this e-workshop,
participants will analyze the case studies of selected
ecologically engineered projects. A referring set of
guidelines for analysis of case studies on ecological
engineering will be developed. The outcome of the workshop
will be made available within the ‘resources’ area of the
“Net-works” web environment.
Registration: January 27 to February 8, 2003
All activities (including registration, etc.)
will take place on the Internet. The test workshop is free of
cost
for more information and to register, please
visit http://www.iees.ch/networks.html
The broad layout of the workshop is as follows
:
|
l |
Week 1:the workshop participants
should get acquainted with the case studies. In this,
different groups will be formed for E-chat sessions. The
chat discussions will be guided by the respective
authors of the case studies (who will, of course, be
on-line). The chats will be summarised by one/ two
participants and presented to the larger group of all
participants. |
|
l |
Week 2: This is most important
when the workshop participants get to compare the case
studies and draw conclusions. As a result, a referring
set of guidelines for analysis of case studies will be
developed. |
|
Suggested Prerequisites : |
|
l |
A personal interest in Ecological
Engineering and the use of e-learning methods for its
advancement. |
|
l |
An interest to become a guinea pig member
of the Networks environment |
|
l |
A willingness to deal with the (hopefully
small) inconveniences of a first test workshop |
|
l |
Willingness to fill out an evaluation
form after the test workshop |
|
Back to Contents
|