Mission Mangalam – Tracing success

It has been nearly two years since the Gujarat Government launched the Mission Mangalam Programme.This poverty alleviation programme aims at empowering Gujarat’s women by creating Sakhi Mandals and integrating them into the corporate value chain has come a long way since then. In this issue, we look at four cases in different regions of Gujarat, where the Mission Mangalam Programme has truly made a difference in the lives of rural women. We begin our journey with a Masala Making unit in Mahua Taluka (Surat District) where one woman’s initiative to transform traditional cooking knowledge to a business enterprise has proven to be a source of income for others in the community. Then we move on to Paardi, a village in Lodhika Taluka (Rajkot District), where one woman’s entrepreneurial vision has led to the inception of a Khakra making unit. From Paardi, we go to Indrapastha village of the Anjar Taluka (Kutch District), where a stitching unit is providing a steady source of income to the women of this region. Our last story is set in Asai in Himmatnagar taluka  (Sabarkantha District) where a vermicompost unit has proved to be an economical as well as eco-friendly initiative.

Masala Maker

The Masala store is at the end of a line of Stores. To reach Pavitraben’s shop, one has to walk all the way to the end of the line. One thing that stands out is that almost all the other shops are either housing a Garage or are spare parts vendors. I approached a rugged looking mechanic and inquired about the masala shop and immediately his hard face melted into a big grin, “Oh, you are looking for Parvatiben? just keep walking straight and you will find her shop”. Behind him stood five others, who joined him in wildly gesturing us in the right direction. A board welcomed us to the shop. Seated behind the counter was a confident Parvatiben and behind her were the all women crew of the Masala Making unit.

The Jai Bajranbali Mahila Mandal started the Unit eight years back. Today they have earned the respect of all their neighbours. As soon as the neighbours realised that Parvatiben got visitors, couple of chairs came hurrying from a garage and firmly lodged themselves outside the masala shop.

The veteran Mahila mandal’s venture recently plateaued, when they were unable to find more oppurtunities. That is when Mission Mangalam’s Taluka level Manager Yogesh Parmar met the mandal. He came up with an elaborate branding and packaging strategy. It started with a simple, but very vital task of printing the unit’s name on the package and methods of quality standardisation. Thereafter he introduced them to new market option, when he helped them gain a stall at a local Valvada Haat (Sunday market) and to put up a stall during the successful Gareeb kalian mela, which gave them a much needed exposure.

In order to increase their efficiency, Mission Mangalam also came handy in providing market linkages. They identified on the unit’s behalf possible vendors who would be interested by procuring their finished product. At present the masala unit’s products are also sold in Surat city. Expansion in their market coverage has encouraged them to move into new products, at present they have also started selling freshly packed tea packets.

Khakras Go International

In Paardi, a village in the Lodhika taluk of Rajkot district, a small house is abuzz with conversations. Amidst the chaos, around 12-15 women are seen making Khakras at a frantic pace. While some are seen stooped over a line of stoves flattening the dough for any moisture with wooden bases, others are seen making round chappatis out of the dough and supplying it to the women sitting by the stove.

A little boy is seen sitting next to his mother, playing with the dough, as his mother flattens the dough and cuts it into shape and tosses it into a plate. The plate when full is passed on to the women by the stove, who fries them in a low simmer until all the moisture is removed from them and stacks them in a neat pile next to her. For every 1.5 kilo of dough, a woman gets `8 for flattening the dough into circular chappatis or `16, if she is frying them. Blue plastic chips stuck on every 1.5 kilo of dough, kept safely with the woman flattening the dough are a measure of her day’s work. The chips at the end of the day decide her wage for the day. Each Woman makes up to `3,000 per month. From morning  8 to 5:30 in the evening, except an hour lunch break in between, the women in this small house in Paardi are either in front of a stove or bent over a bailan.

These women are part of the small household industry that supplies Khakras to a local industrialist in Rajkot, who vacuum packs them and exports them all over the world.

The Khakras made in six flavours are sold to the industrialist for `85 per Kg, who in turn vacuum packs them and sells them at `200 per Kg. “Our main clientele is in UK, USA and Dubai. The shipping charges are borne by the customer. In UK packs of 200 gms are sold for 70 -80 pennies which is almost double the price at which we sell it to them” said an executive from a Khakra company of Rajkot that procures the Khakras from these women.

Shraddha Sakhi Mandal, under the umbrella of which these women came together five and a half year ago took up the Khakra making enterprise five months back. “I used to work in a factory where we made Khakras, almost all these women worked there. I managed everything from buying the flour to making the dough and getting it packed. It was then that I realized that, we were getting paid very less for our work and could make more money if we started out on our own,” said Maya Ben the head of the Sakhi Mandal and the manager of the whole unit.

Maya Ben along with a close friend Damayanti Ben started this enterprise by utilising the revolving fund of `5,000 available to them through the Sakhi Mandal enlisted in the Mission Mangalam program of the State Government. All the work is done at Maya Ben’s place and she provides all the necessary infrastructure like gas stove, pans, dough, oil and wooden flatteners to the women. Maya Behan also gets `50 per month as commission for every woman she employs. The most important part of the exercise which is kneading the dough and adding appropriate quantity of flavour and salt is done by her too.

The women on their part have welcomed the change. “Since I have a small child, I can’t go to any other factory. Here he sits with me all day,” said Bhavana Ben with a four-year-old Vivek by her side. Women working at the unit also claimed that the work atmosphere here was better than in the factory and they felt a sense of belonging and camaraderie with the other women.

The women claim that the only thing cutting down their profits is the lack of a machine to pack the Khakras in an air-tight manner.“We still don’t have a vacuum machine to pack our produce and hence have to sell it for a lower price. We are trying to obtain a loan for it through the State Government’s Mission Mangalam programme,” said Maya Ben.

Trupti Raval, Lodhika Taluka Livelihood Manager when asked about the status of the loan, said, “All the procedural formalities have been done and the bank has also come and inspected the site. Bank authorities have assured us that the loan amount of `1 lakh will be sanctioned soon.”

Stitching a Seamless Enterprise

Pramila Mewada’s day begins at nine-thirty every morning, where she heads out of home towards the ‘Sri Sakhi Swarnim Talim Kendra’, a stitching unit in Indraprastha Navi Dudhai village of Anjar taluk in Kutchchh district. Pramila’s day ends at five thirty in the evening and she manages to earn close to `5,000 a month, far higher than her income previously when she ran a beauty parlour in the village. Her husband, a carpenter, who works on a contract basis earns `200 per day. The work at the stitching unit is a steady source of income for women like Pramila, who vouch for the change this enterprise has brought in their lives.

The stitching unit in Indraprastha village is one of two in Anjar taluk and was conceptualised in 2010 under the Mission Mangalam project. The first project was started in Varsamedi in July 2010 and the next one in Indraprastha followed a year later in September 2011. It is one of the few projects where collaboration between government, industry and the NGO sector has resulted in providing livelihood opportunities to women.

At Indraprastha, Jan Shiksha Sanstha, an NGO was already actively involved in vocational training programmes and was looking for a way to ensure a secure source of income for the women they worked with. Welspun on the other hand had corporate social responsibility initiatives near a village in Varsamedi where they had trained women  to stitch and were providing raw material to them to stitch bedhseets, pillow covers and other Welspun products. The finished goods were bought by Welspun on a piecewise basis. The Government of Gujarat sensing a secure livelihood option in these enterprises for the local populace approached both parties and offered to bear the expenditure of the infrastructure needed to set up a stitching unit.

Under the technical guidance of Wellspun 25 sewing machines were bought by the Department of Rural Development at a cost `22,500 per machine. Ten out of the 25 machines are in Varsamedi while the remaining 15 are at Indraprastha. At Indraprastha, the sewing machines are housed in a community hall provided by JSS, while in Varsamedi the machines are housed in a building provided by the gram panchayat. A month long training is provided by Welspun and a trainer is appointed by them at each unit. The women who show promise are then trained and taken into production where they stitch Welspun products with the raw material made available to them by the company.

Around 35 women work at the Indraprastha unit, while 25 of them take turn in the machines, the remaining 10 women are involved in ironing and finishing work. Each woman on an average works for 2-3 hours and earns on an average `3,000-`5,000 per month.

“Initially when I worked as construction labourer I had to leave home at seven in the morning. Sometimes I was forced to take my five year old son because there was no one to look after him.  Now I just leave at nine in the morning. I earn close to `3,000 per month by doing thread work and finishing,” said Paru Ben Maheshwari, from the Indraprastha unit.

According to the women, the stitching unit provides a homely atmosphere as compared to the stifling atmosphere in a factory floor. “Because of the cultural background of these women they cannot work in a factory like atmosphere. It was conceived keeping that in mind and the women now feel it is their second home,” added Sharada Chhangani, the Welspun, CSR co-coordinator for Anjar Taluk.

Harnessing Organic Wealth

A narrow path snakes its way down into a valley checkered with lush green fields where a single storehouse structure stands out. “Gram Lakshmi Sammohik Vermicompost Unit” reads a bright green board outside the structure. Inside are 40 rectangular beds in rows of 20 on each side separated by an aisle in between. Each bed is numbered and allotted to the women of the Jai Maldari Mahila Mandal of the picturesque Asai village in the Sabarkantha District.

10 Rabbari (a dairy-farming community) women, members of the Mahila Mandal demonstrate the procedure involved in the production of Vermicompost, an organic fertilizer, proven to have given far better results as compared to its chemical counterparts. All kinds of organic solid wastes are brought and dumped into the respective beds allotted to them, each with a capacity of around 2500 kgs. A bed is then fed with 20 kgs of worms which turn the waste into organic compost. Each vermicomposting cycle takes 45 days for completion. After which the product is packed in 25 kg bags sold at the rate of `5/kg. The worms reared in the compost beds are also sold at `125 per kg. Therefore, the Mahila Mandal earns around `12, 500 from one bed every two months.

“We have already got orders for 15 lakh kilos of organic compost from contractors in Rajkot, Petlad etc. We have even tried the product in our castor crops and have witnessed a remarkable 40% increase in the produce, not to mention the better quality” says Leelaben Desai, a proud-owner of 4 buffaloes, a farm and a member of the SHG. Standing next to her, a smartly dressed Tushar Rathore, Assistant Project Manager, Marketing Rural Cottage Services, Mission Mangalam, explains “With funds through convergence of various schemes like, SGSY, NREGA, TSC these units were set up around two years ago. Under the first phase of Mission Mangalam, we talked the members of erstwhile SHGs into being a part of this project. Though initially reluctant, once these women saw organic fertilizer’s efficiency and the high returns, they agreed. Their farmer husbands also encouraged them. Consequently, we now have 42 such functional units in Sabarkantha alone.”

Talking on the marketing aspect, Mr. Joseph Fernandes, District Level livelihood manager, Mission Mangalam elaborates , “The main roles of Mission Mangalam are to stimulate community involvement and to create market linkages. For the Vermicompost units, an internal market was already present within the network of Sakhi Mandals working in the Agriculture sector. To further expand the markets, the Mission Mangalam team planned to publish an advertisement in a popular regional daily. The inflated prices of Urea and DAP in the last quarter were a great boon. A demand for 15 lakh kilos from this unit alone is what followed. Gujarati farmers have now realized that not only is this product more efficient, but also way cheaper. ”

Conversations over hot tea in the portico of Jassi Ben’s newly constructed pink yellow house (a result of the convergence of Indira Awas Yojana and Mission Mangalam) reveal that this constant source of livelihood has unleashed a new wave of self-confidence in these women. So much so, that they smartly handled a troublesome bank official creating problems for years over minor transactions related to their Sakhi Mandal account. “We told him we would have to take legal action. Soon enough the man mended his ways”, chuckles Jassi Ben with a sense of achievement.

Discussing what the future holds, the women dreamily say, “We want our market to expand and we plan to grow into an autonomous producer company shortly.”

- The article is originally published at The GUJARAT, Magazine