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A platform to support women entrepreneurs
Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect A platform to support women entrepreneurs
Team girl power projecT
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On the occasion of Diwali, one of India’s biggest festivals, Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect (JMSEMC) under Girl Power Project organized a two-day marketing event. The event aimed at providing a platform for women artisans/entrepreneurs in displaying a range of festival-specific products. This event played a major role in connecting buyers and women entrepreneurs who are involved in making a range of handmade products like diyas, candles, flowers, paper lanterns, dolls, incense sticks, bamboo products, lamps, lac bangles, sweets, and masks. For ensuring maximum footfall of customers, a few strategies were adopted by Girl Power Team which constituted components of the marketing mix.
As per the Jerome McCarthy model, the marketing mix consists of seven key elements that are involved in the marketing of the product or service. In line with this model, the JMSEMC adopted these elements for effectively marketing products of women artisans. The key elements for the seven Ps are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Evidence. As the first step towards the event, the team went on to identify the local women artisans/entrepreneurs from Ranchi who were making items that have a huge demand during the Diwali. Visits were made and meetings were conducted with the entrepreneurs to understand their product range and marketing potential. The first P of the marketing mix is the Product relevant for the event. As per our market survey, we shortlisted the products, which could stand out in the market in terms of quality, variants, and unique features. The products that were displayed were decorative flowers, diyas and candles. The Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of our products were – ‘handmade’ and ‘eco-friendly’ products ‘sourced from the local artisans’. Our USP went very well with the Government of India’s campaign “Vocal for Local”. The second P - Price, played an important role in the sale of the products. The women artisans were encouraged to price the products keeping in mind cost-benefit analysis and breakeven point. For the third P Place, the team approached Ranchi Municipal Corporation, who supported JMSEMC’s initiative. The authority granted permission to display the products in Morabadi ground, which is a central place, in order to attract customers. The team also displayed the products near our JMSEMC office in Lalpur. For Promotion, pre-buzz activities were carried out through social media posts and circulating the same by the team in their contacts. Fifth P of marketing mix - People, was taken care of by the Girl Power Team.The team actively participated in the event by being involved in promotional activities, customer handling, and support in packaging the products. The Process component was involved through research and development activities that were conducted before the event for assessment of demand, the team went on to explore the local markets to assess the price, products and demand of similar products. Physical Evidence, the last P of the marketing mix, involved activities like sales experience, and product packaging. A general verbal feedback was taken from the potential customers that reached our kiosk during the event.
As the Girl Power team geared up for the two day Diwali event, our main focus was to give an exposure to
the women artisans who have limited access to the marketing opportunities. Through this event, we involved individual artisans as well as the women of the Self Help Groups, who also felt motivated as they got market exposure through this initiative. The event began on October 31 morning in Morabadi and the response received from the locals on the initial day itself was very encouraging. The stall remained open for the public from 07:00 AM to 05:30 PM. One of the locals said, “The quality of the products is superior to the commercially produced decorative items in factories, which is why they opted to help the women of the Self Help Groups.”
All the decorative items displayed were prepared and packed at home by the women. A few of the buyers even enquired about similar products and wanted to indulge in bulk orders directly from the SHGs groups to start off their venture. The Diwali event also acted as an eye-opener for urban buyers who were unaware of local artisans’ talent. In today’s times, given people’s preference for ethnic wear, handmade items, and exclusive gifts, our stall gave proper exposure to the art of women of the self-help groups. A woman of Niti Self Help Group prepared handmade flowers from corn husk, stocking, and paper, which helped to attract people, especially housewives, in large numbers at the stall. The cost of one flower stick varied from `20 to `80, depending on its size, material used, and labor cost. Similarly, colorful hand painted clay lamps – diyas - with intricate designs were, also the center of attraction as they could add to home decor creating a warm ambience during Diwali Puja and parties. The eye-pleasing colorful set of 12 diyas was also seen an ideal gifting item.
A majority of self-help groups had faced problem of low footfall during the pandemic, which also resulted in shutting down of their enterprises. Therefore, the event brought employment opportunities for the women who were otherwise struggling to sell their products in the marketplace during the festival time. With events like this, the Girl Power Project aims to identify similar opportunities which could leverage their art and skills and generate some income towards supporting their livelihoods. The future strategy of the project is to provide an online e-commerce platform for such SHGs which will provide a wider market, will directly benefit the women, and will be able to generate a stable source of income for their better future.
The special focus of the program is on children of AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T
AIILSG Director General Dr Jairaj Phatak’s field visit to AIILSG’s TARFAH tribal development model
On October 10, the World Mental Health Day 2021- the Director General, AIILSG, Dr Jairaj Phatak, IAS (Retd) launched AIILSG’s Mental Health Innovation for Indigenous Populations, with special focus on children. The program and innovation is designed by AIILSG’s International Centre of Equity & Inclusion for Transformation (ICEQUI-T). This year’s theme for the day of “Mental Health Care for All: let’s make it a reality” has an implicit crucial reference to the indigenous populations as their mental health concerns have hitherto remained neglected. The children from these indigenous populations are among the worst affected, especially during the COVID-19 era as the impact of pandemic on mental well-being exacerbated.
Thus, very aptly, the launch of this program was held in the remote tribal field action area of AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T in Palghar district. Holding the program in this area is an embodiment of AIILSG’s commitment to the cause, as the area is known for the forest dweller tribes and ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups’ (PVTGs) in deep clutches of poverty, marked by high malnourishment of tribal children and reporting tribal child malnourishment mortalities.
The insights gained by the team from on-field efforts with all types of indigenous tribes in India (forest dwellers, nomadic, PVTGs, very peculiar cases of racial discrimination such as Siddi tribes which is Afro-descendant) indicates that these indigenous groups also face discrimination-based risks to mental health, apart from those arising from marginalisation. The stigma has an impact on mental health and exacerbate them especially for children and youth. It is important to safeguard the mental health and psychosocial well-being of children to enable them to reach their full potential.
Dr Jairaj Phatak during his speech and on-field-mentoring, dwelt into the important role towards the cause of each stakeholder such as local governments, communities, parents, etc. He also emphasized the uniqueness of AIILSG’s said innovation vis-a-vis focus on the indigenous populations in line with the World Health Organization’s theme for this year - Enabling mental health for “ALL”.
In its usual spirit of shunning extravaganza, the team held the event in remote indigenous ‘openair conference’ space. The team with this unique approach had also held an international conference with 102 dignitaries from 21 countries in pre-COVID past. Moreover, AIILSG considers ‘youth’ in India and globally as SDG advocates and torch bearers of the cause. Despite higher numbers of interests received, the participation to the event was kept limited- due to the COVID-19 situation- to youth representatives from 5 countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tazikistan and Yemen). They expressed willingness to be the ambassadors of
the cause in their respective countries and endeavor multiplier effect globally.
AIILSG sees the issue of mental health of indigenous children with dedicated focus as well as an inherent constituent of its model for holistic tribal development- TARFAH (Transformative Actions for Rural Development, Food security and Health). Therefore the Director General with the Director of AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T Dr Mukesh Kanaskar, made it a point to visit the TARFAH model in action in deep interiors of the tribal area. The Director General of AIILSG, traversing on foot the remote tough terrain with access further aggravated by recent heavy rains served a demonstration of AIILSG’s commitment to the cause of the indigenous tribes.
About AIILSG’s Mental Health Innovation for Indigenous Children:
AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T has been undertaking initiatives for improving lives of the indigenous populations since a decade. With keen focus on indigenous children, AIILSG’s Shikshan Ranjan Kendra model has brought about holistic development and enablement of children’s rights for more than 17,000 disadvantaged children, many of them belonging to indigenous tribes. A unique feature of this work by AIILSG is that probably it is among handful organisations in the world which works with all types of indigenous children. Its efforts towards enabling mental health for indigenous children rendered greater insights into the mental health issues of indigenous children. A stark realisation was the urgent need for disseminating mental health messages in non-verbose manner, through edutainment, using traditional tribal art forms, and in ways easily understood by children and adults including those who are illiterates. This aspect is very crucial as many indigenous children benefitting from AIILSG’s field actions are first generation learners with their parents deprived of educational opportunities. Thus, de-mystification through edutainment at AIILSG’s grassroots action- ‘innovations for indigenous children’ in the mental health context takes form of street theatre, puppet show, use of traditional tribal art forms that are embedded in their socio-cultural context and finds easy acceptance by the indigenous populations as it helps to alleviate stigma associated with discussing openly on mental health. The visual simplified depiction of various facets associated with the mental health of indigenous children and conveying to parents and other stakeholders their roles, Dos and Don’ts is another important constituent of this AIILSG innovation.
Moreover, the conventional mental health efforts generally resort to generalisation. However, considering the diversity in sociocultural context of the indigenous communities, cultural-customization of these messages is crucial to help the respective communities for them to develop a connect with the cause. A core strength and an in-built sustainability enabler embedded in AIILSG’s Shikshan Kendra Model is that a local person, usually a young-woman, and youth volunteers are groomed as Mentor of children. They are trained in various aspects of children’s rights and their holistic development. The tailormade deliverance of Mental Health dissemination through well-trained cadre of Shikshan Mitras is another crucial aspect of this innovation.
The innovation also re-emphasizes AIILSG’s ICEQUI-T thrust on ‘youth’ (especially from disadvantaged sections) as enablers of social transformation and SDGs at the grassroots as well as globally, as is manifested in its past innovations of: MY SDG2 (Mentoring Youth for Sustainable Development 2: End Hunger & Malnutrition), MY SDG4 (Mentoring Youth for Sustainable Development 4: Fostering Innovations Culture & Scientific Temper in Children from a Young Age), MY SDG 8 (Mentoring Youth for Sustainable Development 8: Building Capacities of Youth for Enabling Inclusive Growth & Productive Employment), BALTARFAH: Enabling Innovations: Onfield schools with Children, etc.
AIILSG Director General Dr Jairaj Phatak’s address at launch of AIILSG’s Mental Health Innovation for Indigenous Populations
Pledges at COP26 but dire need of concrete actions
NEW DELHI: The United Nations Climate Change Conference has been taking place every year since 1995. The COP is the official name for climate conferences of nations. COP26 was held between November 1 and November 12 this year. The two-week summits have become an important space for stakeholders to discuss and plan actions around climate crisis on a global level. The participants are the nations that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international environmental treaty addressing climate change. In fact, effectively, every nation, country, or state in the world is involved, giving a total of 197 signatory parties.
The 26th COP was supposed to take place in Glasgow, United Kingdom, in November 2020. However, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and stringent lockdowns across the world, it was postponed to this year. The first week of the summit witnessed officials discussing technical issues like carbon credits, funding for countries vulnerable to climate change, and nature-based solutions against the rising problem. Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, welcomed the heads of about 120 states and 25,000 delegates. He said that the anger and the impatience of the world would be uncontainable “unless we make this COP26 in Glasgow the moment that we get real about climate change.” Two climate change activists followed the address of Boris Johnson and called on leaders for bold actions.
Poet Yrsa Daley-Ward also addressed the leaders with her poem titled ‘Earth to COP’, which included the lines: “Anything less than your best is too much to pay. Anything later than now, too little, too late. Nothing will change without you.” Displaying less optimism and more acceptance of reality on the very first day of the conference, António Guterres, Secretary General, UN, dismissed the suggestion that the climate situation was improving, and exhorted the more than 120 national leaders present to “choose to safeguard our future and save humanity” instead of continuing with the addiction to fossil fuels. António Guterres took the podium with a blunt opening message on the first day: “The six years since the Paris Climate Agreement have been the six hottest years on record. Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink”. “We face a stark choice. Either we stop it - or it stops us,” he added. He emphasized that even if the recent pledges were clear and credible - and there are serious questions about some of
