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Involvement of women in productive activities is a very important strategy for poverty alleviation in the society and for the overall empowerment of women. Micro-enterprises by women should not be only seen as means for economic empowerment. Any Initiative related to micro-enterprises with women designed with a right frame and implemented with a right approach can prove to be an important tool also for social and political empowerment along with economic empowerment. Feasibility study for micro-enterprise with women SHG's should be understood as identification of right products/activities suitable for micro-enterprises in the specified area (Kutch for this study) with a process enabling social, economic and political empowerment of women. Therefore this study requires to be understood by studying 3 aspects: The Area (Kutch), Women and The products. The Conceptual focus of this study is on women rather than on technical and financial aspects (Though these aspects have not been relegated to back seat). The methodology has been participatory. The tools used are Informal Discussions, Participatory daily activity & seasonality Charts, Focus Group discussions with women and the NGO staff and a small questionnaire was used but was only limited for obtaining the necessary basic data. Discussions and open-ended interviews with various other stakeholders of the project including govt. officials, Entrepreneurs and other experts were also being conducted. After making an effort to learn the social intricacies, skills and capacity of women, It is found the most of the groups(of women) are on a very formative stage. Moreover the skills, exposure & level of understanding required for being entrepreneurs are relatively low at present to enable them to independently run and manage a business. Thus, it is recommended that the organization shall play a very active role in the process of forming and managing the enterprises for a short period. Considering the feasibility on the parameters described above (the area, women, and products), It is recommended that the organization shall take up following 2 activities: 1. Collective farming of Jatropha/ratranjyot. 2. Handmade Aloe Vera Shampoo/soap bar. It should be understood that the organisation will be required to extend most of the support starting from providing them technical training, to procurement of raw materials, active involvement in the management functions till marketing of the produce/product in the initial phase. A withdrawal plan consisting of an outline of The Capacity Building/Training programme spread over 3 years has been designed and suggested so as to transform the women from mere labourers to entrepreneurs. It is strongly suggested that SEWA shall adopt a cluster kind of approach for these two products/activities so as to gain the benefit of economics of scale and also this becomes important as it is mentioned earlier that a lot of focus or support in terms of technical training, procurement, management and marketing is required from the organization itself which would be very difficult for many different activities together. |
