FUZION CRAFTS INTERNATIONAL
FUZION CRAFTS INTERNATIONAL
Annual Budget: $10,000 - $50,000
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Created: June 5, 2012
Last Update: October 9, 2012
BASIC IDEA:
Use Water Hyacinth, natural waste to make handicraft items. We have established FUZION CRAFTS INTERNATIONAL, which is a handicraft training and production centre.
Vision and ambition for the impact of your enterprise. –
We want to provide sustainable employment to poor people in the villages of Assam. Our aim is to build the system so that the poor women in villages get regular sustainable income. We want to support at least 1000 families in villages in Assam by 2015.
FULL IMPACT POTENTIAL-
1.Employment to 10,000 people mostly women.
2.Can Support 800 villages.
3.Employment to people with physical difficulty.
These people have limited sources of employment and those which are existing are low wage income source which i have mentioned elaborately under the Problem Tab and in the Need section.
OUR WORK SO FAR:
1. We did village awareness camps.
2. We have trained 95 women till 1-6-2012.
3. 41 women are effectively working with us.
4. We trained 18 people with physical difficulty of Assam Sarba Shiksha Abhijan.
5. We trained 30 minor girls who were rescued by Assam Mahila Samata Society from forced labour.
6.More than 250 women in 4-villages want to work with us as on 31st May 2012.
Thus we conceptualised to make part time employment a full time production base in scatterred population.
"76.26 % of production cost goes for employment generation."
"OUR BUSINESS HAS LOW CAPITAL INVESTMENT AND HIGH RATIO OF VALUE ADDITION."
Problem
Villages in Goalpara/Assam are prone to flood and there are no employment opportunities for women and people with physical difficulty. Thus we can provide: a) Employment to people in village and BPL-zones. b) Women empowerment c) Employment to people with Physical Difficulty People in villages and BPL-zones need to have a platform so that they can earn from their homes. With Fuzion Crafts International they can work from home after they take training from us. There are more than 300 women in four villages in Goalpara who want to work with us but we could not employ them because of financial constraints. There is extremist's problem in Assam and that is one of the problems that has been there for a long time because of unemployment. So with FUZION CRAFTS INTERNATIONAL we could atleast provide employment to the people in BPL-zones and villages. Some examples of poor prevailing employment. 1.Here at Goalpara/Assam there are more than 1000 women who are engaged in BIDI( low cost smoke) who work at a daily wage of less than Rs.50 i.e. $1. 2.Some are engaged in incense stick manufacturing at less than Rs.30 i.e. close to $1/2 . 3.Some other are in even worse condition like there are two villages who are engaged in stone crushing and they get close to Rs.25/day i.e $1/2. FUZION CRAFTS INTERNATIONAL offers better wage opportunity to all these women. They can earn Rs.100/day with us.
Solution
FUZION CRAFTS INTERNATIONAL provides training and raw material to the women so that they can work from from home. Most of the handicrafts in India is unorganized. We are an organized handicraft firm Artisans make the products in villages and they go through 3 to 4 middlemen before being sold. Some of the firms like JAIPUR RUGS are organized and are very successful in the Carpet Market. There is huge scope and potential in the market. Advantages and solution: 1.Abundantly available raw material i.e. Water-Hyacinth. 2.Availibility of workforce/labour. 3.availibility of artistic talent. We are making products to cater mostly to the Home Decor segment. •Since the rural women cannot leave their daily household tasks and they are mostly engaged in agriculture, we conceptualised to make part-time employment a full time production base in scattered population. *30 girls rescued by AMSS: We provided training to 30 girls of Assam Mahila Samata Society who were rescued from domestic labour from villages for self employment.(14th Dec 2011 to 26th Dec 2011). *2.We provided training to 18 people who are specially abled (physically challenged) under Assam Sarba Shiksha Abhijan. (6th feb’2012 to 17th feb’2012) Innovativeness of the proposal : We use natural waste and we create designer products and we use FUZION of different artistic styles of local village craft. People in villages, women and even the people with physical difficulty can earn their living from home.
Example
STEP1: Collect Water-Hyacinth( natural waste) STEP2: Dry the materials and process them STEP3: Train the women. STEP4: Give work on contractual basis. STEP5: Marketing- exhibitions/stalls etc. Thus by using abundantly available raw material the people in villages can earn and the women can be self employed. Our return is high as th cost of production is very less. Example: 7 artisans made made 28 lamp-shades and 12 baskets and we sold it to RESORT ZIZNA near POBITORA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, worth Rs.53000/- Proof of concept: This business is successful in VIETNAM:- 1. ANC HANDICRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL SUPPLIER COMPANY LIMITED 2. MSAFINA INTERNATIONAL CO LTD 3.HIEP HOA ENTERPRISE source- Alibaba.com
Marketplace
We know that there is a huge potential in handicraft market We are registered with DICC/GOALPARA/ASSAM. We will get help, sponsoring in getting stalls in national and international trade fairs. We will go to international trade fair in November’2012 with 50% subsidy in transportation. 2.We will also participate in local exhibitions and we have displayed some of our products in Guwahati City. 3.We will launch our website before Nov’2012 4. We will do personnel marketing in Hotels & Resorts for Bulk-Orders. -PTI Feb 12, 2012, 12.34PM IST NEW DELHI: India's handicrafts exports grew by 24 per cent year-on-year to USD 178 million in January on account of rising demand from markets like the US.In January last year, these exports stood at USD 143 million, according to the data provided by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH). KIT: Handicrafts market in India New Delhi Nov 21, 2011, 01:17 IST •India exported handicrafts worth Rs 10,534 crores during the year 2010-11, up 21 per cent from the previous year. Handicraft market in India is worth Rs 40,000 cr/By:PTI/Date:2008-12-09/Place: Nagercoil •Handicraft products worth Rs 40,000 crores are being produced in India per year, a top Handicrafts official said. SALES PLANNING: 1.B2B sales in National and International trade fairs. 2.Personnel selling in Hotels and Resorts 3.Website and tie-up with websites like Craftsvilla and Alibaba.com 4.Store selling in Guwahati
We conducted this training at the house of the village head. We started this training batch at the request from these women. They are willing to learn the craft and join us.With Financial assistance, we would be able to support more women.
These women are living in poor conditions and their only employment opportunity was working in stone crushing for a wage of hardly Rs. 30 per day. With us they will be able to earn Rs.100 or more per day in handicrafts. Gradually more and more women are coming to learn and join us but due to financial constraint we could not include them.
In order to sustain we developed many new product designs so that the products can be sold at a good price and thus the artisans will also have better earning. In order to make it a self sustainable enterprise we worked on product standardization here is a sample product.
We started another new village center for training and production with 15 more women.
Our business Idea was selected for the prestigious ECONOMIC TIMES POWER OF IDEAS organized by CIIE, IIM-Ahmedabad and DST.
We were among the finalist out of more than 14,000 applications ,organized by CIIE,IIM-A and DST. ( September to Octber 18th)
http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/index.php?option=com_list&Itemid=169
We were also selected for SAMSUNG INNOVATION QUOTIENT-2...
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Comments
We want to generate sustainable employment to poor women in villages and BPL zones.
U are doing a great job... keep it up.
hey bro...keep it up
best luck to you..
Thank you brother
Thank you for your participation in AFI Growth Prize Competition. We have a key question for you:Do you have a strategy for independent replication? How can you sustain sales in an economic downturns?
Please post your response as comment here, before Dec 15, 2012 to be considered for final evaluation.
Respected Indrani Madam,
Here are the answers to your queries,
Strategy for Independent Replication:( how are the innovation changing the needs of the people and how does it show as a system change innovation):
I will answer this question as I understood independent replication from Madhuwanti Basu in two parts.
How are the innovation changing the needs/life of the people:
Our innovation is the use of easily and abundantly available natural waste/weed to make quality handicraft items. Our system is such that even the marginalized and underprivileged women can do independent business. Many people are getting indirect employment to collect and sell the raw material to us which is free for them and then we process it.
Earlier the women who were engaged in bidi manufacturing and stone crushing were earning as low as Rs 500 per month. After joining us and working with us there income has increased to more than 3 times. Some artisans are even earning more than Rs.100 per day who were earning hardly Rs 30 per day. There is a increase of more than 3 times in their income capacity, which will increase further.
We also take the hassles of marketing for them.
How does it show as a system change innovation:
There are limited employment opportunities in these remote villages of Assam for women and as a result they are suffering in poverty. Even their minor children ( 9yrs-14 yrs) olds are working in stone crushing to support their families. We are trying to increase the income level of the mothers and other women so that they can afford to provide basic necessities to their children and so that they can send their children to schools for a better future. Also the women who are working for the manufacture of bidis( low cost smoke) might have health problems like cancer due to constant exposure to tobacco, and in certain cases we have seen that the women work keeping their children in their lap and making bidis. We are trying so that these women can leave these hazardous work and make handicrafts for safer health, better wage and better life.
Another example are the women who are working for stone crushing- there is a risk of injuries apart from the various body pain because of the manual strength constantly required to crush stones, comparatively in our work there is not much manual strength required and they can work from home. They get Rs 6 to Rs 9 for per tin of stones crushed and on an average they hardly crush 4 tins, but with us they can easily weave from home and earn more than 5 times the money they would otherwise get.
Thus in the long run our organization , apart from being a source of better livelihood will help in the long run for better future for their children also.
Sustaining Sales in economic downturns:
To support the answer, here are some data from a report from the Commissioner of Handicrafts, Government of India, In handicrafts the total market potential is Rs.40,000 crores and segregating it further in my kind of handicrafts the market opportunity is 2600 crores and out of the total market 43 % of handicrafts comes from Eastern India. There is not a single big organized player. I want to make Fuzion Crafts International that company which will cater to the handicrafts from Eastern, to be more specific North East India. Here are some of the points in support of the answer:
1. Also in handicrafts the biggest problem is the production and operations and often the demand is difficult to meet. I talked to some experienced people like owner of kashmirbox.com, operations manager of mother earth, Shop for a cause and Mr.Dey- presidents award winner master craftsmen and many small handicrafts units in the same business. All of them said selling is not a problem, but production is because it's handmade.
So, since ours is a small unit now selling will not be so difficult even in economic downturns.
2. Even when we scale up production, we will cater to other marketing avenues like online portal, international trade fairs and retail chains like Mother Earth.
3. Handicrafts are generally bought by executive and elite class so the difficulty of economic downturns will not be much in these classes, and besides our products are mostly for the elite, middle and upper middle class people in urban and semi urban areas.
4. In handicrafts the profit margin is high sometimes more than 300%, in case there is a economic downturn, then we will reduce the price with lesser margin.
5. The biggest strength in order to handle such type of handicrafts is that, since the products are handmade it is highly adaptable to market trends. eg. if for some reason some costly products are not in demand we can easily stop that production and increase the production of some other products which can be cheaper and more salable. Adaptable products is our big strength, also we can train artisans and make them experts in 15 days training.
I have been working to provide a sustainable source of income to these people in villages of Goalpara, Assam and i believe we can make a system for a better future with better earnings for these women.
Respected Madam
Here is the answer for,
Strategy for independent replication: Way(s) in which we can scale our solution wherein our solution could easily travel geographical and community barriers:
Our Solution is repeatable and as such we could teach the craft form in different locations where the raw material i.e. Water-Hyacinth is available. I would like to put that this concept is successful in Vietnam and Thailand. The only difference that we have is the product concepts and designs, which is also our competitive advantage. I had the honour of conversation with one of the best minds working in Grass root level Prof. Anil Gupta of IIM-A, founder of Honey Bee Network and a fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science. Besides, he holds the Executive Vice Chair of the National Innovation Foundation, he said that in Andhra Pradesh the weed Water Hyacinth is a menace and farmers are facing lots of problems, he suggested to expand my concept to those locations as well. Basically the Idea can be taken to different Geographical Locations where Water-Hyacinth grows and it can be taken to differrent communities. I would also like to add that he posted about my organization in Honey Bee Network, please see : http://creativityatgrassroots.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/artisan-craftwork...
So, as we will scale up our business and the sales increases, we will start taking this art form to different parts of the country for an overall growth of the rural women and the organization.
I had answered about the concern for insulation during economic downturns in my previous post. My concept of using natural material is scalable and repeatable. And our business model has low capital investment and high ratio of value addition.
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