Khadi Couture : Sustainable Rural Employment
Economic growth in contemporary India is marked by considerable disparities of class and region with more than 300 million people in rural India still doomed to live under abject poverty @ less than $1 a day. A large fraction of this is constituted by the community of home-grown artisans whose jobs have perished due to globalisation and craze for branded products.
Moreover, in absence of rural electrification the people have to resort to kerosene lamps for household lighting which exposes them to toxic exhausts which results in several respiratory disorders.
We aim to solve these two most fundamental problems of Indian society through production and marketing of khadi based clothing that will generate mass scale rural employment and add to income of rural households.
About You
About You
First Name
Vaibhav
Last Name
Prakash
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About Your Organization
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Organization Country
India, BR
Country where this project is creating social impact
India
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Not registered
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Khadi Couture : Sustainable Rural Employment
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Economic growth in contemporary India is marked by considerable disparities of class and region with more than 300 million people in rural India still doomed to live under abject poverty @ less than $1 a day. A large fraction of this is constituted by the community of home-grown artisans whose jobs have perished due to globalisation and craze for branded products.
Moreover, in absence of rural electrification the people have to resort to kerosene lamps for household lighting which exposes them to toxic exhausts which results in several respiratory disorders.
We aim to solve these two most fundamental problems of Indian society through production and marketing of khadi based clothing that will generate mass scale rural employment and add to income of rural households.
What are the primary activities of your project?
We intend to give these artisans charkha-‘the spinning wheel’ that will spin yarn and also generate enough power to light up their homes. This ‘Charkha’ equipped with a detachable micro-generator and battery will be frugally engineered to enhance efficiency and bring down costs. When spun this will produce yarn and power/charge LED based lamp.
MODUS OPERANDI:
1. Artisans will be provided with ‘Technology Enhanced Charkha’ through a system of microcredit.
2. The charkha will be spun to light households and produce yarn.
3. The yarn shall be woven into fabric by the artisans.
4. The fabric will then be purchased back by the company with the instalment of loan deducted.
5. The fabric will then be tailored according to different needs and wants.
Product Mix and Positioning:
1. School uniforms: We will form strategic associations with administration of schools to help us promote Khadi shirts as a part of school uniform.
2. Clothing for college events: Association with college student bodies will help us provide clothing for various events and societies of the colleges. This will be tailored to according to the event or the society.
3. High street fashion clothing: We intend to make our clothing exclusive by having short production runs of many designs. It will be articulately aesthetic, intangible clothing that will appeal to esteem of clientele. The product mix shall be pruned and scaled down in production to maintain its exclusivity and cachet.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Khadi is entirely hand crafted as spinning of yarn and weaving all are done by hand. Hence, production of khadi does not consume any electricity or produce carbon dioxide. In the present era of environmental degradation and threat of global warming khadi is the only ‘green’ fabric. Moreover the use of e-charkha will enable shift from an activity that consumes electric energy and produces carbon dioxide to an activity that produces clean energy.
Social Impacts:
• Inclusive growth and poverty alleviation through decentralized employment generation.
• Production of energy efficient clothing.
• Production of clean energy.
• Microcredit shall enable us to form a human link based on trust.
• This can be advanced to consolidation of land holdings.
• Spinning, being an activity traditionally dominated by woman shall lead to woman empowerment.
Vertical integration will help us to deliver value to our consumers around the world on a sustainable basis. It will prevent the artisans from being fleeced by middlemen. Microcredit will help us overcome the following constraints of the artisans:
1. Low investments.
2. Low productivity.
3. Low margin.
4. Low risk taking ability.
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Despite rapid urbanization India still has the largest rural population in the world, a large fraction of which lives under abject poverty. Historian Sunil Khilnani writes
‘... There are still 400 million Indians, mostly in the countryside, who are excluded from the channels of economic circulation and market exchange created since independence. For them nothing has changed...
They are mostly farmers with small land holdings and home grown artisans. Lack of alternate employment and complete dependency of harvest on monsoon leaves them at the mercy of nature. They don’t have access to markets and credit as a result are exploited by middle men and money lenders.
There have been attempts by the state to pass reforms down to lowest village levels through Panchayats but these measures have been largely ineffective and the village councils are sequestered by the already powerful through a blend of cajolery, terror and usury.
The rural poor are mostly concentrated in states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Half of the villages are still unelectrified. The residents of these villages resort to use of kerosene lamps for lighting exposing themselves to toxic exhausts. New York Times reported that two million people die prematurely each year as a result of pulmonary diseases caused by the indoor burning of fuels for cooking and light. Close to half are children who die of pneumonia.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Khadi, during India’s independence struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, helped Indians take on the strongest empire ever assembled in the history of human kind and that too unarmed in a non violent manner. It signified the dignity of labour, self reliance and peaceful resilience to submission to foreign goods.
Since 1956 the distribution of Khadi has been controlled by the state owned Khadi and Village Industries Commission( KVIC). It operates more than 2000 stores that remain largely vacant of customers due to lack of proper promotion and an integrated marketing communication network.
McKinsey & Company in a report titled India’s Fast Growing Apparel Market projects the retail apparel market to grow to $55 billion by 2015 fuelled by increase in disposable incomes, new occasions for socializing and fashion increasing as a form of self-expression. Moreover, it estimates margins as high as 35-50% in apparel retailing. This high margin will allow us to accommodate the labour intensive operation that will further the costs.
Proper marketing, repositioning and a paradigm shift towards organic clothing will augment demand for khadi which, I think, can be zeroed in on to create rural employment.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
The project is at present in idea and conceptualization phase.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
Fewer than 100
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Repositioning of Khadi in high street fashion will help to create sustainable markets for Khadi based clothing. At the production end we will acquire competencies in areas of distribution, aggregation, logistics and bridge financing.
Spinning the charkha for two hours a day and 25 days a month will increase earnings of the artisan family by Rs. 400- Rs.500 and light their houses for 7 and a half hour a day which in turn will help to save kerosene worth Rs. 400-500 and hence augment the income effectively by Rs. 800-1000.
Hence a market for Khadi will boost income and foster inclusive growth.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Barriers to entry:
1. Governmental regulations.
2. Khadi and village industries till now have been largely controlled by the government and subsidiaries.
3. E-charkha has only a few authorised manufacturers.
4. Weak infrastructure including transportation.
5. Positioning of khadi.
6. Restrictive cultural norms.
7. Lack of competencies in marketing and distribution.
8. Lack of a strong microcredit framework.
9. Lack of supply chain coordination.
10. Uncertainties in the availability of raw materials like cotton, silk or wool.
11. IT infrastructure in villages for continuous flow of information.
12. Scale of production to reach financial sustainability.
Strategic partnerships and working in association with gram panchayats will help us understand the demographics of a village better and work according to it bypassing restrictive cultural norms.
Vertical integration will help us to deliver value to our consumers around the world on a sustainable basis. It will prevent the artisans from being fleeced by middlemen and enable us to capture the value added instead of giving it to the middlemen such as suppliers and retailers.. Microcredit will help us overcome the following constraints of the artisans:
1. Low investments.
2. Low productivity.
3. Low margin.
4. Low risk taking ability.
The paradigm shift towards energy conserving, eco-friendly products shall boost khadi. Promotion mix and demand driven clothing shall create sustainable market for khadi.
Tell us about your partnerships
Potential partners:
1. Manufacturers of e-charkha for supply of the charkha with the micro-generators.
2. Manufacturers of LED lamps and lead free batteries.
3. Microcredit institutions and banks for extending soft loans to the artisans for purchase of e-charkha.
4. Transport and logistics companies.
5. Gram panchayats which have a better understanding of village demographics.
6. Fashion houses and designers to roll out short production runs of many designs that will make the clothing exclusive.
7. Schools’ administrations for helping us promote khadi as a fabric of uniforms.
8. Colleges’ student bodies and clubs for using khadi based clothing and accessories(eg: bags) in their events.
9. Various firms and offices.
We will try to negotiate with them a set of policies and practices that will constitute the basic fabric on which will be woven an extensive set of long-term relationship between us through value co-creation.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
Less than $1,000
Explain your selections
Mckinsey & Company estimates 35%-50% margin on apparel retail in India. Furthermore, vertical integration shall enable us to capture the value added instead of giving it to the middlemen. This will accommodate for the elevated production costs incurred because of making operations labour intensive. Once the requisite scale of production is reached, the business will become financially self sustainable.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We will use an integrated marketing communications approach for promotion of khadi based clothing to create sustainable market for it. Promotion methods:
• Social Media Marketing.
• Campus drives appealing to nationalistic pride.
• Creating awareness about khadi being an organic fabric.
• Participating in trade exhibitions to tap international market.
• Celebrity marketing.
• Fashion magazines.
• Sponsorship marketing.
Moreover, we will form long term associations will schools and college students’ bodies.
We will try to entice customers into its shops by selecting prime locations for its shops and having the new clothing displayed in limited quantities in its shop windows. Spacious stores which use sophisticated architectural details and designs to make shops appealing to customers to browse and to provide a comfortable environment in which to shop.
Our designers will roll out new collections in short span of time the product mix shall be pruned down to maintain exclusivity and cache. Each clothing will come with the story of the artisans (spinner and weaver) associated with it and how the customer has helped him by buying the apparel. This will evoke compassion and a sense of responsibility and push him/her to use khadi.
At the production end we will acquire competencies in areas of aggregation, logistics and bridge financing. We can then expand into other sectors like providing agrarian solutions.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Underemployment
SECONDARY
Restricted access to new markets
TERTIARY
Lack of visibility and investment
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
The decentralized production of fabric shall lead to employment generation to thousands across the poorest regions of India. It will empower share croppers and farmers with small land holdings with a source of additional income and help them come out of abject poverty. Repositioning of khadi will provide create its substantial in high street fashion retailing segment and lead into evolution of new markets leveraging the purchasing power of the growing Indian middle class.
The clean lighting will give the artisans more incentives to be productive and cut their expenses in purchase of kerosene. Microcredit shall tackle the problem of lack of investment.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Global
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Repositioning of Khadi in high street fashion will help to create sustainable markets for Khadi based clothing. Once competencies in areas of aggregation, logistics and bridge financing are attained, the project can be expanded into providing necessary services such as insurance and agricultural consultancy to the villagers.
Microcredit shall enable us to form a human link based on trust. We can leverage it to help consolidation of small and distributed land holdings into large farms more suited to modern agricultural methods. This in turn will increase agricultural productivity.
The model, due to its modularity, can be replicated in Asia Pacific, China and parts of Africa.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
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