Creative manufacturing is backbone of rural non-farm economy
Industree Skill Transform Pvt Ltd is a for-profit skill development company, incubated in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). COO Sanjev Nagar speaks at length about the institution's intervention in enhancing design capabilities of producers, making them employable, thus, increasing the artisans' status in the society.
What was the seed capital you began with? Who are the founders and major investors now?
One of the founders of Industree Foundation is Neelam Chhiber. Her inspiration for Industree had its roots at the National Institute of Design. During her days there, it became clear that for livelihood in creative manufacturing to grow, artisans in rural areas would have to reach out to more distant markets, where their skill would be appreciated and valued. Over the years, she was advised that the people who work in the creative manufacturing sector need support and hence the idea for the 6C ecosystem approach slowly began to reveal itself.
What is an Impact Enterprise?
By impact enterprise, one refers to creating social impact by ensuring the delivery of something of value to national and international markets. This model has been accomplished by disrupting the value chain and enabling creative producer co-ownership of the entire value chain. Under the Creative Million Mission, the impact enterprise model will increase in scale and leverage technology. Thereby, the benefits of the Impact Enterprise model will benefit producers by the creation of end-to-end support to the creative producer (across the value chain) as well as ensure end-to-end traceability, whereby consumers can connect via an e-platform.
What is the training module?
The training modules are mapped by the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and are implemented in collaboration with the industries keeping in mind the role requirements within the industry and the skill gap which needs to be bridged for providing quality manpower resources. The courses offered are aligned to the National Skill Development initiative led by the NSDC. The training module on financial literacy includes a section on basic financial capability, which includes the learning outcomes of understanding the importance of financial planning, utilising the financial planning tools to manage their personal household, utilisation of banking services and digital financial services.
An example of a training module is financial inclusion and technology (FIT) training, which is supported by Standard Chartered. This training focuses on financial literacy in Tamil Nadu. Considering this, the partnership that ISTPL has entered with the NSDC, allows for corporates to spend their CSR funds in the livelihood development such as in the case of training the local population in Andhra Pradesh to become self-employed tailors.
How does the Industree-NSDC partnership work?
Industree Skill Transform Pvt Ltd (ISTPL) is a skill development company that was incubated in 2013 by Industree Foundation with support from the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). ISTPL works with under-compensated handloom weavers and handicraft artisans, who represent a large traditionally-skilled rural workforce that is unorganised and suffers from poor production infrastructure, working capital and contemporary entrepreneurial skills. ISTPL's intervention results in enhancing the design capabilities of producers and making them employable, as a result, increase their social and financial security. This means that ISTPL's intervention involves the capacity component of the 6C ecosystem. It focuses on setting a curriculum, with inputs from the Industree Foundation and with the case of some modules, using the framework set by NSDC.
How many brands are you associated with?
Under Mission Creative Million and as part of the relationship between ISTPL and Industree Foundation, there is an equal division of responsibility. As a result of this relationship between the two entities, the mobilisation efforts of ISTPL are complemented by the sourcing of market linkages that have been sourced by Industree Foundation. For example, women in the Mandya district of Karnataka have been in charge of fulfilling work orders from Fab India, to give an example of one brand. Internationally speaking, Industree Foundation has an ongoing relationship with Ikea.
In which markets do you sell the end-products?
End-products are sold in the national and international markets. At the national level, mobile applications are developed to ensure that the workforce of the creative manufacturing sector is initiated into the digital economy with the most important objective being able to connect the producers to the rest of the 6C ecosystem through technology. Consider for example, how the workforce once onboarded onto the respective apps are able to make use of digital payment systems that include a network of merchants, consumers, distribution chains, financial service providers, and local government agencies.
How are you empowering rural India through textile and fashion industry?
First of all, empowerment begins with recognising that the term creative manufacturing sector must be used. This term provides a degree of empowerment to the workforce and highlights the fact that they are all linked to the national supply chain and global supply chain of apparel, respectively. The workforce benefits from the interventions as applied by the 6C ecosystem. This link between creative producers and modern supply chains establishes a model that leverages the rural population and links it to global markets, spurring economic growth at the grassroots level. At the same time, the population is also empowered due to the delivery of training. Therefore, Industree's holistic model has enabled real progress in rural areas, at the same time pushing for the policy changes required for India's creative producers-especially women- to thrive. Industree has now embarked on Mission Creative Million.
What is the number of people being trained and upskilled at your institution?
For the 2017-18 financial year, Industree Skills have trained approximately 7000 artisans by entering into CSR partnerships. Since its incubation, over 16,000 artisans have been trained by implementing various projects under government such as PMKVY, RPL, Special Projects with NSDC, CSR Projects through NSDC and short-term trainings.
How many artisans do you work closely with in India and in which regions?
In Mandya, Industree began working with producers in the apparel value chain by encouraging women to group themselves in producer-owner companies. In Odisha, Industree is working with the Odisha Forest Sector Development Project (funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency) to impact 300 women in the siali leaf value chain in Phulbani and Baliguda forest divisions. In Tamil Nadu, Standard Chartered has funded a project to build the financial capability of 5,000 producers across multiple craft clusters and districts. Of these, 1,000 producers will also be trained in building financial capability at an enterprise level. Project implementation is ongoing.
Where does India stand when it comes to sustainability in clothing and textiles?
Creative manufacturing, which comprises traditional, localised and often labour-intensive manufacturing like handicrafts, handloom, garment, apparel and value-added food sectors, is the backbone of the rural non-farm economy in India. However, a majority of the producers in the sector work outside of the formal framework, and are forced to take up employment in conditions that can be sometimes exploitative. As a result of the unorganised nature of business, human rights abuses like low wages, long hours, forced overtime, unsafe working conditions, short-term contracts, and sexual, physical and verbal abuse are systemic. Women, who comprise a majority of the workforce, are especially vulnerable, and sometimes earn less than half of what men doing the same work earn.
How many producers from the textiles value chain have you collaborated with for training artisans?
Industree Foundation ensures that artisans or as we refer to them, producers, are aggregated into self-help groups. This means that all women have access to the profits made from production. Another stand-out point of the SHG model is that women all have equal rights to decision-making with regards to how the production is managed. Industree Foundation has in-house developed curriculum on soft skills, which are used to ensure an understanding in women about financial concepts including management of expenditure - such concepts can also be applied when managing their respective SHGs. With regards to hard skills, the women artisans or producers are encouraged to first show what they are capable of. The samples of work then undergo a quality check before confirming that the market order can be completed. Most recently, Industree Foundation has entered into a relationship with NSDC whereby for some production units, the format of training is based on the one provided by NSDC. (RR)
Which are the major focus areas of Industree?
The major focus areas of Industree includes livelihood generation with emphasis on increased and regular incomes and ensuring equitable and fair conditions in the apparel value chain. In addition, another focus area is the holistic development of women by focusing on empowerment at home and work, resilience to life crises and improved standard of living for the next generation. Industree also aligns its work with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals Framework namely gender equality, economic growth, responsible consumption and production.
At present, how many textile artisans are associated with you? How are you promoting on the national and international level?
In terms of geographical outreach, we are associated with textile artisans from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and more recently in Andhra Pradesh. At the national level, market entry is supported by applying the 6C ecosystem approach, as mentioned earlier. At a simple level, this means that while the production unit has been set, all the other factors of production are being sourced in tandem such as market orders and the mobilisation of the local population that will work in the production unit. Under our Mission Creative Million, we are implementing the model in Ethiopia. We have conducted scoping studies about the cotton value chain in several East African countries as part of an International Trade Center initiative. Industree in association with ITC-SITA will be working on the farm-to-fashion value chain in Ethiopia.
