Villages of India were never seen as a human resource pool that could be utilised for inclusive development. Marginalised women labourers who lived in small houses relied on basic incomes that came from farm activities. Allied activities were not given primary attention due to lack of market connectivity.
Rishabh Sachan, co-founder of Vanvasi Project India entered the first set of villages on 25th April 2022 for starting their training. The concept and its execution was considered impossible because in villages of Uttar Pradesh, people have strong fixed mindsets as per the social norms and community behaviour. Architect Rishabh Sachan after completing his architecture and management degrees, directly jumped to learn hands-on by executing at the village level. Co Founder Alka Katiyar, earlier a lecturer in Sanskrit Literature joined the crusade and started visiting different rural areas meeting all sets of village women. Alka Katiyar utilised her expertise as an embroidery connoisseur for village women’s skill development and motivated them with her background in psychology. Late S.C. Katiyar motivated the mother and son to follow the uncharted path and was a founding member setting up values of Vanvasi rooted in patience and authenticity. The end product will be soft furnishings for home and office.
Architect Rishabh Sachan , fondly called Mr.Rishu, had got first hand knowledge of exceptional material culture and rare textiles while he was researching and working for the fabled lifestyles of Awadh focussing on interior culture in the times of laid back nawabs. It was Professor Ritu Gulati who had emphasised on research as a key skill to him at the time of his third year in architecture which later became his expertise. Rishabh Sachan has been the first one to showcase the original authentic jewels, objects of art and antiques in a capsule exhibition held at Taj Hotel in Lucknow sponsored by Tornos India.
Rishabh says, the hopes are high with the entry of equity in mobile internet usage in rural and urban India through Reliance Jio. The distances have become shorter, while the aspirations and ambitions have become longer and clearer for village people. The question is about “why good policies only benefit the electing governments in promoting their own agenda in contrast to the beneficiaries whom they were actually designed for ”. The marketing targets at a goal that can either bring power or money for the investor, product development takes a step back.
Social impact comes from a bottom to top approach where there is strong product development to make processes sustainable. Rishabh Sachan ( Rishu ) volunteered working for Trifed and found the gaps and learnt the effective work with tribal self help groups constituted with the policies of Pravir Krishna, who is credited to implement Van Dhan Scheme for PM Narendra Modi. Vanvasi Project India took the challenge with the traditional top to down approach of the government.
Rishabh says, change will arrive by coordinating with doers like Vanvasi Project India that experience harsh realities in the fields with heat and sweat. Finance is a big gap that limits development for bootstrapped enterprises. The government lacks the coordination because of such a scale and diversity of village networks that makes it next to impossible for delivering to the last mile. Moreover, there are people far away who actually execute on ground. Listening is the key to save time from failing depending only on technocrats, ideological and political feedback.
Rishabh mentions, in a recent interview on Doordarshan in Money Mantra, Dakshita Das says, quoting budget 2022-23, there are
- 430 million women in the age profile of the employable category 20-30 across sectors.
- Their financial inclusion is necessary for a country's GDP.
Talking of financial inclusion, these women are targets for working and learning under Vanvasi’s business model. The difference is that it is not on a macro level. It is an immediate benefit and motivation for women in villages. Likewise, the motivation and group discussions helped Vanvasi Project India speed up training in initial villages in Uttar Pradesh . Village women can also open a bank account for small savings if they also earn with their household income.The co- founders learnt this themselves by being on the ground after nine months of trying and testing women groups - training them with hand embroideries developing their fresh stream of livelihoods. Activities that interest women, giving them livelihoods should be clubbed with schemes like Mahila Samman. It will club up the purpose of government by tying up with corporate bodies who aim to work with the target beneficiaries.
RIBA chartered architect Bharti Sinha Sahay sat down for hours to improvise the overall product quality for Vanvasi Project India. She specialises in temple architecture and an I.I.T Kharagpur alumnus. Rishabh says, Bharti has an eye to identify emotional retina and encourage crafts. After getting embroidered from villages, architect Rishabh Sachan showed her the swatches to get her critics in Ahmedabad. Partnering will boost the ambitions by marketing at the ground level with the power of design based product development.
Village people need to be explained by ones whom they trust. Budget speeches are complicated for people who listen to it on All India Radio and news channels. Adding that mainstream media is losing relevance, lack of trust will cause failure of good schemes leading to inoperative bank accounts with absence of backward integration with startups and people implementing on ground. The enthusiasm of self reliant India has to go bottom to up. The players in the imaginary cricket match of government desiring development are entrepreneurs who hold the bat of consumer insights and experience.
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