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Area: Entrepreneurship

Social Franchising: A Strategy for Empowering Women MicroEntrepreneurs in the Handicraft Sector of Gujarat

Abstract Background & Concept

Handicrafts sector the world over is mostly women oriented and

unorganized, and contributes significantly to the economy of a

country. Gujarat state in the western part of India is famous for

its handicrafts. Gujarat has a rich varied heritage of art and

culture which finds its roots in rural, cottage activities and

livelihood activities. The cultural entrepreneurship of the state

has helped shape the identity of the traditional handlooms and

handicrafts. In the textile sector, the rich, traditional

embroidered garments, upholstery, accessories are renowned. The

different stakeholders are Government Organizations, Non-

Government Organizations, Design Institutes, Training Institutes,

and many Micros, Small & Medium enterprises. There are 15,000

artisans registered with the Government of Gujarat, out of which

6,391 are female artisans. The Government works in 41 clusters of

handicraft, of which 19 are Textile, based Embroidery Cluster.

The efforts made by these stakeholders to strengthen these micro

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entrepreneurs- the artisans, who are at the bottom of the

pyramid, are important. The artisans, who are at the bottom of

the economic Pyramid, are largely women, who lack access to the

markets and struggle to grow. Most of these artisans reside in

the rural, tribal and remote areas of Gujarat and their

production bases are scattered and distant. They are brought into

the main stream markets with the support of the all the

stakeholders. It is the need of the hour to come out with a

supplementary model for the empowerment of these women micro

entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship is the foundation of a new model of development

for developing countries. The grassroots approach focus is on

enabling the poor to improve their lives by obtaining the

necessary training to successfully launch their own small

businesses ( “micro-enterprises”), including the acquisition of

small business acumen and micro-entrepreneurship

skills(Woodworth,2000). Of the many models of development

designed for the micro entrepreneurs, it is now well recognized

that Social Franchising is emerging as a supplementary model for

increasing access and reach.

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Methodology

A Qualitative Approach has been adopted for the study. An

Exploratory research design has been used. The research method

used is in-depth Interviews of the stakeholders. A detailed check

list was prepared for conducting the interviews of the four

different stakes-holders- Artisans, Government, NGO, and

Facilitator Organizations. A non-probabilistic convenience

sampling method is used for selecting each category of the

stakeholder. Extensive Literature Review has been carried out to

understand and to identify the Characteristics of the Social

Franchising. The Clinical Social Franchising Compendium: An

Annual Survey of Programs, 2009-2012,The Global Health Group,

University of California, San Francisco, and Drishtee, a social

enterprise in India, an innovative model of social franchising

thorough women entrepreneurship has been studied and analyzed for

its application to the Handicraft Sector.. An attempt has been

made to study if social franchising could be a strategy for

meeting the challenges the entrepreneurs face and for the

economic empowerment of the women artisans.

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Major Findings:

In the state of Gujarat, almost 50% of the artisans engaged in

the Textile based embroidery handicrafts are women artisans. From

the various case-studies and in-depth interviews, the artisans

can be categorized as, Artisan as Producer, Facilitator, and

Entrepreneur. The major challenges the artisans face are with

respect to: Scaling up/Increasing Access/Reach, Production

related issues, Lack of Awareness, Networking, Channels of

Marketing, Livelihood /Vulnerability / Sustainability. The Stake-

holders in the Handicraft Sector can be categorized as per the

different roles as: Government and NGO as Facilitator and

Supporter. The Government of Gujarat’s own Corporation and the

Brand- ‘Garvi-Gurjari’ is an established brand in India and

International Market. The Self Employed Women’s Association with

largest representation of women, established SEWA Trade

Facilitation for brings the artisans into the main stream

markets. This is replicated in the SAARC countries for its

successful business model.

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Social Franchising is a development approach which applies modern

commercial franchising techniques to achieve social goals (Smith,

1997). A social franchise encompasses a network of private health

practitioners linked through contracts to provide socially

beneficial services under a common Brand. The framework in the

Health Sector identifies has four primary goals: Increase Access,

Cost-effectiveness, Quality, and Equity Schlein, 2012).

Social Franchising offers a framework to expand business

prospects of Artisans, to Private Sector through Coordinating

Body – NGO, Government, under an umbrella Brand, thereby reaching

out to women artisans entrepreneurs to bring them into mainstream

market. Thus, the Artisan evolves from Producer

(Production+Designer) to Facilitator (Production +Marketing) to

Entrepreneur (Production +Marketing+Training+Finance). The

Government, NGO, Designer Institute also acts as Facilitator and

Supportive Organizations. The Framework followed by Health Sector

can be replicated for the Handicraft Sector;

Coordination Body/Controlling Organization----Private Provider-

Patients

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Franchisor/Government/NGOFranchisee-Artisan

entrepreneur/Boutiques/RetailerCustomers

Full Franchisee Model:

Women artisan entrepreneurs can become a franchisee of NGO –

SEWA/SFTC/Shrujan. The Franchisee ( artisan –entrepreneur )

receives a Business Format – Plan, Pre-existed Network, Brand,

Standardized Quality, Training, Designing Inputs, Product-mix,

product development, Advertising and promotion, Credit- Finance,

Interaction with Professional and Goodwill. This would enable

her to establish a sustainable micro enterprise. The women

artisan entrepreneurs are connected to the NGOs for various

support services like social security and credits for working

capital also. The model of Full Franchisee can also be replicated

by Government to Small Retailers, Boutiques, National and State

Award winner Artisans across the country.

Fractional Franchisee Model:

This business model is typified by the project executing agency-

NGO (the franchisor) recruiting women entrepreneurs, local

retailers, boutiques, retail chain into a network of franchisees

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authorized to provide particular products through Fractional

Franchisee model. They are trained through this agency (NGO-SEWA,

Government) and authorized to sell products when they reach a

standard of agreement.

The rapid growth in marketing outlets of wide networked Chain

Stores established by Business Houses of India – Reliance

Industries, Tata industries, Future Group - can be grouped in

under this mode of franchising by the Government/NGO. The model

can be adopted for replication by Government and /NGO for

boutiques, local retailers and Designers also.

Key words: Handicraft sector, Social-Franchising, Networking.

Bottom of the Pyramid, micro entrepreneurs

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Social Franchising: A Strategy for Empowering Women Micro

Entrepreneurs in the Handicraft Sector of Gujarat

Introduction: The Millennium Development goals of United

Nations proclaim (that We Can End Poverty by 2015) on developing

concrete strategies and action to meet the eight Millennium

Development Goals by 2015. It pledges to forge a wide- ranging

global partnership for development to achieve these universal

objectives (UN, 2010).The policies and schemes of the Governments

are in concurrence with the MDGs. The Government of India through

Ministry of Textiles and the various stake-holders in the

Handicraft Sector have developed this approach to incorporate

these goals in their functioning and implementation in its future

plans. Handicrafts of India represent the cultural tradition in

true sense. The range of Indian Handicraft is as diverse as the

culture diversity of the country. They embody the heritage of

creativity, aesthetics and craftsmanship. At a more substantial

level the Handicraft tradition has sustained generation of people

in the country. As a highly decentralized activity the Handicraft

sector is a shining example of using local resources and local

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initiatives. The handicraft sector plays a significant and

important role in the country’s economy. It provides employment

to a vast segment of artisans in rural and semi urban areas and

generated substantial foreign exchange for the country while

preserving its cultural heritage. Presently, handicrafts

contribute substantially to employment generation and exports.

The sector is estimated to employ 70 million artisans and at

present the exports of handicrafts has been 10651.93 crores (MoT,

2011).

Handicrafts are rightly described as the craft of the people.

Millions of people possessing traditional skills and knowledge of

traditional techniques make a living by producing handcrafted

goods. They are termed as ‘craftsperson’ and ‘artisan’

interchangeably. As per Development Commissioner (Handicraft),

the handicrafts are products produced with: (i) manual labour

with minimal or no input from machines; (ii) a substantial level

of skill or expertise; (iii) a significant element of tradition;

and (iv) history of survival in significant scale. (Liebl, 2003).

. These crafts are among the most highly commercialized crafts in

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India, among the most successful exports and each employs

hundreds of artisans. (Liebl, 2003).

Handicraft activity is predominantly carried out in the

unorganized household sector. Handicraft

Artisans are household members practicing handicrafts activity,

jointly at their residence, who if need arises employ other

handicraft artisans for work. In Indian economy, handicrafts

sector has been identified as the second largest sector of rural

employment after agriculture (MoT- WG, 2011).In a newer and more

grassroots approach, the focus is on enabling the poor to improve

their lives by obtaining the necessary training to successfully

launch their own small businesses (“micro-enterprises”),

including the acquisition of small business acumen and micro-

entrepreneurial skills (Woodworth, 2000). Due to the prescribed

social roles for women and the skills they possess, small scale

micro enterprise development can lead to empowerment of women.

The social advancement and independence of women is strongly

related to women’s ability to both earn and control income. Hence

women entrepreneurship would lead to empowerment, as depicted in

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the Financial Self Sustainability paradigm, Poverty Alleviation

Paradigm, Feminist Empowerment paradigm (Mayoux, 2000). Women are

central to the entire development process. They are also at the

vanguard of social transformation.SEWA Bank’s success is based on

lending to Women activities. Access to economic independence can

change the long tradition of suppression of women and denial of

opportunities.

2.0. Objective: The objectives of the study are :( 1) to study

the efforts made by different Stakeholders in promoting the

artisans and their crafts. (2) To study the characteristics of

the different Social Franchising models for the Bottom of the

Pyramid entrepreneurs. (3)To find out whether social franchising

could be a supplementary model to meet the challenges faced by

the artisans and to empower them (franchisees).

3.0. Methodology: A Qualitative Approach has been adopted for

the study. An Exploratory research design has been used. The

research method used is in-depth Interviews for the stakeholders.

A detailed check list was prepared for conducting the interviews

of the different stakes-holders- Artisans, Government, NGO,

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Facilitator and Supportive Organizations. A non-probabilistic

convenience sampling method is used for selecting each category

of the stakeholder. Extensive Literature Review has been carried

out to understand and to identify the Characteristics of the

Social Franchising. The Clinical Social Franchising Compendium

and Drishtee, an innovative model of women entrepreneurship has

been studied and analyzed for its application to the Handicraft

Sector. An attempt has been made to study if social franchising

could be a strategy for the economic empowerment of the women

entrepreneur.

4.0. Literature Review: This review examines the evidence

from Research papers, Books, Annual Reports, Census data

regarding the Handicraft sector, women entrepreneurship in

India and Social franchising in India and the across the world.

The Entrepreneurship is very important criteria for economic

development. The role and contribution of women entrepreneurs is

quiet significant in the growth and development of India. There

are successful cases which can be cited from Gujarat, India.

Shrujan, was started by Chandaben Shroff as an NGO in 1969 and

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gradually took the form of a women’s small enterprise. Self

Employed Women’s Association started by Ela Bhatt in 1972 is a

combination of a Trade union and cooperatives with its basic

motto of economic freedom and full employment to all its members.

The most successful case of the economic empowerment of women is

the case of AMUL, with cooperative largely run by women

revolutionized and brought in “White Revolution “in India.

 Prahlad (2010) states Market development at the BOP will also

create millions of new entrepreneurs at the grass roots level

from women working as distributors and entrepreneurs to village

level micro enterprises. These micro enterprises will be an

integral part of market based ecosystem. Philips et al (2011)

Entrepreneurship particularly among women in developing countries

seems to offer an improvement in the standard of living as well

as a path out of poverty. Entrepreneurship is now growing at

nearly three times the rate among women as it is among men.

Jaitey (2005) states that if Indian crafts production and the

‘small businesses’ approach can merge to be a part of an organic

whole and viewed as an economically viable livelihood option, a

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network of such enterprises can create turnovers equivalent to

medium and even large scale industries in numbers. Large producer

groups of skilled craftsmen and women have no one to help

organize them into these structures which would enable them to

create some capital to cover costs of raw material, employment of

a designer, access to the marketplace and other such needs. The

Handicrafts Sector plays a significant & important role in the

country’s economy. It provides employment to a vast segment of

craft persons in rural & semi urban areas and generates

substantial foreign exchange for the country, while preserving

its cultural heritage. Handicrafts have great potential, as they

hold the key for sustaining not only the existing set of millions

of artisans spread over length and breadth of the country.

Presently, handicrafts contribute substantially to employment

generation and exports. The Handicraft sector has, however,

suffered due to its being unorganized, however the sector has

witnessed a significant growth and efforts are being augmented

the sector in the current plan MoT,(2011). Preble (1995) depicts

that Franchising has emerged in recent years as a highly

significant strategy for business growth, job creation and

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economic development in both US and in the world market. Litalien

(2006) states Franchisors and non-profit organization will find

the answers because it bodes so powerfully in the mix of

strategies both are earnestly seeking. For nonprofits, the

sustainability necessary to ensure they can fulfill their purpose

and for franchisor, a disciplined approach to participating in

social change with the added benefit of differentiation in the

ever crowding market place. Now emerges the era of social

franchise, where nonprofit organizations identify, acquire and

operate proven and successful franchised businesses. Bishai et al

(2008) concludes that the quality and enhanced access provided by

franchised networks of private providers can partially offset

government efforts to provide access and quality. Government

could potentially redirect funds away from their own efforts to

achieve access and quality in government dispensaries and reroute

these funds to support the coordinator bodies (NGO) in socially

franchised system. Smith (1997) Franchising is a mechanism which

has been long used in the private sector for rapid expansion in

the distribution of products and services of specified quality.

Franchising harnesses unused capacity among entrepreneurs in

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private sector to achieve this. These features of franchising:

mobilization of the private sector, the control of the quality of

care and the rapid expansion of provision, make franchising an

attractive mechanism for the delivery of SRH products and

services in the developing countries. Montagu (2002) the primary

advantage of business model franchising is the potential for

fast, low risk expansion through local ownership backed by a

recognized brand with well established attribution desired by

consumer. Grace (2002) A framework for social franchise operation

involves a market structure analysis, comparative advantage

analysis, and at implementation level, Franchise selection and

management, incentives, regulations and monitoring organization

structures and evolution.

5.0. Handicraft Sector of Gujarat: The different

stakeholders are Government Organizations, Non-Government

Organizations, Design Institutes, and Micros enterprises. The

state hosts 9 major NGOs working for the embroidery artisans,

SEWA,Shrujan,Khamir,Sahaj,Kalaraksha,Kutch Mahila

Vikas,Saath,Gramshree.There are 15,000 artisans registered with

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the Government of Gujarat, out of which 6,391 are female

artisans. The Government works in 41 clusters of handicraft, of

which 19 are Textile based Embroidery Cluster comprising of

around 2000 artisans. The Sector comprises of Artisans and

various supporting and facilitating agencies and organizations.

The main clusters of textiles bases hand-embroidery artisans in

the districts of Kutch and Patan. The women owned small and

medium enterprises are 63, out of which rural artisans based

enterprises are 27 in number. More than 30% of these enterprises

were met and interviewed in various Exhibitions, Fairs, melas

organized in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. .

The various handicrafts of Gujarat which are the most commercial

and marketable are textile based embroidered products. The

various types of Aari ,Neran,Aahir, Mutwa,Paako, Kharek,Jat,

Rabari,Suf, Mochi bharat,Jardosi bharat,Sadu bharat, chakan

bharat,mukko, gotanv,katri, chopat,Kambira, Khuditebha, Applique(

patch work) and traditional Tie & Dye and bead work. Block

printing Kalamkari and weaving, patola weaving, Ajrakh,

Bhandhani, Rogan and Ikat, mashru .This traditional handicraft

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are given value addition, designed and developed into products

viz- range of home furnishing, Garments, Accessories and home

décor, Bags etc.

The various Stake-holders in the Handicraft Sector and can be

categories as per the different roles they play with Artisan, a

basic unit. The artisan can be categorized as: Producer –

Designer, Facilitator- Production + Marketing, Entrepreneur –

Production, Marketing, Training, Investment. The other Stake-

holders in the Handicraft Sector can be categorized as per the

different roles they play, Facilitator- Government –State &

Central, Facilitator + Supporter – NGO –SEWA, Shrujan, Craft

roots, and Supporter – Design Institutes – NID, NIFT.

6.0. Findings: In the state of Gujarat, almost 50% of the

artisans engaged in the Textile based embroidery handicrafts are

women artisans. The different roles played by the artisans can be

categorized as above, based on in-depth interviews, field visits

and from the various case-studies. An attempt was made to

interview all the artisans and entrepreneur registered with the

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Exhbitions, Fairs, melas of Craftroots, The Kutchi Mela,Gandhi

Shilp Bazaar,Gramin Hastakala Exhibition, National Handicraft

Fair. Interviewed all of them and the observations are compiled

for further visit and studies. The observations are compiled

under the heads as follows:

6.1. Scaling up/Increasing Access/Reach: It was found that all

the artisans were registered with State Government and Central

Government offices, hence availing the benefits Schemes from both

of them. All the family members are registered in individual

names with the State Government under the Below Poverty Line

Scheme and the family holds a BPL card. This is a necessary

condition of taking the benefit of the policies and schemes of

the Central and State Government. All of them have the

frequency of visiting a minimum 4- 5 exhibitions in a year. They

work for NGOs and Traders. 60% artisans have their own

shop/retail outlet/ and registered entity for sales of their

products. It indicates that they have scaled up their activities

to establish a retail outlet, an entity or a society. Most of

them run a family business involving brother and sons and other

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community members All the artisans procure the products from

their community member to increase their range product-lines and

help their community member’s sale their products. There are many

cases in Gujarat where the artisan has grown from a producer to

marketer and entrepreneur. Most of the artisans interviewed had

scaled-up their operation to a higher level, that of an

entrepreneur, establishing a Retail outlet, a point-of-sales at

village level, and a diversified Product line –Resort business

after 3-4 decades of business. The artisans say that the sales

are seasonal for about 5-6 months in a year. For the rest of the

period of the year they have to look for alternative business for

sustainable livelihood. They would prefer to do handicraft

activities, as the women can work from home and take care of

their family and children; however the avenues of sales are less.

6.2. Production related issues: The artisans procure raw material

from the nearby district place, Bhuj. Bhuj is the epicenter of

handicrafts activities and majority of the artisans get the basic

raw material – cloth, thread and mirrors from bhuj. Bhujodi,

nearby village, is conglomeration of weavers. Moreover, most of

the artisans say that access to raw material is easy, but rates

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are increasing day-by-day. The major challenge is getting funds,

working capital, for the purchase of the raw-material. Most of

the artisans do not have access to Bank loans; there are hardly

any SHGs at the village level for micro-credit. Some artisans

having BPL card have taken loan from the Government but they

found it expensive. These compel them to take credit from the

traders, who in turns buy finished products to them. Sometimes,

the trader gives raw material and design and gets the finished

products from them, thus the artisans do Job-work or Sub-

contracting. Another major challenge is Product Development. Most

of the artisans developed the product through their own

experience in the various exhibitions. Of the artisans

interviewed, 5% of them have undergone training with designer or

NGO – training programme. The government of Gujarat under the

scheme of Cluster Development gives training to artisans for

skill up gradation. One of the major problems with artisans is

producing consistent product in case of a large order. There are

7000 women artisans; however the artisans which can be graded as

A would be around 20%. The rest of the lot needs to upgrade to A

-gradually. The NGO, Trader who purchase the products from them

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or get job-work done would insist on finest work of high quality

- A grade product and hence reject the B or C grade products.

They would not collect the poor quality, sub-standard products or

pay less to the artisans. The process of production of

Handicraft –especially Textile based hand embroidered products it

value chain addition – The artisans at the village level does the

embroidery work on a piece of cloth, this piece is brought to the

town or city for making into a product –cushion cover, bag,

garment etc. Thus there is a line of process involved with value

additions.

6.3. Lack of Awareness: The rural people at the village level are

by large illiterate and do not have knowledge about the various

schemes and policies of the government. Hence, they cannot take

the benefit of the scheme and policy and cannot climb up the

ladder of progress. A middlemen /intermediary/society /trust is

required to be formed for registration at State Government and

Central Government Agencies. Most of the artisans interviewed

have taken the advantages of the Market Support Platform provided

by the DCH and iNDEXT-c; however they have not taken benefits of

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other schemes for Finance and Training, procurement of raw

material. Just 10% of the artisans/entrepreneurs have taken loan

from Bank, also the access and understanding of nationalized

Banks, NABARD are limited. The artisans have not availed the

facilities of Micro-finance through government schemes as they do

not know the process and paper work involved therein. The efforts

of Government and Handicraft Department are not integrated, hence

the artisan group cannot avail finance for working capital.

6.4. Networking: The artisans have good networking with their

community member and similar other fraternity member or their

counterpart of other community engaged in different category of

Handicrafts. This results in addition of different product lines

to their set-ups. The artisans selling, Textile based Hand

embroidered products also adds Leather based embroidery products

– foot wear, mud-mirror artifacts and tie-dye textiles products,

to her product lines when she participates in an Exhibition.

Thus she develops a Grass-root-network- for entrepreneurs Or

Bare-foot- manager-entrepreneurs, thereby boosting the village

economy. 80% of the artisans/entrepreneur interviewed did not

know about NIFT/NID. They did not undertake trainings from

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national and International designers. Since, networking with the

national Institution of Fashion Technology, National Institution

of Design and Entrepreneurship Development Institute is lacking

and hence the artisans are unable to avail the benefits of the

same. Moreover the Value chain addition develops a network of

facilitators, supporters, upgrading the status of the artisan to

that of a Sub-Contractor (job-worker). The artisans have close

association with the weavers in the nearby village and district

but did not have an idea of networking with Handloom weaver’s

cooperatives in the state of Rajasthan, Tamilnadu and Andra

Pradesh for procuring basic raw material –cloth.

6.5. Channels of Marketing: It was observed that almost all the

artisans understand marketing as participation in Exhibitions. Of

the artisans interviews, all of them have been participating in

exhibitions, melas, haats for the sales of products. Exhibition

is the first channel for selling their products. They spend 4-5

months a year travelling across different cities for selling of

their products. The rest of the months they have to wait for

somebody to come to them to collect the produces. The second

major channel for selling is Retail outlet. 60% of them have an

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entity or retail out let, a point of sale in their respective

village or nearby district place. The sales through this outlet

are not perennial and limited based on tourist. The third channel

is subcontracting or getting job work done for some NGO, Trader,

Government, Private Company.The fourth channel is getting and

orders again NGO, Trader, Government, Private Company. They

agreed that they have the capacity to produce provided raw

material is made available to them. Of the total artisans met and

interviewed, none of them had an idea of Chain Stores in India,

they knew the importance of the their products and the artistic

value attached to it but did not understand the concept

portraying it as- Developing Handicraft as a Brand.

6.6. Livelihood /Vulnerability / Sustainability: The Kutch, Patan

,Surendranagar districts are wide, vast, semi-arid regions. The

region has faced drought and famine in most of the decades. The

economic activities were very limited, and communities relied

mostly animal husbandry, handicrafts and mud-work etc for their

livelihood. Mostly they looked forward for Government support

measures of relief-work during the summer and periods of drought.

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After the massive earthquake of 2001, the region has been a focus

of Government, NGO and Private organizations. There were schemes

designed for bringing the people into the main stream. The

scenario is different now after more than a decade. There are

industrial developments along the coastline and big industries

are set-up which gives employment to many. The infrastructure-

road, telephone, Internet, Banking are well developed bringing

good connectivity to the major cities of the state. The

Government of Gujarat is running a special campaign on promoting

Tourism, highlighting the maximum number of archeological sites

in the State and bringing out the prominence Handicrafts. This

region has a special focus of - White Desert – Dhordo – where the

state government is organizing RANN FESTIVAL every year from Nov-

Feb. The Tourism Department is promoting this place by an

aggressive Advertisement Campaign featuring leading Star, Amitabh

Bachhan. The region has high tourist influx in the four months of

the festival. All the artisans interviewed were engaged into

Handicrafts, Animal Husbandry Milk Cakes and agriculture to some

extent. They work from their home and do not have to move out of

the house, hence their children are taken care of well. However

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the enterprise is less sustainable and requires support and

linkages to make them perpetually sustainable. They have to rely

on alternative business.

The other Stake-holders in the Handicraft Sector can be

categorized as per the different roles they play with Artisan, a

basic unit as shown above. The major role is being played by the

Government; hence it is necessary to under their functioning and

activities.

6.7. Government: The main department of the Government which

caters to the Handicraft Sector is GSHHDCL.The GSHHDCL,Gaarvi-

Gurjari, with the main objective of identification, revival,

development of handicrafts and handlooms of Gujarat. The

Corporation markets their products through its GARVI-GURJARI

chain of emporia across the country and supply to exporters,

which has created its market in overseas countries. The main

functions of the corporation are to procure, produce and market

the product of the artisans of the state of Gujarat. The

corporation works with and for the artisans through NGO, Trust,

Society, Cooperatives. The main avenues for marketing of the

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product are through: Retail/Emporia-Exhibitions, Haats, Sub-

contracting/job work. The corporation markets the product on pan

India basis through its 23 outlets. It carries out more than 25

exhibitions in the major cities of the country throughout the

year. The corporation incurred sales of Rs. 25 crore in the year

2012-13.The corporation has tried exploring the International

markets. The corporation has successfully integrated the product

range of two different clusters, and created a new product line,

which has emerges as the top most selling one range. Tie & Dye

Cluster + Embroidery Cluster. And a whole new range of Emboirderd

Bandhani Sarees, Dresses has been developed. This is a case of

Backward & Forward Integration in marketing of product. The

manager said that the demands of Handicrafts of Gujarat are on

the rise. The sales of the corporation have gradually increased

from 1995 onwards. Moreover, the corporation has set a trend to

make the handicrafts of Gujarat popular all over the world and in

India. This trend paved the way for many entrepreneurs in the

small towns to market the product .Garvi-Gurjari is an

established brand in India and International Market. There is a

scope of revamping and developing it further.

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6.8. Non Government organization

6.8.1. Self Employed Women’s Association- Sewa Trade Facilitation

Centre Self Employed Women’s Association is a registered trade

union with a model of cooperatives. It has more than 1.2 million

women membership. The handicraft cooperative of home-based

artisans, 15000, took a form of a Section 25, not-for-proft

company, Sewa Trade Facilitation Centre, s in the year 2003. I

met the CEO of the STFC, Mrs. Savita Patel to know about the

functioning of the company. Moerever having worked with the STFC

in its initial period of 2001-03, I had a good experience of the

field. The SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre (STFC) represents a

unique and innovative movement where marginalized artisans

themselves are the producers, owners, shareholders and managers

of their own company. STFC works a bridge linking these

vulnerable informal workers with the global market by sustained,

profitable, and efficient coordination of design, production, and

marketing of traditional embroidery.This company has a

representation of artisans of the districts of Patan, Kutch. The

set-up is spread in the rural and urban area of Gujarat. The

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functioning is three tiered structure. Village-- District-----

Ahmedabad. The artisans are home-based workers in the 47

villages of both the districts. The village has a master artisan

as Team Leader. This team leader coordinates with the district

headquarters through a Coordinator.The Set-up at Ahmedabad does

the process of Cut to Finish Products. There is a staff of 50 at

Ahmedabad. The Raw-material Procurement, Cutting, designing and

making Kit -with RM for value addition is done at the production

base at Ahmedabad. The Kit-with raw material is transferred from

a centralized office to the regional sub-centers and from there

to the villages where the artisans live. Along with raw materials

the designs and its prototypes are communicated through a

coordinator who normally is a master-artisan. Before the

introduction of new Design, a workshop is conducted at district

or village level to make the master artisan understand the

product. STFC has in-house designers for product development and

it introduces three collections in a year. Summer, Winter and

Festive Collection.CEO takes pride in introducing the “Hansiba”

Brand at National level, named after the first and senior most

artisan of STFC.The CEO adds that the marketing is done by STFC

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and its artisan representatives as follows: Retails Outlets-

ahmedabad, Delhi, Exhibition & Events- 15 in a year, Customized

Order, Job-work/Sub contracting-portal ,Exports. The total sale

is approximately Rs. 2.5 crores.She adds that marketing is the

weakest aspect of STFC, although it has increased in the last

decade ; however it does not give full employment, the main

philosophy of SEWA, to the 10000 A grade artisans of the company.

She says that STFC was rigorously involved in the training of the

artisans at village level bring ing them from B---A grade till

2011.The more the sales the more artisans get work,65% goes to

the artisans and the approach is that these artisans get full

employment- 365 days a year and all of them registered with an

organization get work. She says that STFC model is replicated in

the SAARC countries for its successful business model.SEWA Trade

Facilitation Centre (STFC) has been involved with a project

called “Strengthening of Livelihood Initiative for Home-Based

Workers in the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation

(SAARC) Region” supported by the SAARC Development Fund.  The

Uniqueness STFC is it integrates the various cooperatives of SEWA

to run its operation thereby giving livelihood to thousands of

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women.This year STFC did Backward and Forward linkage by

purchasing the raw material-cloth from cooperative of weavers and

designed the summer collection for introduction in the markets

this summer.

6.8.2. Shrujan: A not-for-profit organization started in 1969 by

Mrs. Chandaben Shroff has grown eventually into a large set-up

with three retail emporias in Bhuj,Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The

organization has created a niche for itself with highly

intricate, fine embroidered products. The organization is managed

by women of the family, hence it can be said to be women’s

enterprise. It operates in Kutch and has more than 3200 artisans

working all women, restoring 16 types of traditional embroidery.

The organization performs all the functions- production,

marketing, training, procurement. The organization has a

production base- Design Centre – at bhujodi. There is a team of

employees at the centre, who coordinates the production activity

with master craftswomen, entrepreneur, in each village. They

provide kit to the women for embroidery, so the basic raw-

material is provided by the organization. The Team visits the

village entrepreneur every fort-night for collection and payment

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of final products. These products are fully stitched at the unit

at Bhujodi and Ahmedabad. Trainings are given on skill-up

gradation to young artisan at the village’s level. The

organization pays the resource person, who is normally the master

craftswomen of and gives material, for the training. Shurjan does

no compromise on the quality and pays women for the workmanship

immediately. Shrujan carries out around 15 exihibitions in cities

across India. Especially, in the metros is does exhibition twice

a year. It also takes orders on customized basis.Shrujan is

already an established brand and have positioned itself in High-

End -Niche Market. It has not thought of expanding the business

through franchisee, as it is more sort of family business. The

women who works for shrujan and not bounded to the organization,

they are not enrolled with them. They can work for the others as

well.

The findings can be summarized as: Scaling up/Increasing

Access/Reach: Being largely unorganized and home-based they lack

support the support to bring them into the mainstream market. The

major challenges are with respect to marketing of their products

at regional, national and international level. Lack of Access to

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sale the products. Lack of Awareness: The efforts by the

Government and the related agencies are mostly ineffective and

there is a lack of a common integrated structure and mechanism.

They lack awareness of the government schemes, support and inputs

for their capacity building, their production bases, the inputs

in Design Development and Quality Control. Networking: They lack

networking and hence do not have New Designs, Standardization of

raw material, quality, and products. Channels of Marketing: there

are limited avenues of marketing .They require a revamping and

building Brand to market the products. Building a Brand name.

Production related issues: They lack networking and hence do not

have Standardization of raw material, quality, and products. They

lack awareness of the government schemes, support and inputs for

their capacity building, their production bases, the inputs in

Design Development and Quality Control.

Livelihood/Sustainability/Vulnerability: With globalization,

liberalization and other economic changes, there are threats to

the traditional areas of employment with regards to the product

development. The artisan, core to the sector-mostly women, mainly

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remains poor, vulnerable and devoid of socio-economic security

and full employment, thereby questioning their sustainability

7.0. Characteristics of Social Franchising in Health

Sector:

7.1.1 The framework, models adopted in the various programs for

the application of Social Franchising in the Health Sector are

compiled in the Clinical Social Franchising Compendium, An Annual

Survey of Programs, 2009-2012.The Global Health Group, University

of California, San Francisco, USA has been profiling and

compiling the Clinical Social Franchise Programs.. This has

been taken as a base to study and analyze the characteristics of

Social Franchising. A social Franchise has four primary goals:

Access – Increase the number of service delivery points

(providers) and healthcare services offered; Cost-effectiveness –

provide a service at an equal or lower cost to other service

delivery options, inclusive of all subsidy or system costs;

Quality – Provide services that adhere to quality standards and

improve the pre-existing level of quality; Equity – Serve all

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population groups, emphasizing those most in need. The

Characteristics identified are: Outlets are operator –owned,

Payments to outlets are based on services provided, Services are

standardized,Clinical services are offered with or without

franchise-brand.

7.1.2. The paper tries to relate the social Franchising model

adopted by Drishtee. Drishtee is a social enterprise working for

professional solutions for the people at the base of the

pyramids, through this low cost, direct delivery rural supply

chain network.Drishtee has been actively promoting the training

and capacity building of women entrepreneurs. The health vertical

within Drishtee is led by the Women Health Entrepreneurs.

Drishtee has more than 500 such entrepreneurs in rural villages..

Drishtee’s solution is to identify need and facilitate the

identification and training of a women health franchisee at each

village cluster – with each area plotted on pre-defined routes.

This health franchisee is linked at the back end with a qualified

MBBS doctor and laboratory technicians who take weekly physical

rounds of villages; for the rest of the week, telephonic consults

through the health franchisee.

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From the analysis and study of all the three reports, models,

framework, the following aspects evolve, the common Goals and

almost similar Structures of Social Franchising.

The Goals of all of these models are: Increase Access, Cost-

effectiveness Affordability/ Standardized ,Quality,

Equity/Scope/Scale/Network. The Structure of Social Franchising

has basic three stakeholders which can be replicated to the

Handicraft Sector.

Coordination Body/Controlling Organization----Private Provider-

Patients

Franchisor/Government,NGO-Franchisee-Artisanentrepreneur/Boutiques/

TradersCustomers

The Franchised model that has usually been used in developing

countries in the Health Sector has been that of the “Full

Franchise” or “Fractional Franchise”. The feature which

categorizes the two is the extend of Control the Franchisor has

on the Franchisee.

Fractional Franchise: In this model, a Franchisor (Government,

NGO) established a network in which providers (Private

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Doctors/women entrepreneur) are trained to deliver in additional

package of reproductive health service under an umbrella

Franchise Brand. The additional services are offered in

accordance with the guidance of the franchisor (Montague, 2002)

this includes processes to be used to maintain standards of

quality. The combination of better quality services and marketing

of the new services in expected to build equity in the franchise

brand and lead to higher utilization of reproductive health

service. (Agha, 2007).

Full Franchisee : In this model, a Franchisor ( Government, NGO )

like Drishtee, Janani ,Merrygold , who owns the Brand name and

Business format established a network in which the Franchisee are

trained to deliver exclusive products and services. The

Franchisor has the right to determine and have strategic control

over the Franchisee on the use of its Brand and take some revenue

that is earned by the Franchisee.(Smith,1997).

DonorGovernment/Ministry of HealthCoordinator/ /Franchisor

/NGO/Government Provider/Franchiser/Women Entrepreneur-

Patients/Customers

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The Donor gives grants or loans to the Franchisor, who is

preferably Government/NGO. The Franchisor provides training and

gives Brand name to the Franchisees-Women

entrepreneur/Retailer/Boutique. The mode of Franchise can be full

or Fractional. The Franchisees sells the products to the end

user/customers, who pay for the products. A portion of the fees

is returned to the franchisor as charge for using the brand

name/logo and Business Format.

8.0. Social Franchising in Handicrafts: The livelihood of

the million of artisans is based on their access to the markets

at regional, national and international level. The sustainability

– in terms of livelihood, economical, financial and social, is

dependent on the giving of full employment by networking them

with the main stream markets. Social franchising lends itself to

support the artisans, women entrepreneur or SHGs by: giving them

platform to sell the products, provide them network, brand,

training, develop for them a business models, standardization of

quality, advertising and promotional techniques, increase in

access.

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Full Franchisee Model:As Drishtee health Franchisee model – Full

Franchise model, wherein a women health franchisee at the village

clusters is identified, trained and oriented on business

operation. She is linked and networked with Qualified Doctors and

Laboratory in the city. Similarly, women artisan entrepreneurs

can become a franchisee of NGO – SEWA/SFTC and Shrujan. The

Franchisee ( artisan –entrepreneur ) receives a Business Format –

Plan, Pre-existed Network, Brand, Standardized Quality, Training,

Designing Inputs, Product-mix, product development, Advertising

and promotion, Credit- Finance, Interaction with Professional and

Goodwill. This would enable the women entrepreneur to establish

a sustainable micro enterprise. As she is accessible and

assimilates with the community members, she becomes instrumental

and acts as a powerful role model for other women in the

community. The women artisan entrepreneurs are connected to the

NGOs for various support services like social security and

credits for working capital for their groups. The model can also

be replicated by Government Departments to Small Retailers,

Boutiques, National and State Award winner Artisans..

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Fractional Franchisee Model: The business model of Social

Franchising in marketing of handicrafts is typified by the

project executing agency- NGO (the franchisor) recruiting women

entrepreneurs, local retailers, boutiques, retail chain into a

network of franchisees authorized to provide particular products

or services through Fractional Franchisee model. They are trained

through this agency (often NGO-SEWA, GSHHCL) and authorized to

sell products when they reach a standard of agreement. The rapid

growth in marketing outlets of wide networked Chain Stores

established by Business Houses of India – Reliance Industries,

Tata industries, Future Group - can be grouped in under this mode

of franchising by the Government/NGO.This would offer Donors,

Government and NGO the opportunity to expand networks and

services relatively quickly. The model of Fractional Franchisee

can be adopted for replication by Government and /NGO for

boutiques, local retailers and Designers. The business model of

Social Franchising in marketing of handicrafts is typified by the

project executing agency- NGO (the franchisor) recruiting women

entrepreneurs, local retailers, boutiques, retail chain into a

network of franchisees authorized to provide particular products

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or services. They are trained through this agency (often NGO-

SEWA, Government) and authorized by them- franchisor when they

reach an agreed standard of knowledge and skill.The model

develops – a Backward and Forward Linkages.Backward Integration:

Many NGOs in Gujarat can train artisans to produce to customized

product for them Forward Integration: These NGOs can sell through

social franchises Social franchising is used as a tool to

increase access and service in remote and rural area by

government for the implementation of the concept to Handicraft

sector.

9.0. Limitations: The artisans registered with the Government

Sector are taken as a base for considering the population size.

However the actual number of artisan may be more, after

contacting the NGO –SEWA, Shrujan.The artisan registers in the

name of the male member of the family and hence the true

representation of female artisan is not made, the actual number

may be more. The MSME- works with the urban artisan in the

districts of Ahmedabad,Jamnagar,Junagadh,Rajkot which are not the

clusters of Traditional Handicraft Embroidery.

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10.0. Discussion: The experience of implementation of social

franchising in handicraft sector is fairly limited. There is a

proposition that it can be useful and important mechanism in

improving the status of millions of artisans in India. This model

has to be recognized by donors / funder government and NGOs in

the developing countries and can be put into practice. This can

become an appropriate strategy as: The Artisan evolves from

Producer (Production+Designer) to Facilitator (Production

+Marketing) to Entrepreneur

(Production+Marketing+Training+Finance). The Government, NGO,

Designer Institute also acts as Facilitator and Supportive

Organizations. Sustainable livelihood to the artisans,

Development of artisan, there is a lack of network for small SHGs

and organization; there are millions of such artisan in each

state in India and their capacities in underutilized. The Social

Franchising can be financially and institutionally sustainable

with the strengthening and networking of all the stakeholders.

The sustainability in Social Franchising is greatly assisted when

the franchisee is Full or Fractional

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11.0. Conclusion: This Theoretical Model can be tried for

Practical implementation by all the stakeholders in the Sector.

The role of Artisan - Entrepreneur, NGO, Designer, Design

Institutes and Government as Facilitator and Supporter can be

exemplified as given in paper. This would expand their business

bringing the women entrepreneurs into the mainstream markets. The

role of Franchisor is important and crucial.

Diagram: 1Donor

↓Government / Development Commissioner

(Handicrafts/Handloom)/Ministry of Textiles↓

Co-ordinator

NGOs/SHGs/Sakhimandals/ Government Cooperatives↑ ↓↓

Provider

Women Entrepreneur/Designers/Retailers/Business Houses/Local

Boutiques

↑ ↓↓Buyers

↓ - Flow of Money↓↓ - Quality, Training & Access

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- 38 -

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