|
25,000
artisans across eight states work as proud
entrepreneurs, thanks to one man’s vision
I first
heard about Jaipur Rugs Co from the ‘Rural Business
Hubs’ team at CII. But, when I finally made the trip to
Jaipur and met them, it blew my mind.
N.K Chaudhary, M.D, Jaipur Rugs is one of the most
unassuming and modest persons I have met. But, his
dreams for rural artisans have been anything but small.
From modest beginnings in the late-90s, his ‘Jaipur Rugs
Company’ has built its entire business model around
having village artisans’ work as entrepreneurs. Today,
25000 artisans- mainly women- engage in weaving or
reeling as a home-based occupation. Jaipur Rugs Co
provides ‘door service’ to these artisans by delivering
raw materials, providing training and quality checks,
arranging financing for looms, and picking up the
semi-finished carpets and rugs.
The scale and efficiency of this outsourced
manufacturing model is astounding, and clearly a win-win
arrangement for the company as well as artisans. Weavers
across eight states (Gujarat, Rajasthan, UP, Bihar,
Jharkand, Orissa, West Bengal and Nagaland) earn 80/- to
100/- per day. Before Jaipur Rugs Co came into the
picture, they could typically earn just about 30/- with
middlemen pocketing most of the margins.
With his belief that “enabling is more important than
charity”, N.K Chaudhary is committed to adding 5000
looms and engaging 30,000 more artisans in the near
future
An important outcome of my trip was that we got his
agreement to try out the same model with urban poor, by
working with us in Delhi.
Posted in Indian Economy, Inclusive Growth, Corporate
Social Responsibility, On the Road, CSR That Works,
Remarkable People | No Comments
Article Source:
http://growthforall.org/category/remarkable-people/
-
Sunday, February 24th, 2008 |
