In a win-win situation, a community-driven, pro-poor employment project is not only ushering in economic empowerment in 4,170 panchayats in 26 districts across Tamil Nadu, it is also providing trained workforce to the several MNCs setting up base in the state
Kanchipuram may have moved on from merely a silk sari producing town to a place attracting heavy investments from global MNCs who have set up manufacturing facilities here. It has emerged as a hub of manufacturing activity, from auto to apparel to IT hardware. But in an inner fold of the district?s new-found identity is another story waiting to be told?the story of economic empowerment through identification and participation of the very people who need to be emancipated economically as well as socially.
Inside the 1.15 lakh square feet facility, one can see hundreds of women donning pink uniforms and producing the world?s finest lingerie products?Intimate Fashions factory, in Kanchipuram?s Guduvancheri area, just about 38 km from state capital Chennai, are a snapshot of that change.
Because, 1,983 of the 2,514 employees at Intimate Fashions, manufacturing innerwear and lingerie for global giants like Victoria?s Secret and Triumph, are employed through the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Reduction Project, officially called Pudhu Vaazvhu, which means ?new life? in Tamil and targets the ?hardcore poor, most vulnerable, marginalised communities including tribals and the differently abled?.
A World Bank-assisted poverty reduction and empowerment programme, Pudhu Vaazvhu has been implemented in the most backward 70 blocks in 16 districts of the state, covering 2,509 village panchayats over the past six years. The project period, which was to end in 2011 has been extended up to September 2014, with 50 additional blocks being now added to its mandate, taking Pudhu Vaazvhu?s reach to 4,170 panchayats in 26 districts across Tamil Nadu.
Coming back to the Intimate Fashions facility, Tamil film songs play on the hall speakers, ?to keep the workers happy and insulate them from boredom?, says a company official. Sitting behind a sewing machine is 25-year-old Subhashini S. Her hearing and speech impairment might evoke a certain amount of sympathy when you first meet her, but her indomitable spirit and confidence tells you point blank that she doesn?t want it. Subhashini hails from Puliyur in Krishnagiri district from a poor household. She has been working at Intimate Fashions for over a year at the factory?s main production line, and puts up in the company hostel. She perhaps doesn?t really realise that what she produces here day in and day out adorn high-flying apparel stores across the United States. Even if she does, what matters to her the most is her ability to contribute substantially to her family income. ?I?m able to send home anywhere between R3,000-5,000 while I save R2,000 for myself here. I am happy not only because I am earning, but because now I have confidence and self esteem,? she tells this correspondent, a bit by writing it down and the rest through translation of sign language by her fellow workers. There are 10 other differently-abled women just like her working in the factory. And while Subhashini holds a B Com degree, most women in this factory have had just high school education, or even less.
Intimate Fashions provides these workers free lodging and transportation facilities, along with highly subsidised meals, yearly bonus, increments and performance-related pay. The cost to company for each entry level employee comes out between R9,000-11,500, while the take home salaries are in excess of R6,000 per month, higher than the industry standards. But the company, by its own admission, is doing no charity. It?s been a win-win scenario for all concerned, with marginalised youth from the lowest strata of the society getting steady employment and vocational training, and companies like Intimate Fashions getting access to a gigantic pool of workforce, backed by the Tamil Nadu government.
?We saw a lot of value in what the project was doing. Had it not been for this project, we would have had a big question mark over our future. There was hardly any other option to access and train such a large workforce for our operations, especially given that there has been an increase in the competition for workforce due to a large number of multinationals coming to the region,? says Prasad Narayan Rege, general manager of Intimate Fashions, which at present has yearly sales of $40 million.
His is just one of the companies that see the project as a boon. There are several others associated with it in a similar fashion, including names like Nokia, Intel, HCL, Ford, Hyundai, Nissan, Samsung, Nike and TVS. Through this project, 1,78,361 youth have been reached, 1,70,063 of them have been trained and 1,43,709 have been employed with over 400 companies.
The project employs a community-driven development (CDD) approach through pro-poor community organisations. Out of the total cost of the project, which is estimated at R1,667 crore, 75% (R1,301 crore) is funded by the World Bank, 17% (R254 crore) by the Tamil Nadu government and 8% (R112 crore) by the local community. The World Bank considers it one of its most successful partnership projects.
?We organise regular job fairs in villages while the village poverty reduction committees or VPRCs (a fundamental arm of the Pudhu Vaazvhu project) counsel the youth and their families. As many as 421 companies are a part of this project and since the counselling and information dissemination is done through the VPRCs and the government, villagers have a lot of faith and thus families are assured in sending their children, especially girls, for employment,? says RV Shajeevana, additional project director for Pudhu Vaazvhu.
And it seems to be paying off, as parents now are much more open to sending their girls to work. M Devika, who has been working at the Intimate Fashions factory for almost four years, has witnessed this transition first hand. ?It was really my family situation that forced me to work. Despite the poverty, my parents were really wary of this programme initially. Today when we look back, we feel it was a blessing in disguise. And attitudes are changing. Parents are now much more comfortable in sending their girls to work,? says Devika, daughter of a farmer from Villapuram district.
But these stories are just an aspect of Pudhu Vaazvhu. The mammoth project has many facets, all aiming towards sustainable livelihoods of the most vulnerable and marginalised. It also is, in many ways, a paradigm shift from the NGO facilitated inclusive development model. Instead of roping in NGOs, the government decided to go ahead and make grassroots people?s organisations to implement the project through its intended beneficiaries. The VPRCs are the social arm of the project with an average VPRC having 13 members. VPRCs get grants from the project corpus which can vary from R6-18 lakh, depending upon the needs mapped, and is released by the state administration in three installments based on the progress displayed by a VPRC. The PLF or panchayat level federations are the financial arm of the project that assist self help groups (SHG) set up in the village get access to funds, which could be in the form of loans on minimal interest given out by the PLF itself or facilitation of bank loans.
To have a check on these bodies, a social audit committee (SAC) is also there, again a representative body that looks into the financial transactions of both the VPRCs and PLFs. SAC reports directly to the Gram Sabha. To have further checks and balances within the system, the village panchayat head is the ex-officio chairperson of the VPRC as well, and all VPRC proposals are subject to the approval of the Gram Sabha. All these bodies have representation of the target community of the project?the extremely poor, most vulnerable, marginalised communities, differently abled and the youth.
But why so many different grassroots organisations? Why not just the VPRC? ?We realised that when the financial and social wings are mixed in any such programme, the social aspect usually plays second fiddle to the financial which invariably takes priority. It was a conscious decision on our part to keep the two separate, but within the same project to ensure proper delegation as well as synergy,? says Shajeevana.
Around 25 km further ahead is a village called Mamandur, with a total of 1,221 households. Under the Pudhu Vaazvhu project, the number of target households here is 336. The VPRC here has been in existence for about five years now and gradually livelihood changes are getting visible. More than 40 women from here are working at Intimate Fashions, beaten only by the Pepsi plant which employs 60 men from this village.
Traditionally, agriculture has been the mainstay of these villagers, most of them being agricultural labourers, also engaging in rearing milch animals. But now things are changing as new livelihood opportunities are opening their doors. There are as many as 80 SHGs here, job fairs are organised once in every six months, and two dairy groups producing and selling milk in bulk, bank loans and VPRC assistance is readily available which has closed a nasty chapter of middlemen and loan sharks. Family incomes have risen steadily over the last five years to the tune of 50-60%. ?We have improved no doubt. But we still have a long way to go. We have now started enrolling our children in the plus-two level, which earlier was very rare. But there is still a lot that needs to be done. Padhu Vaazvhu has surely provided us a base to strive for an even better livelihood, and more efforts need to be made in the time to come,? says P Ravi, a member of the social audit committee of the village. No doubt that the sentiment is echoed throughout Mamandur, and perhaps throughout Tamil Nadu.