Kudumbashree - Earning livelihood by guiding micro entrepreneurs: Success Story of Spark Consultancy

There are as many Kudumbashree women in Kerala who earn their livelihood by starting micro enterprises of their own and thereby earn their own livelihood.  There are a group of women in Kottayam District of Kerala who help such women entrepreneurs and earn their livelihood.  It is the Spark Consultancy, located at Murukkumpuzha, Pala of Kottayam district who helps other micro entrepreneurs and earn their own income. Spark Consultancy extends services and advices to micro entrepreneurs regarding the improvement of their micro enterprises.

More about Spark Consultancy

Spark Consultancy is run by a group of Kudumbashree women comprising of Smt. Ambili Bhaskaran, Smt.K.S. Sujatha, Smt. Bindhu Raghu, Smt. Indu. K. Das and Shabina who are from different  NHGs under different CDSs in Kottayam district. The activities including auditing are done by Shabina herself.

How to start an enterprise, how to run it successfully, how to improve the present scenario of the enterprise, how to secure different licenses, how to prepare projects, GST, e-filing, legal services etc. are the services extended by Spark Consultancy. Along with that they also extended entrepreneurship development courses as well. As the members are from different parts of the district, it is after considering the convenience of each member, their office was opened in Pala town of Kottayam district. Each of them is getting an average of Rs 12,000 as monthly income of their own.

Ambili Bindu, Indu and Sujatha had attended the Competency Reinforcement Workshop for Master Trainers and active Trainers of International Labour Organization's Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme held at New Delhi during 4-6 June 2018, for the Micro Enterprise Consultants (MEC) of Kudumbashree Mission who facilitate, training, marketing services, business counselling etc.

The master trainers of ILO extended training to the MECs on the topic 'Start and Improve Your Business' (SIYB).  Gender equality and women's economic empowerment and the ILO tools available for that, current trends in Entrepreneurship Development-Green Enterprise, Social Enterprise, Sustainable Enterprise, Global Perspectives of SIYB- integrating SIYB into other programmes, Market system and market development approach, the SIYB methodology, participatory training methods, review of individual progress etc. were discussed at the refresher training.

Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) is currently the largest global business management training programme with the focus on starting and improving businesses as a strategy for creating more and better employment for women and men. It supports the sustainable development goals by promoting the business development policies that support decent job creation, entrepreneurship and encourage the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises. It also supports productive employment and decent work for all, including the youth and persons with disabilities.

They had been working as Micro Enterprise Consultants for more than five years.  It is after attending the training programme together, that they decided to launch an enterprise. It is after thinking about more than three other enterprises that they end up in the idea of Spark Consultancy. They had received a financial assistance of Rs 3.50 lakhs from Kudumbashree Mission as innovation fund. They had been receiving good support from Kudumbashree Mission from the starting stage of their enterprise itself.

It is the unity and confidence of the team members that made Spark Consultancy a success. The success story of this group of women can undoubtedly be considered an embodiment of women empowerment.