Kudumbashree - Success Story of Kudumbashree Apparel Park- Ezhome Grama Panchayath

Ezhome, Grama Panchayath is situated at the Payyannur block of Kannur district of Kerala. People of Ezhome used to work in the fertile paddy fields dotting the 14 wards of the Panchayath. But, with urbanization gathering in pace, the women from the middle-class families slowly began to withdraw from the paddy fields and this left the paddy fields fallow. Then the Panchayath planned a new programme and the result was an apparel park project, a unique local level initiative at employment and women's empowerment. And it was Kudumbashree Apparel Park, Ezhome.

Launch of Kudumbashree Apparel Park

The Kudumbashree Apparel Park in Ezhome Grama Panchayath, Kannur district was started during 2011. This project is implemented jointly by Ezhome Grama Panchayath and Kudumbashree CDS. Ezhome Panchayath and Kudumbashree CDS discussed the possibility of Apparel Park in their Panchayath and decided to organize a meeting of Kudumbashree NHG members. The success stories of Apparel parks working in adjacent panchayath was also a motivation for them to think about such a project. More than 100 neighborhood group (NHG) members participated in the meeting from all wards of the Panchayath. The NHG members included skilled and unskilled members. During the meeting, they discussed all the details, merits and demerits regarding the launch of a new apparel park. After this meeting, couple of other meetings were also conducted and finally, 40 NHG members from different wards of the Panchayath came forward to start the enterprise.

The final 40 members are from different NHGs of the CDS. They formed 8 Kudumbashree activity groups with 5 women each in a group. Each group has elected an president and a secretary as leaders. The entire eight group together elected a president, secretary and account for the coordination of the day to day functioning of the Apparel unit. The project reports were prepared and submitted to the Ezhome Service Cooperative Bank for bank loan. The bank approved the loan application and sanctioned Rs. 12.80 lakh as bank loan to the Apparel unit. The Kudumbashree Mission supported the group by sanctioning Rs. 4 lakhs as capital subsidy. Later the unit received Rs.1.50 lakhs as Revolving fund from Kudumbashree Mission for upgrading their machinery and other important things. The unit repaid the whole amount in 2015.

It was a partnership initiative between the panchayat and the Kudumbashree units. While the panchayath provided the infrastructure facilities, machinery and other movable assets were installed by the beneficiaries. Smt. Sujitha is the President, Smt. Sobhana and Smt. Preeja is the Secretary and the Accountant respectively. Each member of the group is again divided into six groups and each group has their own responsibilities. Administration, cutting, sewing, production control, quality control, and packing section are these groups.

The unit members got expert training from a Bangalore based company named ‘ISHA Learning’ during 2011. The training period was 4 months and the unskilled members in the unit also became experts after this training. The unit started to function by manufacturing shirts and nighties. In the beginning, they faced some difficulties to sale the manufactured items. They themselves came forward and started to sale the manufactured shirts and nighties in shops and homes. Following the hard work of the unit members, they got bulk school and college uniform orders, nursing coats, shirts, kurtas etc. At present this Apparel unit is undertaking bulk stitching of coats for Anganwadis and other Government departments. The unit is also manufacturing shirts and nighties and supplying DDUGKY (the skill training and placement programme of Government of India implemented by Kudumbashree in Kerala) uniforms to all DDUGKY Programme Implementing Agencies. The unit is also manufacturing products for private partners for export purpose.

At present after all expenses the unit members are getting Rs. 5,000 as salary every month. They are very strict about the attendance and has decided to make salary cut for the absent/leave days.  It is interesting that they are getting an incentive of Rs. 400 in a month if the member has 100% attendance.

Apart from manufacturing the garments, this unit is selected as skill training agency by Kudumbashree Kannur District mission. Thus this unit successfully conducted training for two batches. The first batch was for 25 members and the second batch was for 16 members. This is an additional income for the unit members. They are also planning to increase the production of the unit. According to Smt. Sujitha, President of the unit, their unit is very strict about quality and unity among the group members are the success and strength of this unit.

Started as a small venture in a small panchayath in Kerala, the success Kudumbashree Apparel Park, Ezhome had attained is mind blowing. The Kudumbashree Apparel Park, Ezhome could be considered as an epitome of unaltered will power and confidence. With a gradual yet steady growth Kudumbashree Apparel Park, Ezhome had proved that belief in their selves could take anyone to greater success. The Micro entrepreneurs has indeed stitched their own success!