Kudumbashree: Success Story of Tribal Apparel Park

Stitching Clothes and earning livelihood: Success Story of Tribal Apparel Park

There Functions an apparel park in Kaniyambatta panchayath of Wayanad district of Kerala, which belongs to a group of women from the tribal community. Slowly, yet steadily they are moving forward with their enterprise in full swing. Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission is backing them up with their relentless support. Through many Apparel Parks are functioning in various parts of Kerala under the leadership of Kudumbashree Mission, the Apparel park functioning in Kaniyambatta Panchayath of Wayanad District of Kerala is the first one functioning under the leadership of a group of tribal women. Let us know more about the initiatives that Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission had implemented to bring the tribal women into the main stream of the society and launch an Apparel Park.

Tribal Welfare Activities in India

The tribals constitute a sizeable proportion (8.8%) of the total population of India. There are a number of tribes in India, spread over different parts at different levels of socioeconomic development. They live all over the country from the foot hill of the Himalayas to the lands tip of Lakshadweep and from the plains of Gujarat to the hills in the North-East.

Article 15 of the Constitution provides equal rights and opportunities to all the citizens of India (including the tribal) without any discrimination. The tribals are also the citizens of India and hence promotion of their welfare is of equal importance. Not only the Central and the State Governments have undertaken various steps in this regard, but also various voluntary organisations have evinced interest in this task.

Welfare of Tribal Women

The major policies for the welfare of the tribal women usually aim to ensure the overall development of both Scheduled Tribe women and men.  However, within the Scheduled Tribes, women often suffer from a greater disadvantage. Article 46 of the Constitution provides that the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the society and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. Various welfare programmes are framed and implemented for ensuring the rights of the tribal people.

Kudumbashree’s policies for the welfare of the tribal women aims at ensuring their development and self-sustainability and reaching out to their families through them and help them earn better livelihood and thereby improve their style and quality of lives.

Kudumbashree Apparel parks

An Apparel Park or Apparel Collective is a place where a group of people stitch together and make clothes. There are so many Kudumbashree members across the state who are engaged in Stitching and Garment manufacturing. At present 3680 Kudumbashree Stitching units and 19 Apparel Parks are functional throughout Kerala. A Government Order was issued to give works to Kudumbashree Apparel units relaxing Stock Purchase Rules. At present Kudumbashree Apparel units are undertaking bulk stitching of coats for Anganwadis and other government departments. The units usually manufacture T shirts, shirts, nighties, night dresses and undergarments. Kudumbashree units are undertaking bulk uniform works. Some of the units are also manufacturing bed spreads and pillow covers in association with Khadi and Village Industries Department.

 At present Kudumbashree stitching units are supplying DDUGKY uniforms to all DDUGKY Project Implementing Agencies. Some of the units are also manufacturing products for private partners for export purposes as well. Efforts are being taken to revive the apparel units and collectivizing the Kudumbashree units in Apparel Sector. Usually the raw materials are purchased in bulk quantities from other states. Few of the brands of garments from Kudumbashree include Napstar in Men's Wear Segment and Kadambari in Women Wear Segment. The main aim is to strengthen the interventions in Apparel sector to enhance the income of the entrepreneurs and bring Kerala as an apparel manufacturing hub in lines with other states.

Kaniyambatta Panchayath

Kaniyambatta Panchayath Kaniyambetta or Pachilakkad is a village in the Wayanad district of Kerala. Kambalakkad is main town situated at Kaniyambatta. It is about 8 km from the district capital Kalpetta.

Evolution of the Tribal Apparel park

The Tribal Apparel Park was evolved as an idea to provide livelihood to the women from the tribal communities residing in the colonies in Kaniyambatta Panchayath of Wayanad.  They were given training in stitching in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, they were given a 15 days training in stitching bag, churidar top, embroidery, nursing coat, pillow cover etc. And then in 2019, they were given a 30-day training in stitching cloth bags, churidar top, saree blouse etc. And later in 2020, they were given yet another training. And that was different from the other trainings. Unlike other two trainings, after getting trained they did not have to stay idle. An apparel park was set up at their colony at Kaniyambatta panchayath and tailoring machineries were also set up and they started getting trained in their own apparel park. The third training was started on 10 February 2020 and is ongoing.

The training is being extended by Smt. Leela Sanchayan, yet another micro entrepreneur of Kudumbashree from ‘Hemantha Readymades and Stitching Unit’ enterprise from Ambalavayal. Presently, training is being extended fixing the button, hemming etc. They are also getting trained in cutting the material for stitching nighties and coats.  There are 23 members in the unit, which is named as ‘Chela’. The members include, Smt. Nisha Anil, who is also the President of the unit, Smt. Vidhya K.G who is also the Secretary of the unit, Smt, Nidhila Madhavan, Smt Madhavi Madhavan, Smt.Geetha Babu, Smt. Nisha Ravi, Smt, Meenakshi Chandran, Smt. Nirmala Babu, Smt. Bindu Babu, Smt. Aswathy Vinod, Smt. Sruthi, Smt. Leela Sukumaran, Smt. Santha Chandran, Smt. Remya Gopalan, Smt. Renjini Raju, Smt. Leela Ravi, Smt. Usha Vijayan, Smt. Sindhu Mohan, Smt. Rajani Soman, Smt.Santha Ravi, Smt.Vanaja Sukumaran, Smt. Sindhu Biju and Smt. Bindu Chandran.

The classes are being organised from 10 AM to 4 PM.  The nighties stitched by the women as part of their training is now being sold. They sell the underskirt at Rs 120 per piece and the nighty at the rate of Rs 225 per piece.

The tribal women set up a building of their own and it is there, where their Chela Apparel park functions. Before setting up the apparel park the building was used for making pottery, their traditional livelihood. Prior to the starting of the Apparel Park, they bought 18 stitching machines, one locking machine and one embroidery machine. The machineries were bought by Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission associating with Kaniyambatta Panchayath. The women are given stipend of Rs 400 as well. 

The cloth for stitching was bought in bulk from Kalpetta and Kozhikode district.  They procure the cloth in bulk quantities. They are also planning of stitching cloth bags are banned in Kerala as per the Government Order (G.O(MS) No.7/2019/Cir) plastic from 1 January 2020. Once they complete the training, they would start stitching more cloth bags realising the potential market.

The training is ongoing from Monday to Saturday of every week. If they happen to miss any class, they make it up on holidays. Rs 25 lakhs is allocated for them.  A few among the tribal women are educated. But there are also uneducated women in the team. As the tribal women team were trained by a Kudumbashree micro entrepreneur herself, they were also trained in the ways their products can be marketed.

Scope

Once the training be completed the tribal women members from the Chela Apparel Park would be able to get more work orders and move on. As the plastic is banned in Kerala, they have a potential market in front of them to make cloth bags of various sizes and sell the same in the market. Once the training would be completed they could get more orders as well.  Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission would also help them to get new orders as well.

The support Wayanad District Mission had been giving to the Chela Apparel Park team is overwhelming. Kudumbashree District Mission of Wayanad is trying out all the possible ways to help these women be liberated and stable and be financially independent. The interventions of Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission for the welfare of the tribal women in the district had been worth mentioning. This model of Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission may be replicated by the other District Missions as well for the welfare of the tribal women in the respective districts as well. The Tribal Apparel Park of Kudumbashree Wayanad District had already become a model for other District Missions with the sole idea behind it. Once fully operational, the Tribal Apparel Park would undoubtedly be one of the best enterprise models of Kudumbashree Wayanad District Mission and of Kudumbashree Mission on general.