This July, Women on Wings worked with business partner JEEViKA on the outlines of a business proposal for Agarbatti products (incense) to increase the productivity of women involved. In a two-day workshop held in Patna, expert Ashna Bhawan and Ronald van het Hof, MD Women on Wings India, brainstormed with a team comprising 15 people from JEEViKA.
Improvements
At the end of the workshop the JEEViKA team had come up with a list of various actions that need to be taken to improve the process of Agarbatti business, like improving productivity, motivating Village Resource Person, awarding of the best performing members and developing a self sustained model on village level. JEEViKA decided upon 5 action points that will be measured in weekly meetings with the Producer Group members. By the end of September, an evaluation will take place.
Daily commodity creates jobs for women
In India, every morning and evening you will smell the fragrance of incense in every household and every temple. Incense sticks are a daily commodity for many. Women on Wings business partner JEEViKA, facilitates the procurement of the base product for Agarbatti. Rolling incense sticks is done by women from their homes.
Team-work for the best result
Ashna: “We analyzed the current process and worked together with the people that are specifically involved, mostly Non-Farm & Micro Enterprises Managers responsible for the different areas in Bihar. We also did a group exercise, which resulted in each individual of the group understanding how important it is to work as a team and to make an effective plan before starting doing anything.”
New way of working for JEEViKA
Vikas Kunj, State Project Manager Non-Farm at JEEViKA: “The workshop started with a small introduction of Women on Wings and the purpose of the day. After this we were divided into groups and started with a SWOT analysis of Agarbatti. This was really great, as we are not used to work like this. The group was actively involved and extremely enthusiastic in sharing their thoughts. And more important: recommendations for improvement in the business were very valuable and effective.”
