Gramin Vikas Evam Chetna Sansthan (GVCS) is a new business partner of Women on Wings. GVCS is a grass root non-profit organization working in Barmer district. The organization works on empowering women artisans in western Rajasthan by organizing the supply chain of the applique work and embroidery which is special to women of Barmer.
Intake
At the end of July, Shilpa Mittal Singh, joint managing director Women on Wings India, and Maria van der Heijden, managing co-founder at Women on Wings, did an assessment and discussed collaboration with the team of GVCS in Barmer. Maria: “The team is strongly motivated to work with Women on Wings to streamline the supply chain with more regular orders from more buyers. The products are beautiful and the women are very motivated to work and earn some money. The Barmer district is a very poor area with a low average income and a high illiteracy of 80%.”
Home furnishing
The Barmer women make quality home furnishing products like bedcovers, table cloths, cushion covers, quilts, curtains, mats and unstitched fabrics. Women in these Barmer district villages can spend 1 to 3 hours a day on this job, next to their household and farming activities. For Shilpa this was her first field visit. Shilpa: “I was very impressed by the strength and the power of the women. I am very motivated to encourage economic activities in order to provide these Barmer women with work and income.”
Scaling up from 3,000 to 11,000 women at work
The production processes of GVCS are streamlined and smooth. Quality of work is very good and qualified by Craftmark. The main challenge is to increase the orders. Now they supply the products to Fabindia and export houses in Jaipur. They are also present at exhibitions and present their products on some e-commerce sites. GVCS has a network of 11,000 women artisans, out of which 3,000 get regular work based on their current orders. When the volume of orders increases the other 8,000 women can get work as well.
