Women empowerment and development can come through MSME and village industries

What is the most important and necessary way for a country to be self-sustaining? This question can be easily answered by two words: Self employment. Since India got independence, villages are constantly being emptied out with most of the workforce migrating to cities to search for better employment opportunities.

NO DEMAND AT HOME

But what has this resulted in? The answer comes in the form of a scary scenario. MSME and village industries have taken a hit due to the mass migration of the adult workforce to cities. When any villager comes to the city, he is generally not able to find employment of his expertise. For example, a tailor in a village might just end up sewing parts of clothing in a factory, but will never get an opportunity to compile and make the entire product. This results in him losing out on his expertise.

Organizations like JND Charitable Trust have taken the huge task of making villagers not just strengthen their primary skills, but also develop in such a manner that they are able to set up their own MSME and village industries. This will stop migration and end the constant pressure on cities and also give people a chance to be self employed and earn according to their talents, something which is lost when such people work in large factories.

JND Charitable Trust is also making efforts to set up village industries and MSME so that women, who otherwise sit idle or work in the fields thereby not contributing much to the nation’s economy, get empowerment. Women empowerment and development can come only when they are able to sustain their families with their own efforts. This will not just give them satisfaction, but also earn respect in the eyes of other people of their community.

MSME and village industries not just offer self employment but also job opportunities to thousands of others who can join in collectively and manufacture a product without leaving their hometowns and villages for foreign lands. The capital for such ventures can come in the form of donations and charities received by JND Charitable Trust.

Why only in urban areas?

Every citizen of India today understands the value of education, whether for individual welfare or national progress as a whole. Surprisingly, this idea of education seems restricted to urban areas only. If we assume this to be true, it raises an uncomfortable doubt. Is our entire education system only meant for those who can pay for this education?

Is education only for the wealthy?

The dismissive attitude of people today towards the issue of rural education is not too difficult to notice. The inability of our education system to provide quality education in rural areas is conveniently labeled as a failure on the part of the government. People seem to be much more enthusiastic when the same topic of education is mentioned in the context of a city, as is clear from the widespread activism for urban educational reforms, whether at the school level or for higher education.

Does the attitude of the people on the same issue changes when it is raised for the weaker section of the society?

Education is supposed to, apart from other things, enhance the worldview of people and make them realize their aptitudes and talents, academic or otherwise. Sadly, education in India today appears more like a transaction. Pay the fees, get a degree, earn through that degree– those seem to be steps that a person takes when he or she goes to college. People in the rural areas are bound to be at a disadvantage, they do not qualify the first step.

This commercial attitude reduces education to a commodity, and a very high priced commodity at that. In the middle of it all we totally forget the welfare of our children; children with real aspirations and real hopes. Their only fault, if it may be called a fault at all, is that they may not have enough money to polish their talents. People, somehow, seem completely oblivious to this. Is it because those children are too far away for us to care about them? Is that logical, or simply insensitive? The answer seems more disappointing than the issue itself, considering that we call ourselves a democracy.

— Srijan Upadhyay

Cost and Worth

Given the state of the economy and the earning capacity of people in rural regions, one of the main grounds that any decision is taken on revolves around cost of services. And once the costs are computed, worth comes into play.

It is a common sight for people to be bargaining at roadside stalls for any kind of merchandise — be it food items, clothing or even household goods, everyone is seen haggling over the prices. While some may say that no one seems to mind paying an extra few hundred Rupees for costly items, everyone tries to reduce the prices of items of daily consumption by a small margin. What one must realize that it is ingrained in our minds to compute the worth of an item keeping its quoted price in mind.

This entire build-up is targeted towards the cost and worth of what a person in every rural area across the country pays for education. For affluent families, cost of education in the best institutes does not necessarily carve a dent in their pockets as they have the means to shell out the funds required. However, when it comes to the middle-class or the underprivileged, good education is a scarce commodity owing to its high costs.

While government schools cost little, the quality of education leaves much to be desired. It is due to this that private educational institutes thrive and charge for whatever facilities they can provide. The more the facilities, the higher the fees go. Both the middle-class and underprivileged then make their budgets accordingly and send their wards to institutions they can afford. This is where worth comes into play for such families because they start comparing the final outcome with the amount of funds that would be pumped in to educate a child.

It is a bleak scenario when it comes to educating a child between Classes I and XII as there can be no parity when two different schools are compared. In such a situation, organisations like JND Charitable Trust can play a huge role in bringing about some kind of parity or middle ground. If teachers cannot be provided, then at least reference books would help in enhancing the knowledge of children. For this, proper libraries are required. And good libraries can only be built with books that cannot otherwise be bought by people of middle-class and underprivileged strata.

When donations are received as part of any corporate social responsibility, it has an indirect effect on the future workforce. A better educated workforce definitely ends in better productivity for a company. This is why all companies must play an active role in promoting social organisations like NGOs and Trusts. The final benefit is not only to such companies, individuals or organisations alone, but to the entire country as it grows beyond what is planned otherwise. With such efforts, development takes a different meaning altogether resulting in better lives and livelihoods.

Crying for development

The entire country is talking about development. Something that is required in every sphere of our lives. Perhaps that is the reason why all parties harped on this chord during the General Election — that is they are chosen to lead the government at the Center, they would bring about overall development.

HOPING FOR CHANGE: Children throng to the head office

of JND Charitable Trust

But all that talk is at the macro level. The need of the hour is change at the micro level which organizations like JND Charitable Trust are striving hard to bring about. Development at the micro level comes with education. Children of both the affluent and the underprivileged cannot be denied the right to attain knowledge and it is the responsibility of the state and central governments to give the same to them.

Considering the fact that there are many issues plaguing government schools, a medium is required to highlight those issues and bring them to the notice of the state and central governments. There are a lot of funds that are released by the government, but are they utilized in the best possible manner? If one goes to any rural area, the answer would stare starkly in their faces. No probe is required.

So what has JND Charitable Trust been doing in bringing about the requisite change so that society development can take place? The Trust undertook and Education Awareness Drive at a very micro level — by reaching out to over 500 children in the villages surrounding Baraipatti in Kushinagar district where the head office is located.

What was planned on May 2, 2014 — Akshay Tritiya — as a modest function turned out to be something unprecedented. While plans were made to give answer books, pencil boxes, water bottles, etc to around 100 underprivileged children, the turnout was five times more. Considering the limited donation that was received for this event, we had to distribute the things to children as we did not want any of them to go back empty handed. And there did not.

The next step was to cater to children in urban areas. Most schools, even private ones, face a funds crunch as they cannot charge fees that are beyond the reach of the common residents of the area. As a result, they are always looking at organizations that can contribute towards the well-being and further education of children studying in such institutions.

On May 5, 2014, JND Charitable Trust held a simple function at Gyan’s Global Academy in Gorakhpur and contributed about 78 books so that a library could be started. These books — on Moral Science, Panchatantra, quotations, Akbar-Birbal stories, Children's Knowledge Bank, dictionary (English-Hindi), etc — will serve as ready references for the children and help them gain knowledge which they would otherwise be deprived of without a proper set up being in place.

Development must start at the micro level in addition to what is being done at the macro level. The endeavor of the Trust would help children be better educated and have knowledge about many domains so that they can enter the competitive arena without any hiccups and with utmost confidence.