Sirohi

In India, there are millions of women with basic craft skills that have limited or no income opportunities due to lack of new designs and dependency on offline markets, in addition to norms that limit them from working outside their villages. 85% of existing artisans across India are reliant on offline markets, and 95% of them faced losses in revenue due to the impact of Covid-19.

Hi, My name is Gauri Malik and I am the founder of Sirohi by Skilled Samaritan Foundation, a micro-entrepreneurship platform and artisan-led brand that provides tech-based training to women from low-income communities across India who have basic craft skills, with crucial digital skills and tools so they can expand their economic opportunity across online and offline platforms with direct market linkages to global online buyers via our brand Sirohi.org.

India has over 7 million artisans - unofficial figures even peg the number at nearly 200 million. 85% of artisans across India are reliant on offline markets, and 95% of them faced losses in revenue due to the impact of Covid-19. Many women with basic craft skills have limited or no income opportunities due to lack of new designs and dependency on offline markets, in addition to norms that limit them from working outside their villages.

 There is no structured program in India or globally for designers to work directly with artisans using virtual/online platforms, where the artisans can get tech-based design training from designers, and learn to use simple apps like Whatsapp, How-to Videos on YouTube, Pinterest and regional apps to learn new product designs plus identify online market access opportunities so artisans can have varied online opportunities to sell their products online and do not have to be dependant on offline markets or a single brand to sell their products. 

Through an annual six-month online/offline training programme facilitated by expert product designers, Sirohi is equipping women across India who have basic craft skills, with crucial digital skills and tools so they can expand their economic opportunity across online and offline platforms with direct market linkages to global online buyers. The programme is formulated as The Skill Lab: A Design and Impact Fellowship - wherein, annually from Year 0, 20 designers (Fellows) are embedded in 5 craft clusters in India to provide 500 artisans with holistic support on aspects such as design development, existing digital tools and apps, and insights on online/offline market linkages. 

By the end of the 6-month program, we aim for the artisans part of the program to: be financially and digitally included in the formal economy through independent bank accounts and access to government schemes; be upskilled in design and craft skills to become market ready; have gained digital literacy; see an increment in personal disposable income through increased income opportunities; be connected with various online/offline marketplaces; have acquired business and entrepreneurial skills

Our key intermediary goals include, financial inclusion, economic upliftment, sufficient job/market opportunities, integration into the digital economy to become micro-entrepreneurs. 

The demographic of our target group is typically rural/semi-urban women aged 18-55. 

Our target group includes women artisans who have basic craft skills but lack sufficient income opportunities and/or are financially dependent and have a willingness to work. 

Our target groups may be segregated into: 

1. Group 1: Artisans with limited market opportunities and typically dependent on a single source or organisation. 

2. Group 2: Artisans who continue to create traditional products whose design aesthetic does not reflect the market of today.

3. Group 2: Women facing societal barriers which limit their work opportunities due to norms that do not allow them to work outside their homes

The artisans will have access to smartphones and speak Hindi. Further, these artisans will be mobilised and onboarded through various enablers including but not limited to: gram panchayats, self-help groups or community leaders and social organisations (e.g., Development Alternatives, UN Women and District Officers) already working with the artisans. 

Considering the MIT Solve community is identifying for technology-based solutions that ensure everyone has access to the digital economy, our solution targets a large segment of India's women population that is excluded from the job market and is financial dependant due lack of a formal education and inaccessibility to digital skills that limits them from entering the workforce and gaining income opportunities for positive impact. 

We launched our pilot programme in the district of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh in October 2019 to empower women from marginalised communities in 20 villages, to make well-designed functional home & lifestyle products based on their existing craft skills, bringing about 550+ women online in less than 9 months of program implementation. 

It further positively impacted an average of 5.2 of their dependants and families leading to a ripple impact of almost 3000 lives and job creation for 1200+ individuals. We were successfully able to include these women in the digital economy despite 6-months of lockdown in 2020, leading to a revenue of almost USD 130,000 for the brand and an average monthly income of USD 75 /- per active artisan. 

We were able to train women on existing digital tools like Whatsapp, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Meet for product development and learn new designs that cater to a global buyer.

With the penetration of smart phones in India, technology has empowered hundreds of millions of Indians and many across the globe, where there are still millions who need to be part of the digital revolution, especially in villages 3-4 tier cities. In particular, technology can help women microentrepreneurs and underemployed youth to expand their businesses and reach customers outside of their own communities and reduce reliance on offline markets.

With our partnerships with design schools and crafts clusters India, we aim to train thousands of women who have basic craft skills, in digital skills like pricing, basic social media marketing, and cataloguing so they bring their products online. In Northern India, our training is reaching hundreds of women like Shahiba, in the first year who are now using social media, photography techniques, and simple tutorial videos to market their new products online via Sirohi and other marketplaces as well. 

This is a unique approach currently not being used by any brand or platform in India where artisans are mostly reliant on offline markets and trade shows to sell their products and almost 85% lost their revenues during the covid-19 pandemic when the world went into lockdown for almost 6 months.

During this period the Sirohi earned a revenue of almost USD 100,000. 

SSF Impact Report 2020 has details of our impact. LINK to impact report 

List of indicators per phase of the Design Fellowship:

MetricPre-Program Does each artisan have a national ID card (PAN and/or Aadhar)?Does each artisan have an independent bank account in their name (associated with their Aadhar/PAN)?Does each artisan know to operate digital banking services, including:Phase 1 Do you (fellows) have the required data for the detailed needs assessment?Have you (fellows) been able to identify opporunity areas (products) and market demand based on consumer + market research, in collaboration with the artisans?Do you (fellows) have a list of at least 10 different market opportunities online and offline suitable for your artisans?Have you (fellows) identified viable sources for sustainable raw materials options in the artisans'? Also includes welders and carpenters for framesPhase 2 Does each artisan know how to operate Pinterest, including: - Using the search tool - Saving posts - Creating boardsDoes each artisan know how to use Youtube, including: - Searching for videos (e.g. tutorials on macrame) - Creating a Youtube account - Saving videos (in app)Does each artisan know how to use Google Images, including: - Search tool - Saving to photo gallery - Sharing the photo via Whatsapp, and other platformsHave you (fellows) created a design brief for all the products (responding to the 5Ws and 1 H)Phase 3 Does each artisan know how to create at least 6 different weaving patterns from the catalogue independently and with confidence?Does each artisan know how to handle different material including cotton, plastic, textile, silk ropes?Is each artisan able to create 'modern' colour combinations and palettes?Is each artisan able to liase with and convey a new design to production team such as a carpenter? (Do they use images, sketches to aide them in conveying designs)Is each artisan able to work with different frames, including - Round - Straight-edged - 3-DimensionalIs each artisan (group?) able to create the 4-5 SKUs wel (from beginning to end)l?Phase 4 Is each artisan able to take 'good' photographs and videos of their products? - Using camera app - Basic editing on the photos app itselfIs each artisan able to upload/share media on the required platforms (including Youtube, Marketplaces, Whatsapp)?Is each artisan able to calculate and estimate how much they should be pricing a product (based on raw materials, logistics, hours spent on production, market demand)?Is each artisan be able to digitall store information for each product (photo, price, materials etc.) to create a catalogue?Is each artisan able to track inventory, productivity and finances (on paper or digitally)?Phase 5 Is each artisan able to do a quality check (finishing of framing, weaving complete etc.) and recognise the course of action to correct any gaps?Is each artisan able to pack a product 'well' (to ensure no damage) using sustainable packaging?Have you (fellow) and the artisans identified ways to send out orders locally and beyond (e.g. rickshaws locally and a postal service)?Does each artisan know how to receive and fulfill an order on at least 3 different platforms (e.g. Whatsapp Business, Facebook Marketplace, Meesho, Amazon Saheli)?

Gauri - Cover Letter 

To Hell with Good Intentions[1]

 Showing a lack of respect for “good intentions” is probably not the best way to begin a motivation letter. Nevertheless, I will articulate why it just might be the most sensible one.

I am an investment banker turned social entrepreneur and have worked extensively on the ground with women entrepreneurs in South America, Japan and India. I founded Skilled Samaritan Foundation (SSF) in early 2012. As a social entrepreneur, I worked closely with rural communities from the interiors of Northern India to light villages using solar power impacting over 25,000 lives.

I was born in Muzaffarnagar City, the ‘crime capital’ of India, where my parents sent me to boarding school at the age of 6. However, every time I came home for the holidays, I saw my mother financially, emotionally and physically dependent on my father; which was and still is the norm in many Indian rural and urban households. While I cannot break most of the rules, my aim is to bend them using our model at Skilled Samaritan to provide sustainable livelihoods to women and provide them a life of respect and financial independence.

My story is not any different from the so many others you would have read. In fact, you could probably say it is more ordinary and less provocative than most of them. But I know one thing it does not lack, GOOD INTENTIONS[KS1] .

 

Equal opportunity and non-discrimination are fundamental values of the Skilled Samaritan Foundation, which shall be respected. The Foundation will be guided by these principles, and will prohibit discrimination of any kind based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status such as disability, age, marital and family status, sexual orientation and gender identity, health status, place of residence, economic and social situation.

The bodies of the Foundation, i.e. the Governance Board, the Expert Advisory Group, the Management and the External Auditors, are selected, assessed and treated on the basis of their merits, abilities and experience without discrimination of any kind.

1. To get global recognition for our work to develop International partnerships with MIT Solve Community for on-boarding designers and also creating awareness about our work and products 
2. To get access to funding to fund the fellowship program to provide artisans clusters across India and hopefully globally with tech-based support 
3. To leverage the MIT Solve community for research and development on strengthening the design fellowship program

Explained above 

Atlassian Foundation : To support us in advising and building the technology/app that connects artisans with designers and the front end is a marketplace for artisan products that can be purchased by buyers globally.

Gates Foundation: To partner with women focused clusters across the world for generating sustainable livelihoods for women who have basic craft skills 

Salon Dinner: To raise funds, talk about our work and also promote our products from Sirohi.org on a global platform 

Brand Recognition 

At Skilled Samaritan, I have a bold vision to be a global micro-entrepreneurship platform and create a world class brand for home/lifestyle products, led by the women of India – where despite their level of education, caste, creed, religion or the stage of life they might be in – any woman with basic crafts skills can and should be able to leverage the power of technology to make a tangible difference to her life and that of those around her. 

I am currently in the 9th month of my pregnancy with 2 weeks to go before delivery of my first born, and I feel empowered to be able to leverage the power of technology and be included in the digital workforce to write this application. Despite the fact that I come from a privileged and 'educated background, I have been faced with multiple barriers due to the society we live in India, where I was asked to 'slow down', investors did not want to focus on an 'expecting woman' focused organisation despite our high growth rate - and I want to bend the rules for women. 

This gender inequality exists at a much larger magnitude on the ground level in low income communities and we hope and aspire that our work will bring about tangible change in the lives of women so they can continue working not only from their homes but leverage technology to continue staying financially independent as well.