Rural Women to Retail Wares on Net

It’s the success story of the Telugu bidda (daughter), in its truest sense. From striving to save a rupee a day and putting up SSI units, to dealing with the Goenkas across the table, the women of rural Andhra Pradesh have indeed come a long way.

It’s the story of a jump from kitchens to boardrooms, thanks to their “single rupee savings” under the DWCRA (development of women and child in rural areas) umbrella!

Partnership is a key word for them. It was their partnership as a group of women at the village level, then mandal, district, and state levels that has ushered in the self help group (SHG) revolution in such interiors. Fortyfive lakh women are part of 3.5 lakh DWCRA groups handling a business of over Rs 2,000 crores!

It is also the recently concluded Partnership Summit in Hyderabad that brought in new horizons of business, when Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu called upon corporates and supermarket chains to help the SHGs market and sell their products.

Products that range from food and agriculture items such as vegetables, and food-related products such as chilli and turmeric powders, papads, and the famed Andhra podis, to indigenous handicrafts such as traditional and modern toys, sarees, and even musical instruments!

And the corporates are more than willing to oblige. DWCRA’s talks with FMCG giant HLL is already in advanced stages, with the women’s groups marketing HLL products in rural areas, and HLL in turn negotiating with the groups on buying their agricultural produce such as castor seeds in Nalgonda district.

DWCRA has also held the first round of meetings with supermarket chains – Foodworld of RPG Group, and Hyderabad-based Trinethra, and Bazaaere, an online trade exchange owned by a US-based NRI, says C S Ramalakshmi, IAF, Special Commissioner, Rural Development.

If the talks prove successful, soon Indians all over the country and even abroad will be able to purchase Gadwal sarees from Mahabobnagar, Turmeric powder from Guntur, cotton durries from Warangal, soft toys from Kurnool, lace work from West Godavari, Kondapalli toys from Krishna, leather lamp shades from Anantapur and veena musical instrument from Vizianagaram at the supermarket chains – both online and offline!

The ever-growing urban consumer market will enable them to more than triple the incomes of DWCRA women. Currently earning about Rs 300 to 2000 income per month, they will be able to start with Rs 1000 a month, says the special commissioner.

Welcoming the corporate involvement, Ramalakshmi says that in the era of competition, of a quality and brand conscious consumer world, she does not expect the DWCRA women to compete with corporate giants like HLL and P&G.

“But, because they specialize in certain home-made products, and there’s a vast rural market where they have better bargaining power (70 per cent of products made by DWCRA will be sold in rural markets), they’ll be able to retain a stronghold,” she says.

The products are already being sold at DWCRA Bazaars at the district levels, at the India International Trade Fairs, and on the Website of the Ministry of Rural Development. Their own e-commerce site will be ready in a month’s time.

There is also the DWCRA Bazaar in Hyderabad on Tank Bund, which will be operational in a month. The Bazaar, in which the state government has invested one and a half crore, has a provision for 120 stalls, and will hold continuous exhibitions every 15-20 days.

But, the corporate tie-ups will give the DWCRA women more income, activity and volume of production, and introduce them to newer semi urban and urban markets. With production systems sustained and continuous income assured, the banking community will extend greater support, which extends their scope of work.

The special commissioner claims that the market for DWCRA products is so huge that even if all the 3.5 lakh groups are pooled into production to meet the needs of this segment, it will not be able to meet with even one per cent of the demand.

And supermarkets are more than willing to get into the strategic tie-up to try and meet the tremendously growing demands of the urban markets.

Foodworld has shown interest in buying DWCRA vegetables, traditional ready to eat papads, vadams, curd chillis, Andhra podis, gunpowder, pickles, etc. Saurabh Chadha, regional head, of the supermarket chain, says it’s slightly premature to comment on the tie-up, but says they’ll be meeting with women farmers and artisans in Tenali on 24th, then the situation on tie-ups will be more clear.

But, unlike Trinethra, Foodworld, which has 52 outlets within India of which 12 are in Hyderabad and plans to go all over the state within a year, wants to buy the products and not offer space for the women to sell their products.

“Their core competency is production, ours is retailing. We’re not into real estate, so there’s no question of just offering space and collection of commissions on sales,” he says.

Trinethra, which prefers to provide space in their supermarkets where the DWCRA women could sell their own items, however, is also willing to buy the products and sell it themselves in their stores in twin cities.

Bhaskar Rao, marketing manager, says Trinethra decided to help DWCRA out, not just market their products, on Naidu’s suggestion at the Summit. “Presently, it’s not available on continuous supply basis, we thought we’ll take best products of different groups – food related, and give regular supply to customers,” he says.

The scope for sales of DWCRA through Trinethra will only increase, with the supermarket, currently with 33 outlets in the twin cities, intending to introduce an additional 6-7 here, and later all over Andhra Pradesh.

K Anjaneyulu, MD, says there is a plan for a total of 100 outlets. The first phase -- 40-45 outlets in twin cities – by March, and about 50-55 in the next financial year in other AP cities of Warangal, Nizamabad, Vizag, Tirupathi, Kurnool and Cudappah etc.

Similarly, a tie-up with New York-based Balacharan Veeramacheneni’s Bazaare would mean markets all across India and the United States.

Dushyanth Suryadevara, manager business development of groupbuying and selling exchange portal, says with DWCRA products will be featured in the “Featured category” of the site as well as 200 associate sites.

“Lots of Indians and NRIs would be interested in these products. We’ll emphasise the handicrafts products, but put up the entire range. DWCRA women will logon using their seller ID and quote prices to interested buyers and process the order. We will enable the transactions. We’re tying up with courier services to help sellers reach their customers,” he adds.

DWCRA still wants more. The women’s group wants to corporates to be involved not just in selling DWCRA goods, but also extend services and help in production process. “They should help introduce DWCRA women to best farm practices, guide them to best seeds and raw material, provide training in grading and packing, and suppliers,” Ramalakshmi adds.

“It should be a win-win situation for both of us!” Cheers to that!