Driven by purpose and provenance, Anita Dongre Foundation is a catalyst for change that works towards enriching the lives of people from marginalised communities of India. The foundation develops livelihood opportunities for women in rural India by providing skill training. This is reversing the effects of job migration and bringing employment back to the villages of India, while giving women an equal voice.
The Need For Local Economies
For thousands of years, India's rural economy has relied heavily on agriculture. With a sharp decline of revenue in this sector, villages in India are being forced into penury. Able bodied men are compelled to leave their homes and families in search of a livelihood. Women are left behind to take care of the children, the elderly and the sick with no means to support this effort. Empowering the people of these villages by giving them access to a dependable source of income in their locality is critical to arrest the tide of migration to cities
One possible solution is to create a source of employment in villages. These village economies, run by the locals have the potential to:
- Create a steady household income
- Reverse the social effects of migration and bring families back together, thus demanding infrastructural growth in rural India
- Empower women to become decision makers within their family as a direct result of their significant contribution to the family income
Set in Maharashtra's Palghar district, the hilly village of Charoti faces the same problem that a number of Indian villages do these days. Their mainstay of employment —agriculture is dwindling. This has resulted in sending an entire village into penury and forcing able bodied men to leave their homes and families in search of a livelihood, however sporadic.
In an effort to arrest this growing trend, Poonam Mahajan, Honourable Member of Parliament, reached out to Anita Dongre to implement a programme that would revive localised village industries and bring livelihoods back to the village of Charoti. This was an opportunity to use industry to reverse the socio-economic effects of migrations - a cause close to Anita's Dongre heart. The attempt here was to follow in the Government's example of setting up a skill development programme, and then go a step further by guaranteeing a source of income by setting up an industry in the village. Th is would close the loop and give trainees the confidence to develop their skills and experience to mastery.
ANITA DONGRE FOUNDATION
CHAROTI 2015
In its first year in Charoti, Anita Dongre Foundation acquired 15 sewing machines, training 40 women formerly unskilled in cutting, sewing and finishing garments. Each woman was paid a stipend during this training period to encourage attendance and course completion. At the end of this training period, 20 women chose to continue working in the production centre.
ANITA DONGRE FOUNDATION
CHAROTI 2017
Today, Charoti is a swiftly growing production unit that employs 49 women. The average income has grown from Rs. 1,000 per month (for menial work), to an average of Rs. 8,000 per month for each artisan. This income supports a total of 229 people in the village of Charoti, including the 180 family members who depend on the 49 artisans. Charoti is now a village that is beginning to see its daughters, sisters, wives and mothers as equal.
