Mobile connectivity and ICT Related

Livelihood Skills for Women’s SHGs

Proposal for Consideration

Submitted by:

Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

SEWA Reception Centre,

Near. Victoria Garden, Bhadra, Ahmedabad – 380 001.

E-mail: reemananavaty@sewa.org

Introduction: ICT @ SEWA

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SEWA1, India's largest member-based organization of poor, self-employed women, has been

successfully running Community Learning Centres (CLC2) in Gujarat. The CLCs have been

offering SEWA members and their younger kin opportunities to access ICT tools along with the

rural communities in villages.

Implemented by SEWA in Gujarat, the ICT School for Empowerment of Women aims at

becoming a resource centre for livelihood generation, socioeconomic security, and self-

sustainability of women, SHGs and neglected communities through provision of relevant

information and IT based training.

The ICT School for Empowerment of Women takes that mission forward by widening the reach

across communities. The most vulnerable communities operate and own the ICT School,

providing services to not only to their own communities and the underprivileged, but also to

the more privileged sections. Most of the training and support programs offered are vocational

and deliberately designed to add directly to the potential of livelihood generation.

The ICT School for Empowerment of Women focuses on:

• Vocational courses such as journalism, telecaller training, video & voice editing, digital

documentation, GIS, web designing, accounting with Tally software, screen printing,

computer hardware training and orientation, language training, advanced computer training,

DTP training and other technical trainings.

• Access to latest resources and information for livelihood issues.

• Arrange micro-credit for local entrepreneurs through various agencies.

All these, coupled with training in rural entrepreneurship.

The districts covered include Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehasana, Kheda, Anand,

Surendranagar, Banaskantha, Patan, Kutch, Sabarkantha and Vadodara in Gujarat State.

More than 8,000 rural women and community members have been trained on computer skills

and about 25,000 were trained in other ICT training or services, out of these 1100 women were

trained as Master Trainers. Based on these trainings 1764 trainees have got employment in ICT

1 The Self-employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is an organisation of poor, self-employed women

workers, and has been active towards their full employment and self reliance since 1972. Through its

various movement and campaigns, SEWA has also helped local communities in capacity building,

development, and their social and financial security. Today, SEWA has a membership of 12,25,000

women members and is a strong, largest national level union of poor self employed women spread

across seven states in India and 14 districts in Gujarat.

2 SEWA operationalized the ICT vision by establishing about 50 Community Learning Centers across the

Gujarat States covering more than 1000 villages, and 10 districts. CLC envisaged as the ‘hub’ or centre of

activity for a cluster of ten to fifteen villages. CLCs were established keeping in mind that the women in

the rural communities had requirements of diverse information while they had the least access to

information and communication technologies.

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sector while another 926 trainees got employment in non-ICT sectors. More than 800 women

have started their own microenterprise like hardware repairing, photography, screen printing,

data entry job-work and so on.

Experiences shared by rural women in their own words on using ICT skills for livelihood and

capacity building, can be found in Annexure.1

Project: Mobile connectivity and ICT Related Livelihood Skills for Women’s SHGs

There is a pressing need for a central resource centre where all the facilities like Capacity

building, Access to latest resources and information, financial assistance e.g. easy loans,

Literacy and Vocational training are accessible and available for people belonging to

underprivileged societies. Most of the villages in remote rural parts of India are scattered and

people have to invest significant time and resource in travelling to nearby towns or suburban

areas to access such resources and facilities. This has made the communities residing in these

areas socially, economically and politically backward. Their stagnant socio-economic-political

status can be improved if they start earning livelihoods and a self-sustainable framework is put

in place.

Any attempt to provide self-sustainable and enduring livelihood generation strategy must take

care of the factors mentioned above. The proposal’s objective is to create an institution that

fulfils these requirements.

Project Objectives

The proposal aims to establish a ground-breaking initiative to support poor, rural communities

by providing technical services at village level for which they have to invest their productive

time and money by travelling to nearby towns. SEWA has been successfully running Community

Learning Centres (CLC) under ICT School for Empowerment of Women in Gujarat which has

helped thousands of women and people belonging to underprivileged communities to gain

livelihood. This school takes that mission forward by making facilities available to a wider

audience.

Proposed Activities:

1) Setting up of SHG run mobile repair centres in rural areas

2) Setting up of SHG run modem repair centres in rural areas

3) Setting up of SHG run solar based mobile/CDMA FWT charging centres in rural areas

The School is visualized as a resource centre which will build capacity and provide trainings to

the women of local communities of various sectors. It also has inbuilt provision to train women

on smooth operations of their own microenterprise or SHGs to earn livelihood by setting up

these centres for livelihood and train other SHG members.

A-B. Mobile & Modem reparing centres in rural areas

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SEWA propose to provide technical based trainings to build capacity and cadre of master

trainer & technician women from its members and SHGs of various districts of Gujarat with

inbuilt provisions of their Repair Centre operations for livelihood.

The trained cadre of women master trainer and technician will provide their expertise in

training other women and SHG members on the mobile & modem repairing trainings; these

women & SHGs will operate mobile & modem repairing centres in their respective

areas/villages. CLCs will be developing as a master hub for all kinds of mobile & modem

troubleshooting & repairing. Technical support & expertise will also be provided by the master

trainers through CLCs. These CLCs are presently covering more than 1000 villages of Gujarat.

C. Solar based charging centres in rural areas

SEWA members and SHG members will be trained in assembling and repairing solar based

charges which can charge mobile/CDMA FWT phones. These members can provide provide this

charging facilities by their own centres as well as support other women in setting up charging

centres in their areas and villages. This can be an additional service as well as income with

routine activity or business.

CLCs would be act as an assembling centre for these women, where all the raw material and

necessary tools will be provided to acquire this assembling skill. CLC can also be retail point to

sell these solar based charges to micro-entrepreneurs who want to earn livelihood by providing

mobile charging facility in their village. This way it can be a win-win situation for all SEWA and

SHG members who are assembling these mobile chargers and micro-entrepreneurs who are

providing mobile charging services.

Roles & Execution of the project:

Areas of Operation:

VAS

Providers

Network &

Connectivity

Providers

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SEWA has a strong membership base of more than 6,25,000 women members in Gujarat, 2/3 of

them are in rural. SEWA is working in fourteen districts of Gujarat and five districts of

Rajasthan. SEWA Proposed these two states for the pilot of this project. SEWA has more than

50 Community Learning Centres in Gujarat, which would be the hub to conduct all project

activities. Details of the same can be seen in the following map of Gujarat.

SEWA’s district wise membership, no. of blocks & villages and total no. of SHGs which are

connected with SEWA; all these details can be found in Annexure.2.

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Project Deliverables:

SEWA Proposes following deliverables as a measurable output of the project

• Train 500 women & rural youth on mobile repairing (20 of them would be Master Trainers)

• Train 100 women & rural youth on modem repairing (10 of them would be Master Trainers)

• Train 50 women & rural youth on solar charger assembling & repairing (10 of them would be

Master Trainers)

SEWA will support above trained women and rural youth in setting up their own mobile-

modem repairing and solar based charging centres in rural areas.

Along with providing trainings to rural women & youth, master trainers would also provide the

repairing and charging facilities at Community Learning Centres (CLCs) operated by SEWA in

cluster of 15-20 villages.

Conclusion

The ultimate objective of the whole initiative is to prepare women & local communities to be

the final owner and manager of the whole scheme and generate livelihood. In the last couple of

years, the process has made a strong beginning with computers, and still the communities are

ready to acquire new skills which can generate livelihood. The whole capacity building process

has to be supported and taken to an automatic mode where communities can themselves take

charge of the affairs. A hand holding is required in the transition period to realize this mission.

Budget:

The total budget for the proposed activities for one year comes to be 4,581,440 Indian Rupees.

This includes setup and operational cost of training centres for mobile-modem repairing & solar

charger assembling, cost to train the master trainers, mobile-modem repairing kits and anvillary

services required for the project such as marketing promotion and consultancy.

The detailed breakup of the budget is attached in Annexure.3 with this proposal.

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Annexure.1:

Experiences shared by rural women on using ICT skills for livelihood and capacity building

“Sitting in my remote village ICT is my gateway to developing a better understanding of markets

which helps me and the women associated with the center to deliver good quality output for the

market. ICT is not just a platform for growth but it is an expression of self-confidence and self-

respect.” - Gauriben, An artisan, Village Bakutra, District Patan

“I used to wonder how could one sit in front of a computer for the whole day but now I do the

same! Earlier I was reluctant to make my daughters study computers. But now I strongly

motivate and encourage them to learn further. My ardent wish now is to carry a laptop to a

conference and make a presentation to everyone present there!” - Niruben, Training Spearhead

Team, Village Mogar, District Anand

“I’ve taken training of photography and video replay before two years and I had started a small

business from my home. I never thought this as my major livelihood generation activity. After

taking advance training from ICT School, I’ve started this as a microenterprise. I maintain my

accounts and expense statement in computer. I’m using laptop to download the photos and

graphical software for the video and photo editing. Before the training I was hardly getting

1000-1200 Rs. a month but now I’m getting 2500-3000 Rs. a month.” - Pushpaben Parmar,

Village Chikhodara, District Anand

“I used to wonder about this machine called a mobile phone. It does not have any wires

connected to it, so how can people communicate to each other? Then, through SEWA’s capacity

building programs, I got to know that a mobile works through satellite connectivity. Once I

began to use the mobile, I realized many advantages. Whenever there is a need I immediately

call up the SEWA Graamhaat or wholesale market and inquire about the prices. This also helped

me in getting direct orders from the wholesale market, leading to a considerable elimination of

middlemen. Therefore now I am recognized as a businesswoman, growing and selling sesame

seeds, and not just anybody’s wife or sister. Ever since I have begun to use electronic weighing

machine, people rely more on me. They are sure that my weights and measures are accurate.

After this, I also learnt how to use computers. I am now using it for maintaining my micro

business transactions, which helps my work to a great extent. Earlier I was afraid of counting

Rs.100 but now I conduct my business in thousand of rupees”. - Jasuben Malek: An agriculture

worker, Village Sedla, District Surendranagar, Gujarat.

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Annexure.2

Details of Districts along with Membership of SEWA

Gujarat

# District Total Block

Total

Villages Total Membership SHGs

1 Mehsana 5 284 26040 180

2 Anand 12 284 125544 650

3 Kheda

4 Sabarkantha 4 147 29680 180

5 Ahmedabad 5 215 40000 60

6 Gandhinagar 4 172 31000 65

7 Surendranagar 3 159 25096 300

8 Vadodara 3 300 35080 350

9 Patan 7 185 61000 275

10 Banaskantha

11 Kutch 5 233 22080 48

12 Panchamahal 6 30 1680 8

13 Surat 1 1 1058 6

14 Rajkot 1 1 354 1

15 Selvasa 640 1

16 Others 750 5

Total 56 2011 400002 2129

Rajasthan

# District Total Block

Total

Villages Total Membership SHGs

1 Bikaner 1 1 7100 60

2 Dungarpur 3 65 5000 85

3 Jaipur 1 1 1800 20

4 Ajmer 1 1 500 0

5 Jodhpur 1 1 858 15

Total 7 69 15258 180

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Annexure.3

Project Budget for one Year

Capital Cost

Setup of Training Centre 10

Capital Cost Cost per Unit Units Amount

Furniture & Fixtures 25000 10 250000

Electrification 10000 10 100000

Equipments

Mobile Repairing Kit (Complete Kit) 15000 20 300000

Modem Repairing Kit (Complete Kit) 10000 10 100000

Solar Charger Kit 5000 10 50000

Total Cost - Setup of Community Learning Centre 800000

Training of Master Trainers

Training Cost Cost per Unit Units Amount

Mobile Repairing 10000 20 200000

Modem Repairing 5000 10 50000

Solar Charger Assembling 5000 10 50000

Lodging & Boarding 5000 40 200000

Total Training Cost 500000

Other Cost Cost per Unit Units Amount

Visits & Exposures 24000 12 Visits 288000

Stipend to Trainees 2500 40 Trainees 100000

Evaluation & Certification of Trainees 1000 40 Trainees 40000

Documentation 500 40 Trainees 20000

Total Other Cost 448000

Total Cost - Training of Master Trainers 948000

Total Capital Cost 1748000

Operating Cost

Training Centre Year 1

Operating Cost Cost per Unit Units Amount

Remuneration of Master Trainer - Mobile 4000 20 960000

Remuneration of Master Trainer - Modem 3000 10 360000

Remuneration of Master Trainer - Charger 3000 10 360000

Conveyance 500 40 240000

Rent 2000 10 240000

Equipment Maintenance 500 10 60000

Stationary 500 10 60000

Events 2000 10 120000

Total Cost - Community Learning Centre 2400000

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Project Management Hub

Project Manager 20000 1 240000

Traveling 2000 1 24000

Telephone 1000 1 12000

Internet Charges 1000 1 12000

Stationary 1000 1 12000

Total Cost - Project Management Hub 300000

Total Operating Cost 2700000

Project Budget Summary

Projection Years Year 1

Total Capital Cost 1748000

Total Operating Cost 2700000

Total Project Cost 4448000

Contribution to SEWA @ 3% 133440

Grand Total 4581440