3.32 Maturity Levels: Garments
Over the period of 2.5 years, the MAYA ORGANIC Garments initiative, together with local women leaders, has identified and enrolled a total of 130 women and 20 men into eleven worker-owned enterprises. The women had previously been engaged in one or more of the following: hand embroidery and other forms of ‘hand work’, home-based stitching, garment factory work, or home-based beedi and agarbathi making. Men had previously worked in hari embroidery, but in tiny units with little autonomy, and often burdened by advances. In Ramnagaram, a silk-reeling cluster, where employment generation has decreased to almost zero over the last few years, MO has enrolled 100 women. As shown in table below, eleven collectives have formed, all of which have already registered themselves as SHGs. The average size of the collectives is around fifteen members; this excludes the three to four contracted job workers in many collectives, most of whom will be enrolled eventually as members into the collectives, or will form their own enterprises. Four collectives, Saujanya, Spoorthy, Chandana and Vandana form a production unit in Ramnagaram. All of these groups are women’s groups and specialise in hand embroidery and other hand work on fabrics and garments. They are, however, increasingly being trained in embroidery frames, a production mode which has traditionally been the realm of male embroidery professionals only. The other two MO Garments production centres, Mysore Road and Gottigere, provide work and a training place for a total of four more collectives. One of the men's collectives works on its own premises. The Mysore Road location houses two embroidery collectives, of which one is registered and another is in formation. The Gottigere location serves as an industrial learning centre for stitching, cutting, finishing and embroidery. The Meithry collective will split into two collectives, one of which will specialise in embroidery, and the other in finishing processes, such as button holing, trimming, final quality checking, ironing and packing.
The beginning of joint planning for the future by worker-owned enterprises is another achievement. The members of these groups have begun to invest and have moved towards functioning as independent collective enterprises. Terms of engagement between the collective enterprise and the MO sectors will continue to evolve as groups mature, which will enable more future-oriented planning.
The big challenge for the future is identifying the best structure and size for the collectives to ensure optimal functioning and financial viability. It remains to be seen if it might make sense for collectives to build an association, or to federate into a producer company with the structure of a cooperative. A larger structure might facilitate representative leadership positions and serve as a platform for effective negotiation with market players and governments to serve the interest of the groups, be it for sourcing of material, infrastructure or orders.
In addition to working with the seven workers’ collectives, the Lacware sector interacts with at least four other small Lacware enterprises that do contract work for the collectives on occasion. These small enterprises may consider forming their own worker-owned collective enterprises or joining existing collectives. MO is currently working with these enterprises on improving skills and business practices, as well as instituting basic safety and social compliance, so that the enterprises learn to negotiate effectively in the market. Exploring such alternatives will provide an opportunity for the industry cluster to operate more effectively in the market, as the network of groups becomes larger. Hence, there will be greater scope for impact on the sector as a whole.