Maya Organics, or MO, has just i moved to new premises on Bannerghatta Road. The new store and additional merchandise are in keeping with the swanky new image, new: logo and additional funding. The furniture range is international with sleek bookshelves in shiny bamboo and kitchen cabinets that remind you of Ikea's range of furniture easy to assemble and dismantle. Other products include home accessories and ready-to-wear outfits in i Indian and Indo-Western style de­signed by the in-house team.

The new products may be snazzy but MO remains faithful to the objec­tive with which it was launched in 1989. Founder-director J.P. Solomon was looking to provide employment to low income groups and slums in both urban and rural sectors, and focused on providing target groups with a sus­tainable livelihood through training and skills upgradation and thereby alleviating poverty. Though it started life solely as an NGO, over the years MO has reorganised itself to become more business oriented. It now works as two units: the NGO half continues to work with low-income groups to produce the goods, while the retailing end functions as a private limited company. A few months ago, MO received funding of Rs 12 crore from Nadathur Holdings and Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund. Additional funding came from the Canadian chapter of CARE and Volkart investments to transform the NGO into a worker-owned enterprise.

Now, Solomon says: "For every Rs 100 earned by MO, the cluster of pro­ducers will receive up to Rs 45, and 10 to 15per cent ofthe equity in the company will be offioaded to the workers. While MO's apparel section is managed by a 225-member team, more than 100 workers are engaged in the production of wooden toys or 'lacware'-a natural resin that is coated on the toys in an effort to boost the toy-making craft of Channapatna. Yet another section creates the MO brand of furniture.