Apnasaamaan.comAn E-Commerce initiative

Introduction

Apnasaaman.com is a novel and impactful initiative taken by Underprivilegeds Advancement by Youth

(UPAY) to foster change in the society and advance the cause of needy and underprivileged.

It is aimed at facilitating the skill development of disadvantaged yet talented artisans by means of social

entrepreneurship and self-sustainable livelihood generation. Apnasaaman.com is structured and

implemented to harness the untapped potential of artisans by providing them with a quality platform to

showcase and market their productive skills. It directly connects talented artisans with the market where

they can sell their produce, earn a decent livelihood and be catalysts for change in their own communities.

UPAY strongly believes that any kind of knowledge or marketable skill in people living in villages should be

recognized and harnessed for their own benefit and development. It has been a cornerstone of our working

philosophy and is the primary reason why UPAY has been passionately working on a non-profit basis to

train people in rural areas while providing them with an opportunity to use their skills for the welfare of their

communities. The major focus areas by which UPAY implements its Apnasaaman.com initiative in rural

areas are:-

1. Skill Mapping - Searching for traditional skills in the locality and their analysis. There are many poor

craftsman in villages and even in cities who sell their products such as toys, bamboo art ,etc on footpath.

Through this step , local under-privileged artisans would be reached and their skills would be identified.

We identify marketable skills of people and how those skills can be improved upon by training or

guidance from experienced professionals. UPAY has conducted surveys in many villages and

geographical area wise skills data is available with us now.

2. Skill Enhancement We conduct workshops and training sessions to provide people with hands-on

learning opportunities by means of which they can polish and fine-tune their skills. Many artisans are very

talented yet their raw skills need to be enhanced so that their product will have a chance in the competitive

market. The skills of these people would be groomed through the National Skill Development Councils

Star Scheme project, through which skills would be imparted to them in various aspects such as tailoring,

plumbing, artificial jewelry making, etc. Apart from it they would also trained in packaging, retail

marketing, etc through the star scheme project itself, to empower them to undertake the various supply

chain activities by themselves. Thus, this stage would be focused on capacity building of poor artisans to

develop and sustain their livelihoods..

3. Skill Marketing Most of the village artisans are very poor and they financially cant afford to market

their skills and products and they are not educated also so they are not aware about the sales and

marketing strategy. We set up trade fairs or shops or marketing kiosks where people can put their

products on display and sell them directly to consumers.

Understanding the problem

We, at UPAY, believe that any effort to get rid of the problem must strike at the crux of it and nip it in the

bud. Apnasaaman.com is carefully designed to address the problem of labor migration and incongruous

jobs because of lack of opportunities in rural areas. The lack of market in villages adversely affects the

well-being of communities and leads to migration of a large number of artisans to cities or towns. The

traditional jobs that these people manage to secure in cities or towns many a times do not their match their

inherent skill-set, with the result weavers, blacksmiths, potters, builders, carpenters are not able to

capitalize on their skills and match a standard of living they deserve. At the same time, they are not able to

SKILL MAPPING( identifying the skills availble in rural areas

SKILL ENHANCEMENT( training for making a presentable products and distribution and delivery to the customers

SKILL MARKETING ( connect all the artisans at one forum apnasaamaan.com and market their products )

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practice their skills and pass on their skills and traditions to the next generation, eventually resulting in loss

of those productive skills. In addition to this, migration creates lack of stability in their lives and affects

education and upbringing of their children. The country loses traditional knowledge and skills that people

had assimilated over the generations in order to adapt to conditions and job market in the city.

Artisans dont get suitable price of their product in rural areas , the same product with better presentation

is being sold in tourist places and cities at much higher rates. Many of the handicrafts retailers purchase

handicrafts from these poor artisans at a very nominal prize and sell them at very high prize. At one end

where these poor people are not able to earn bread and butter for their family on the other end middle man

retailers is becoming rich day by day.

In the search of better opportunity these artisans even move to the city but because of lack of education

and money they end up selling their products at footpath and their children become street children with no

education. With apnasaamaan.com we are not just providing them bread and butter but also saving the

future of their children.

Apnasaaman.com: Roadmap for Mass Implementation:

Apnasaamaan Model

UPAY is proposing a model that can be implemented in rural townships of multi-nationals and big

companies in the country, since these companies have an advantage of being close to rural villages than

any other organization.

Apnasaamaan.com will be a social entrepreneurship initiative that will provide opportunity to artisans,

women and small-scale workers to directly connect with market and earn a livelihood for their families.

We will cover two main categories of items under this initiative.

Production Production will be done by

local artisan, we will provide them trainingto ennhance their skills , we have already tied up with National Skill Developmet center (NSDC), GOI. Through STAR SCheme of Ministery of Finance we are providing all type of training in the rural area.

Marketing Marketing will be done by the apnasaamaan team, as these artisans are very poor and uneducated they can't market their products. Marketing one person's product is costely but when it will be done for a group of artisan, individuly it will not cost them much. so UPAY is planning to connect all of them at one place . we will charge a nominal maintanace/ membership fees from them depending upon the volume and cost of their profducts to make it sustainable

Distribution Distribution and delivery of the

products will be done by local artisan by themselves , they will be tarined for this. every artisan will open his bank account with JAN DHAN YOJNA . his account will directely linked to the apnasaamaan online portal . Once the product will be delivered and customer feedback recived money will be directely transffred to the artsan's bank account .

1) Regular & festive season Items:

In Regular Items, we will guide people through workshops and training sessions to make products

such as candles, papad, pickles, mats that can be of use for local consumers Nagjeera is a forest

near Nagpur where local villagers are making Eco-friendly Gulal from palaash flowers and catering

the huge demand of Gulal during Holi. Likewise Crackers & candles/ Deepaks and Agarbatties are

in huge demand during Diwali season which can also be made by the local unemployed women.

We aim to train and guide people to make these products, meet the local demand and generate

livelihood in the process.

Woolen handicraft from badoda village painting from Mathani village

Jhoomers from Nagpur footpath night lamps from Kumbhari village

2) Handicraft and Art

The residents of every region have unique skill that can be harnessed to generate livelihood

opportunities by proper training or guidance. For example in Nagpur at various footpath

locations we find people who are expert in making jhoomers and crystal items for home decoration.

Melaghat a place near Nagpur is rich in bamboo production . Artisans of Melghat are expert in

making bamboo furniture, handicrafts and Rakhis. these people are not getting adequate market

and profit for their products. Apnasaaman aims to harness this local skill and art for the benefit of

these artisans. We will provide training on a non-profit basis to empower rural people to be

entrepreneurs and generate their own livelihood.

3) Services:

In urban area there is a huge requirement of domestic helps and day to day services like car

washing, maids , cook, driver , carpenter, laundry ,sweepers, cleaners , plumber etc . Whereas in

rural areas many unemployed people are there who are can be a solution to these requirements. .

In cities where people are very busy and both the spouses are working, they dont have time to

purchase even daily use stuff like vegetables, fruits. Home delivery of these products can be done

by local villagers. We plan to include area wise list of availability of such people in our portal.

anybody who is in need of such requirement can search in the portal and contact them.

SKILL MAPPING

Apnasaamaan Categorization

Different from other E-commerce: What makes Apnasaaman different from other e-commerce business is the fact that we are working as non-

profit organization. So we are more focused on rural skill development and employment opportunities to the

poor artisans rather than earning profit. We aim to target rural people and help them develop livelihood-

generating skills and market those skills to benefit their own communities in a self-sustaining manner. No E-

commerce player is able to reach to poor artisans in the villages and they are not concerned about developing

g existing raw skills. Apnasaamaan will be an integrated portal where not only handicrafts but also the day to

day domestic services/ skills will be mapped according to the locations. And it will directly connect the

service providers to the needy service takers. We are not just marketing their products or skills; we are

enhancing them and connecting them with other artisan to share the learnings and skills.

Mode of Selling:

There will be three type of selling

A) Online sell through apnasamaan.com

B) Sell by mobile vans which will be roaming in towns, cities, townships and villages.

C) Offline sell at apnasaaman stores , other Markets, retails store and exhibitions

Craft Items: Jhoomers and crystal items by Nagpur footpath people

Handicrafts of Bell metal

Paper pulp art Woolen items art Paintings

Fund Requirement: Apnasaamaan.com is at present being run at wadoda village on Bhandara highway and other products are being prepared at user places only but to integrate the whole system we will be needing a centralized place in Nagpur , we are already discussing the matter with NMC and shortly we will get a place on lease in Nagpur. SN Particulars Fund requirement (INR) 1 Candle making machine( 2 sets) 80000/- 2 Agarbatti making machines ( 4 sets) 50000/- 3 Mobile van for transportation and selling purpose ( ECCO) 400000/ 4 Sewing machines( 10 sets ) for cloth bags 50000/ 6 Packing machines 20000/ 7 Miscellaneous equipment and tools cost 50000/ 8 Website expanses 50000/ Total fund required 700000/ ( 7 lacs) Market Analysis:

Our assessment tells that most of the big industries are in the outskirts of cities or in other words are not well

connected with the cities. And hence lack the markets and services easily available at cities. So the huge

market lies with in Township of these companies in rural areas. Let us take an example of Maharatana

Power sector Company, NTPC Ltd. it is having approx. 26000 nos of employee at over 25 different plants

all are away from cities. Including their family members, the total market exceeds approx. 1 lacks no of

people. Instead of buying stuff from outside and availing costly service from cities the same thing can be

procured from nearby village people. The only thing is that we have to enhance is their skill so that the

raw product can be converted into a fine finished product quality wise equivalent to the product available

in the city market. It is very hard to find the Domestic maids or a plumber at cities. Sometimes fixing the

small problems at homes takes so much of effort and money just because there is no platform where we

can find these skilled workers. Similarly there is a huge demand of handicrafts in the tourist places. So

handicrafts made at rural areas can be sold at tourist places and skills available at villages can cater the

needs of urban people. The only thing needed is to bridge this gap. We are initially targeting the market

available at Power sector companys townships and later on can be expanded to other cities and townships.

Financial Analysis:

Let us take a case of floor mats. For producing floor mats, we will need old clothes that can be collected by

villagers. We will buy a sewing machine and teach rural people including women how to stitch to make a

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training cost,

website maninatce

marketing cost

Transiction cost

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website building cost

Resources cost

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Membership fees

( will vary for small scale , mediam scale and big scale artisans)

maintanace cost per tarnsiction

floor mat. We will train people to source raw material locally, develop products in an eco-friendly manner

and eventually, market those products in the local or outside market. We will help people practice skills they

are good at and generate their own livelihood, ensuring the healthiness of rural communities.

One Time Expenditure (changes depending on skill development involved) Sewing Machine: : Rs 10000

Recurring Costs

Website Maintenance & Domain Hosting Cost: Rs 3000 per month : Rs 0.36 Lakhs Local

person employed for marketing : 4x Rs 50000 pa : Rs 2.0 Lakhs

Total Annual Recurring Costs : Rs 2.46 Lakhs Annual

Revenue (5% of transaction amount. i.e, seller will get 95% of price he is quoting)

If 500 customer buys Rs 200 worth items from Apnasaaman in a year, Revenue = 500 X Rs200 : Rs 1 Lakhs

Total Income: 5 % of transaction cost 0.05 X Rs 10 Lakhs : Rs 0.05 Lakhs Annual membership fees (for 200 artisans,1000 Rs / artisans ) : Rs 2.00 Lakhs

i.e. The annual recurring costs are met through revenue through sales, making it sustainable.

Challenges:

A major challenge to this venture is the making those people generate a quality product, and to

maintain the quality in future.

Market will get saturated after some point of time. We will have to expand the market in other

PSUs.

Social impact:

The model if successfully implemented will bring the radical change in the lives of underprivileged

artisans. Villagers will become self-sufficient so that they will not be dependent on outside or urban

sources for development and employment. It will help to restore and create new income opportunities

for under privileged society. It will enable women to work from home and helped them generate income

from handmade items. Thus we will be empowering the women folk of the village. Because of non-

availability of market, local traditional skills are fading away and will be lost subsequently. We are not

just preserving these skills but also enhancing them by providing proper training.

Sustainability:

Apnasaaman is sustainable as it has been driven by the profit earned by the artisan .the more the number of artisan will be associated with apnasaaman , less the membership/ maintenance fees will become and the artisans will earn more profit. For poor artisans, it is very difficult to market their individual products but if it is done for a group of artisans it will be cheaper. So we are bringing all these artisans together and by a nominal membership fee we will market their products. Fees charged from the artisans will be used for marketing and website maintenance purpose and artisan will earn the profit by selling their products using this well marketed portal.

Conclusion:

We will facilitate the establishment of a self-sustained group of people with the requisite skills and capacity to provide various goods and services. Also, apart from goods various people engaged in services sector, are still unemployed such as carpenter, plumber, mechanic, technician etc would be empowered to gain fruitful employment. And they would just be required to pay a basic fee, to enable us to maintain this system of training and capacity building.

Apnasaaman.com is an initiative to bring the fruits of upcoming e-commerce revolution to the

traditional artisans and craftsmen of the hinterlands of India.

Thus, the idea is to find the right skills, to ensure skill development of these poor skilled artisans, engage

them through social entrepreneurship and provide them a platform or an integrated market where they

will be able to sell their products and earn for their livelihood.