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: [email protected]
Introduction: ICT @ SEWA
1
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.
2
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
4
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