BAG MAKING PROJECT IN PUNE - Proposal

Background

Muktabai Mahila Swayamvikas Pratisthan is a social service organization headed by Mrs. Tara Shastree , and is working near Pune in Western Maharashtra for the economic and general upliftment of women in that region. They have a reasonably good track record of undertaking small-scale projects in the past and seeing them through completion. AID has previously worked with the Pratisthan in a candle- making project which turned out to be immensely successful. Refer to this link for more details. Recently, Mrs. Shastree sent us a new project proposal for making school bags. This project is currently being actively evaluated by the Bay Area chapter of AID, and we plan to get back to Mrs. Shastree with our initial set of questions and comments by the end of July, 1997.

Project Description

The proposed project concerns making school bags for which there is reportedly a great demand in the neighbouring locality. The village where the project is scheduled to be implemented is Warale village, Taluka Maval District, Pune. The proposed plan is to train 6 women in the art of bag-making. The training will be given for 3 hours a day (from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.) for a period of 3 months. The Pratisthan will be arranging for a teacher to conduct the training. However, it needs initial funding for buying a sewing machine, tools and equipment, raw material, etc. The estimated budget in the proposal is Rs. 15,200 (a break-up is given below).


 
   Items - Cost of Training (Recurring)           Rs.
  --------------------------------------       ---------

  Teacher @ Rs. 500 p.m. ........................ 1500.00
  Material for training:
  Rexin - per bag 3/4 m.
     (15*60*10)         ......................... 1000.00
  Belt, piping - per bag 5m.
     @ Rs. 25 (25*5*10)     ..................... 1250.00
  Buckles .......................................  100.00
  Thread  .......................................  250.00
  Needles .......................................  100.00
  Material for practice     ..................... 2000.00
  1 machine ..................................... 6500.00
  Tools, equipment     ..........................  500.00
  Conveyance, Travel, Transport    .............. 1000.00
  Contingencies ................................. 1000.00
                                             
           Total -      15200.00 = approx. US$ 410

The project, if successful, is expected to help the trained women earn Rs. 200 to Rs. 250 per month.

Present Status

Supratik presented this project in one of the Bay Area CSHs and a lot of constructive questions/suggestions were obtained from the volunteers. Overall, there seems to be a general consensus that this project is worth following up. If you have any further questions/comments about this project, please feel free to contact Supratik (supratik@fla.fujitsu.com)

Questions raised at the first project presentation

How long does it take to learn to make bags? Is 3 hrs/day for 3 months too much time or too less time or just about right?
How many days a week will the training be conducted? Is the 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. window good for village women or should the training hours be shifted to sometime in the evening?
The proposal says that one machine will be bought. How will 6 women share this machine? Has the organization worked out how exactly the training will be conducted? It would be wasteful of time if the women need to wait for a long time to get access to a machine. Will all 6 women get a chance to use the machine every day?
Any details on what type of machine is needed would be useful. We might be able to provide feedback on cheaper makes.
How many bags will be made by each trainee during the training period. This relates to the calculations for raw materials in the proposed budget.
The proposed budget says other material for practice -- what exactly is this?
How are the 6 trainees selected?
Is the trainer somebody who'll be brought in from outside or is he/she a local? This relates to travel, conveyance, etc. charges shown in the proposed budget.
What will be the selling price of each finished bag? What will be the profit per bag and how long would it take each trained woman to make one such bag?
What are the plans for marketing these bags? If possible, middlemen should be eliminated, so that the women can make more money by selling their products.
After the first 3 months' training period, are there plans to train more women using the capital equipment that has been bought? Any details of future training plans?
After these 6 women are trained, they will need to use the machine, and also need other equipment (scissors, measuring tape, needles, thread, rexin, etc.) to make bags to sell. How will they buy all these? Who provides them with the required money? Also they will need access to the machine to make bags. How will this be resolved? It won't make much sense if you just trained women to make bags on a machine and then they can't really use the machine when they want to make their own bags.
What are these women doing currently? How eager are they to embark on this project which requires at least one capital intensive equipment (the machine)?
Will the knowledge of making bags be useful in other ways, for example, making wallets and other smaller bags, vanity bags, etc.?
Will Muktabai Pratisthan help the trainees set up ther own co-operative later on, so that they can continue their business independently?