The fourth anniversary of the Kudumbasree Home Shop project, along with Onakkodi distribution and Ona Sadya, will be held at Tagore Centenary Hall here on September 3.
The project, which made a humble beginning in 2010 with just 29 home shop owners and nine products, now boasts 417 owners and 30 products. Providing employment to more than 500 people, including home shop owners, community facilitators and marketing coordinators, the project is creating a silent revolution in the rural sector of the district.
The Home Shop project explores new avenues of direct marketing.
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It is spread across 52 Kudumbasree community development societies in the district. Now there are Home Shops in each ward to take Kudumbasree products directly to households. The shops, to a great extent, are able to support the Kudumbasree units that that fail to compete with multinationals with their simple products. The success of the Home Shops in Kozhikode has inspired similar projects in other districts.
Unlike other projects of Kudumbasree, the Home Shop is coordinated by a team of five. The applications received through the Kudumbasree network lead to an interview with the prospective Home Shop owners. Those who are selected get a week-long training to run the Home Shops.
Apart from the usual benefits received by the members of Kudumbasree, the Home Shop owners are entitled to a number of social welfare programmes such as insurance, medical assistance, scholarship for the children of the owners, subsidies, and pension.
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In addition, they get monthly gifts, bags, and identity cards for free.
The Home Shop is helping realise Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of self-reliant villages with locally manufactured products sold locally through excellent coordination, thus aiding the financial development of the villages.