SMALL SCALE INDUSTRIES

KUTUMB SAKHI

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SUMMARY

History-:

Dr Hate, the founder sociologist Professor in SNDT College gave the idea of starting

KUTUMBH SAKHI SANSTHA. Lesley Sowany programme is an institution who

helped her and guided her for starting this Sanstha. Before starting this Sanstha a group of

ladies did survey of 500 people in Charni Road(E) in order to find out whether it will be

successful or not. They found out lower middle class ladies need such kind of jobs.

Finally they planned to start Kutumbh Sakhi Sanstha since ladies were besting doing

kitchen work. It started in 1977 in some hall and in 1982 they took a place on rent which

was their first and main branch. The main motivation for starting it is providing

employment to poor, uneducated and needy ladies of the society. They give preference to

widows, divorcees and to those who are neglected by their families.

Registration-:

They are registered under Cooperative Society Act and have municipal license for

running the business.

Shares-:

Working ladies are shareholders of their own Sanstha. This will motivate them to work

for the better of their own sanstha. After few years they issued shares in public. Their

share capital is Rs. 1, 00,000. There are 750 shareholders of sanstha. Each person has 10

shares. One share has to be purchased; other 9 shares are given by sanstha. They give

12% dividend on profits.1 share is Rs. 25.

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Wages-:

Wages are counted on daily basis and monthly payment is given to ladies through cheque

and they have all their own accounts in bank. Minimum wage is Rs.50 per lady and they

are paid for overtime.

Management Committee-:

President- Vandana Navlkar

Vice President- Sandhya Belvalkar

Secretary- Aruna Markar. Others are management members. There are 150 employees in

all branches. 30 ladies are working at main branch. Maximum age limit is 65years and

minimum age limit is 18years.Maximum age to join is 35years.

Promotion-:

They promote through mouth publicity and have their advertisement on pamphlet where

menu is written and even on cups of tea.

Distribution Channel-:

Lunch is taken by dabbawallas and delivers it to customers. They have delivery van

which is owned by sanstha in which food is transported to other branches where cooking

facility is not available. Food is given to customers on coupon basis at food coupon.

Food-:

Variety of snacks, lunch and dinner is made. They have vegetarian and non-vegetarian

dishes. They take food orders for parties, seminars, meetings, exhibition, cultural festival

etc. They provide catering service.

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Sources of Raw material-:

Vegetables are purchased from Crawford market and Masjid Bandar from particular

whole seller and grocery from Vashi.

Benefits/Incentives to Ladies-:

Pension plan is given to ladies. All ladies have insurance with Max New York life

insurance and yearly premium Rs. 5000 is paid by sanstha itself. Education aid is given in

form of books, pencil etc, to children of ladies. They provide Rs.7000 for medical

expenses to each lady at the end of the year and major operation expenses are paid by

them. If any accident occurs at workplace, expenses are paid by sanstha. They have

deposited Rs.5000-Rs.25000 as fixed deposit in post called Kisan Vikas Patra depending

on seniority of ladies. Yearly picnics is arranged by sanstha. Conveyance allowances are

given to ladies who travel from distant places. They provide food, snacks during working

hours. They give 25% Diwali bonus and 15% Gudipadwa bonus.

Future Plans-:

Expansion is prime motive of the sanstha. Every year they are planning to open one

branch. They are even planning to export Puranpoli because it is durable for 10-15 days.

Export will be done directly.

Profits-:

It earns Rs.50, 000 per month and their turnover is Rs. two crore and seventeen lakhs

yearly.

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Kutumb – Sakhi

Why was it named as Kutumb-Sakhi?

It was named as Kutumb-Sakhi because those people employed were feeling ashamed of

doing maidservant jobs but they were comfortable doing any kind of work because when

they do the work in this environment they have a sense of belonging to a family which in

other terms is known as Kutumb-Sakhi.

Kutumb Sakhi Sanstha is an organization for the women, of the women and by the

women.

Introduction

It is seen that at all levels of development womens access to the labour market is

consistently more difficult than men’s. Employment opportunities as wage workers are

often denied to women because of their family responsibilities, lack of skills, social and

cultural barriers etc. It is now widely recognized that the main vehicles for economic

growth are the micro and small enterprises, particularly in a country like India.

Kutumb-Sakhi is one such organization, which has operating for the last two decades,

strengthening the economic base of over hundred deprived family. It has a setup of chain

of snack meal centre in and around Mumbai.

Kutumb-Sakhi has created a niche for itself in this field. It needs to become more market

driven and aggressive to come out of its stagnation in recent years. Its capacity to deliver

services has to be reorganized to derive maximum benefits. It needs to design a good

business plan.

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Historical perspective

Kutumb-Sakhi came into existence as a corporative industrial production centre limited

in 1977, with the sole aim of providing dignified income generating avenue to the women

belonging to the lower middle class families.

Dr Chandrakala hate pioneered this project. Finding from a survey of 5 hundred lower

middle class family revealed that most of the families lead a life of poverty. Women were

either subjected to an alcoholic spouse or were a widow or were abandoned by the

family. Majority of the household had single source of income. Due to illiteracy women

were unable to locate jobs. Their poor economic condition was showing a direct impact

on their health. Dr Hate strongly felt the need to improve the financial status of these

families by involving them in some income generating activities. In the long run cookery

proved to be a more profitable activity as it did not require any special training.

Present status of Kutumb-Sakhi

Kutumb-Sakhi made its humble beginning with just handful of ladies, and today it has a

total of 125 members working as cooks, sales girls, clerks and as supervisory staffs.

Initially Kutumb-Sakhi started with one centre which employed 12 women. To become a

member one has to be 18yrs old, know respect philosophy of the organization. After one

year of service any worker has the right to become a member. There are more than 1000

shares each Rs.25.

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Additional benefits for permanent employee

Monetary Benefits Benefits in kind Miscellaneous benefits

1) Housing rent Rs.1000

2) Medical allowance

Rs.250

3) Travel allowance

1) 2 saris as uniform

2) School books for

children

3) Umbrella

4) Gifts given at general

assembly

1) Provident fund

2) Parting bonus

3) Investment in kisan vikas patra

4) Special bonus for one not

taking extra unpaid leave

5) Diwali bonus ( 25% of annual

income)

6) Gudhi Padwa bonus (13% of

annual income)

7) Dividend

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths

1) Organization has vision and mission

2) Strong and charismatic leadership

3) Committed and loyal members

4) Track record of consistency

5) Credibility in taste and quality of food

6) Family environment

Weaknesses

1) Traditional outlook by some

2) Lack of professional inputs

3) Conflicts of roles and responsibilities

4) High dependency on single individual

5) Lack of visibility in corporate world

6) Lack of advertisement

Opportunities

1) Corporate linkages for steady inflow

2) Partnership with other NGO’s

3) Partnership with cinema halls, multiplexes, schools, colleges, railway stalls etc.

4) Brand building

5) Play a role of advocacy in women empowerment

Threats

1) Increasing competition in the food sector

2) Internal competition

3) Decline in productivity

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4) Preferences for variety of food/ cuisine

5) Lack of recognition.

Organizational climate

Flexibility is seen as strength. The other strengths seen in the organization are ability to

generate sense of belonging, loyalty, and team work and have a great faith in present

leadership. In terms of weakness large staff lacks good training in cleanliness, hygiene,

discipline and safety. The staff does not accept professionals on the pay role because of

the differences in the salary structure of the professionals and the old employees. It was

also reported that members lack exposure to commercial market because of their

traditional mind set and hence there is underutilization of their growth potential.

Administrative Practices

There is no well- defined written document available for running day to day general

administration. By laws of the organization provide the guidelines to formulate rules and

regulations of the organization. All the committee members are well versed with the by-

laws of the organization. It was also reported that under the strong influence of Mrs.

Vandana Navalker, the organization is able to manage its routine affairs smoothly.

Three experienced clerks who are trained by the internal auditors manage fiscal

administration of the organization. All records are maintained manually.

1) Salary register - Records containing all data regarding salary, PPF, bonus,

dividend and other investment done by the organization on the behalf of the

employees is maintained here.

2) Raw material purchase register – Each centre sends their bills and vouchers for

their daily purchases. Thus the centre wise entry is recorded. This helps in

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monitoring purchases of each centre.

3) Finished product register – Records of finished products made and sold at each

centre is maintained in this register. If some products were transferred from one

centre to the other, then the first centre would record this as a sale in their

account.

4) Profit register – Centre wise profit on each day is calculated after deducting the

voucher and bill amount from the total collected cash.

5) Personnel register – The records of employees names, age, addresses, family

constellation, year of resumption, pay scale, nominees, advance if take, deduction

of PPF etc. are maintained here.

6) Dead stock register – All record regarding the stocks like utensils, furniture,

cooking gadgets are maintained in this register.

7) Scrap register – Amount recovered by disposing scrap items is recorded here.

8) Shareholder’s register – Names of all share holders and dividend distributes to

them is mentioned here.

Market performance

Kutumb-Sakhi is marketing food products, which are a part of unorganized market sector

there is no separate department for handling the marketing aspect. Need was not felt

because of the demand, it is always overcoming supply, especially during the festive

seasons. Quantity to be produced is accessed from the past demand. There is tremendous

growth potential for Kutumb-Sakhi, as corporate sector has not at all been tapped it.

Homemade, tasty meals cooked in hygiene conditions, packed properly and delivered to

the door step is the need of the corporates. This need can be exploited by Kutumb-Sakhi

because it has an advantage of having its outlets in strategic locations. Kutumb-Sakhi has

already established creditability in taste and pricing of its products it needs improvement

in the area of display, packaging and distribution. Market oriented approach has to be

developed through training.

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Financial performance

To assess the financial performance every month, the Auditors of the organization

conduct a formal meeting. The issues discussed in this meeting are basically related to

market performance of each product and the extent of profit/ loss generated by the

centers.

Kutumb-Sakhi has the potential to become a major player in the ready to eat food market

and should keep its sights high. The challenge is for Kutumb-Sakhi to think big and adopt

a consumer oriented approach. It has the core strengths and a sound financial base

required for enlarge its operations and needs to adopt some of the modern management

practices to realize its vision like Amul & Lijjat can serve as appropriate Role models for

Kutumb-Sakhi.

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Market expansion and brand building

Kutumb-Sakhi should promote itself as women empowerment micro-finance enterprise

initiative in the field of quality food service. Its unique selling proposition (USP) is usage

of high quality ingredients to produce good quality home-made products made under

hygienic condition. Kutumb- Sakhi’s product range is already wide and customers have

given satisfactory remark about the existing product range. Kutumb-Sakhi should target

health conscious middle and higher middle class clientele residing around their centers.

Following action plan is developed for Kutumb-Sakhi

Market expansion:

1. Open new centers

2. Tying with offices for breakfast and lunch

3. Office delivery/home delivery around 2km, radius from the centre.

4. Parcel packets of lunch and other products

5. Telephone at each centre

6. Entry in export market

7. Better display of the products

8. Customer friendly attitude

9. Market survey

Brand building

1. Visibility through pamphlets, banners and boards

2. Good, clean and pleasant ambience with standardized look of all centers

3. Good packaging

4. Floating website and enlist on internet sites of NGO’s

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To increase productivity

1. Better working condition like playing music, airy, and well lighted kitchen,

good wash room etc.

2. Involvement in decision making

3. Maintaining a personal touch like giving a token amount as birthday gift

4. More interaction with the committee members communicating about their

long term benefits accursed to the staff other than salary

For better Hygiene and cleanliness

1. Compulsory uniform for all the staff

2. Compulsory use of aprons and scarfs for cooking staff

3. Proper storage facility for raw material as well as finished products

Networking

1. Tying with other ladies organization for new centers

2. Outsourcing to supermarkets or other big outlets for marketing.

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