PRODUCER MEET AT SANTINIKETAN-2008 

Sasha convened its Annual Producer Group Meeting on the 29th and the 30th of December 2007. The Producers' Group is a network of grassroot level artisan groups made up of Sasha's most actively producing and engaged members. The group meets annually to suggest new directions and review the operation of the Sasha network.  This year the Meet was held at Bolpur, in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, approximately 180 kilometers north of Kolkata. Bolpur is also the site of “Shantiniketan” and “Sriniketan”- shaped from Tagore’s vision.Two concurrent themes of this Meet were ‘Business visioning and Buisness Plus’. The meeting was spread over one and a half days and included separate sessions on

• Business Review (2006-07) & future challenges
• Group work on business vision and presentations by the groups (on key topics)
• Business Plus
• Presentation of Subhashini Kohli Award

Day 1- Saturday (29th December, 2008):-

Keeping to the tradition, this year’s meeting was hosted by Amar Kutir Society for Rural Development, a renowned voluntary organisation based in Bolpur.  Prof. Prasanta Kumar Ghosh, academician and Secretary of the Amar Kutir Society, gave the inaugural speech. In which he highlighted the contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in respect to the hand-made craft especially leather as the contemporary society looked down upon the artisans. Tagore’s foresight to make handicrafts a major livelihood option. He expressed his gratitude towards Sasha to provide Amar Kutir with vital inputs and market support.

The opening session was a deliberation on business matters. Ms. Roopa Mehta of Sasha Association for Craft Producer presented the previous year’s Business performance- export and domestic retail and Wholesale. Ms. Mehta shared the experiences of the year gone by; the major initiaves in product and market development challenges and demands the collaborated efforts of Sasha & SSA/EDF to meet the same. Ms. Mehta particularly stressed upon the market demands and touched on new safety requirements such as testing and identifying reliable sources for safe materials, training and monitoring production and last but not the least Changing producer mindsets & motivation. She concluded the morning session with a mention on Branding and the importance of the network culture that has been the cornerstone of Sasha’ growth.

Mr. Debasish Ray Choudhuri of Sarba Shanti Ayog-EDF introduced the post tea session on Business Vision the entire Sasha network needs to look at. This session was primarily a group activity in the form of focused discussions around issues that would entail in order to envisage and attain common as well as individual business growth. The participants, mainly representatives from the producer groups formed several small groups and indulged in an animated but focused discussion facilitated by Sasha staff on issues like setting targets, scaling up, leveraging on networks, operations, capacities, structural issues within organisations etc.  The post Lunch session was devoted to group findings and presentations on several issues discussed along with POA in most cases. The highlights are as follows.                    

• To need to explore domestic market
• Competitive pricing
• Information on resource
• To improve networking
• Training & workshops on quality and new design development
• Quality check from at every stages and from the initial stages 
• Lead times & reducing rejections

• Artisan ID card
• Rajiv Gandhi Shilpa Swastha Yogna (R.G.S.S.Y)
• Artisans Credit Card
• Group Insurance Scheme

The concluding session of the day was a presentation by Sujata Goswami of SSA regarding Minimum health safety requirements that are gradually becoming basic requirements for business now in the wake of SA8000. The presentation was based on the experiences on a Social Audit held at Phulia recently. In the evening a cultural programme was arranged for the evening. A famous folk artiste Mr. Kartik Das presented Bengali traditional folk songs of Bengal known as Boul songs or the songs of the wandering minstrels or Bauls.  The folk songs were followed by traditional dance form of Orissa known as Gutipua, wherein teenage boys dressed as females portraying characters from the mythology and religious texts. The program on ended with in everyone participating in general merriment.

Day 2- Sunday (30th Dec 08):-

The second day began with a brief recapitulation of the previous day’s proceedings by Mr. Debasish Ray Choudhuri. He began the ‘Business Plus’ session putting in plain words the concept of ‘Business Plus’ and the role of SASHA –EDF in provision of capacity building inputs and business plus. A questionnaire format was distributed to the groups to get a feedback on the kind of business plus activities they are already involved in to rate them accordingly. The aim of the whole exercise was to assess the gaps and requirements that each group has with regards to delivery of business plus.

The next presentation was by Ms. Swagata Ghosh of Sasha Textile Artisan Association. Ms. Ghosh who revisited the history of the formation of Artisans. She was that Artisan Association has grown business-wise, but she also expressed her concern a number of groups especially the old groups were not aware of their dwindling turnover. She pointed out that while Sasha has provided inputs to the groups, some groups are not being able to utilize them. She stressed on the need for sharing and inter-learning, proactiveness and cooperation amongst the groups.

This was followed by a presentation by Mr. N. K. Mahapatra of Sasha Craft Services Company Limited. He began with a brief on the objectives of SASHA Craft Services. Mr. Mahapatra stressed on internalizing workshops and chalking out a definite production plan and follow up on workshops.

After the tea break, the election for the SASHA management committee was held wherein last year’s committee was unanimously re-elected. The meeting ended with the distribution Subhashini Kohli award for excellence. Raidighi Saswati Mahila Samity, women’s embroidery group based in Sunderbans was awarded the 1st prize for excellence in business performance for the year 2006-07. The 2nd Subhashini Kohli award for excellent in business performance was given to Asha Niketan, a group working with the mentally challenged.The award for most Promising New Group was given to Durbar Mahila Samity that works with a special community of sex workers and their children for their rehabilitation and support. Award for innovation was awarded to Sayani Hasta Shilpa.
                                                                        
Two other organisation awarded certificates of merit for outstanding performance- Child and Social Welfare Society, that works with the marginalised community and Sadhna, a Rajasthan based organisation into women's alternative income generation programme, providing an avenue for rural and tribal women.  The annual meeting ended with the customary vote of thanks on appositive note with the reassurance of working together in a spirit manner by putting systems in place both at Sasha & the producer group’s end and most importantly, with the producer groups’ participation & involvement.