We started our journey of empowerment back in 2020. Startup Jalsa has been on a mission to inspire, invest in and empower entrepreneurial talent. One such initiative undertaken by Startup Jalsa aimed at extending a helping hand to the rural women-led Self Help Groups by providing them funding of INR 1,00,000
The objective of this scheme was to extend financial assistance in the form of grants to SHG’s (Self Help Groups) to be utilised for taking up income generation activities towards the enhancement of their family incomes and livelihoods. The fund was given in three stages: establishment stage, working capital for capacity building and the final stage after the SHG’s have a go-to-market strategy.
In accordance with the schemes, the Invest Edition 2020 is on a mission to empower 4 rural women funded Self Help Groups from Hamirpur District of Himachal Pradesh. During the Stage 1 establishment, a grant of INR 25,000 will be provided to them. Among the 4 SHGs, 2 are registered with Hamirpur Constituency of the State Legislative Assembly and the other 2 are new SHGs that have come up in the region.
The SHGs are provided with a platform to display their handicrafts such as baskets made out of bamboo, embroidered clothes and homemade food items like pickles etc.
Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, also praised this initiative of Start Up Jalsa. He said that the culture of handicrafts has been on a decline in Himachal Pradesh, due to the major technological advances and they should be encouraged so that the culture of the SHGs does not die down in the state and in the county.
The SHGs after getting trained in their crafts could not enable themselves to receive the remaining grant due to no market linkage. We realised that there is a bigger problem than the capital costs. Due to the remote nature of the artisans and significantly less access to the market and its trends, the artisans find it difficult to sell their crafts in the market.
Diving deep into the problem we realised that the only way this problem can be solved at scale is by linking the artisans with brands directly and hence was born Karwaan : Journey to the roots
