Handy

Today was my last day of worky in India and I continued to explore the issue of handwork. Our first stop of the day was a distribution center in a pretty depressed area of the city. We got lost several times, meandered through narrow, unpaved streets and fought our way through crowds of people and animals to get to the tiny center.

Unlike other centers I visited during the trip, this center is operated by SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association), a trade union set up to protect women workers in India. This center received embroidery work from factories and distributed pieces to be completed to its members. Members pay 5 rupees per year to belong to SEWA, which helps negotiate health coverage, insurance, retirement plans and other benefits for its members. And this distribution center is able to pay women nearly double what they would receive from other handwork sub-contractors.

Unlike the facility I visited yesterday, the SEWA center maintains a system to track all its members. It keeps detailed records on where they live, how many pieces each woman takes to work on and how much is paid to each worker. Since SEWA keeps the women's interests at heart, it's no surprise that The Corporation's preferred method of handwork production is through SEWA-monitored facilities.

I then visited a government-sponsored education and training center in the neighborhood. On the first floor, girls who'd dropped out of school were taking lessons while other girls were upstairs learning hand embroidery skills. These girls had been pulled out of school by their parents. The expectation was that girls would help out at home or that their parents wanted to keep them within the protection of their home. In these neighborhoods, it generally isn't understood that access to education can be a positive thing. After all, going to school doesn't bring money or food home at the end of the day.

Established by the Indian Minister for Social Welfare, this operation is different from traditional schooling in that it teaches girls a trade. With the SEWA center around the corner, families recognize that, after several months of training and education and after they become of legal working age, these girls will be able to earn money to help support the family.

I rounded off the day by visiting two malls, one in Delhi and one in Gurgaon. These malls, each less than one year old, were clean, spacious and full of brands I didn't recognize. The Delhi-based Social Responsibility Manager who led me on my retail tour kept explaining why now was a good time for The Corporation to begin retail operations in India. I think my colleagues in the field overestimate how much influence (um, none whatsoever) I have over such decisions back in SF.