February 2016 Woman At Work Digital

SOCIETY
An Oasis of
GROWTH
In most parts of the rural India, women are denied the right to education and earning
opportunities. The rural belt around Sangli District in Maharashtra is one such area where
there was a large population of women without opportunities to earn and take control of their
future. Payod Industries took it upon themselves to put an end to their plight and take these
rural women out of financial and social doldrums. Megha Johari talks to Snehal Londhe,
co-founder of Payod Industries to understand more about their socio-commercial venture and
impact.
here was a time when
Hingangaon village, near Sangli
district was an unknown barren
land on the map of Maharashtra. Before
2008, the village was entrenched with
all kinds of social vices like
discrimination based on scheduled and
backward caste practices, oppression of
women and denial of rights to the girl
child. The only source of paltry income
of the villagers was the agricultural
activities, which was seasonal and
cyclic. But after the setting up of a
glove making factory, Payod Industries,
the village has found its place under the
sun.The gloves production unit has
changed the life and aspirations of the
village otherwise crumbling under its
own scarcities. All this has been brought
about by the incessant efforts and
determination of Devanand and Snehal
Londhe, the couple who founded this
socio-commercial enterprise.
When Snehal Londhe and her
husband decided to give up their cushy
jobs and become social entrepreneurs,
they were aghast at the state of the
democratic and secular India. Snehal
recalls, “When we decided to set up the
factory in Hingangaon, we had to
encounter a lot of resistance from
villagers, men and women alike because
they had never imagined working in a
factory environment. The women had
never stepped out of the house to do
more than fetch the basic necessities or
become a farmhand.” To make matters
worse was the foreboding of the caste
barriers and acute poverty. Bracing
such stiff resistance and lack of skills
among villagers what pushed the
Londhe couple to start a makeover
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