February 2016 Woman At Work Digital

SOCIETY
of the region was their commitment to
their soil. “When we left our village to
get educated and employed, we had
vowed to come back some day and create
employment opportunities here,”explains
Snehal Londhe, Managing Director of
Payod Industries. Hingagaon and the
neighbouring villages are drought prone
areas with negligible agricultural
activities. The men left the village in
search of work, leaving behind their
wives, mothers and children. Most of
them became drivers and many died in
road accidents, hence leaving young
uneducated dependent widows to live at
the mercy of the family.
Fully cognizant of these problems,
the duo embarked on the journey of
providing employment opportunities and
skillset development for sustained
livelihood, especially of the women of
this region. Recalling their impediments,
Snehal explains, “There was no transport,
no internet, and no nationalised or private
bank ready to gamble on our faith. They
did not think we will be able to run an
international standard production unit
right here.”
But as they say, fortune favours the
brave. Payod Industries is the only
manufacturer and market leader in
industrial safety gloves with 100% export
and employing 95% women workers
from the local villages in and around
Hingagaon. They make polyester
seamless gloves, cotton knitted seamless
gloves, seamless cotton gloves with PVC
dotted on palms and bleached white
gloves. And all of their production is
carried out at international standards on
high end sewing machines and packaging
machines, under strict quality control.
Payod Industies was set up with the
core idea of empowering the women of
Sangli district and the adjoining rural
clusters. The factory provides training on
knitting, sewing, packaging, dye cutting
and many other processes involved in
process of glove making. For those
women who cannot come to the factory
compound due to domestic pressures
or other exigencies, Payod provides them
with decentralized working space- soft
loans for stitching machines and
renovation of houses, so that they could
earn their livelihood working from
home. Since the strict quality parameters
demand cleanliness and personal and
community hygiene, the economic
incentive has pushed this behavioural
change.
Snehal shares the past saying,
“There was a time when we had to urge
women to get trained and we would
incentivise them with an honorarium
amount that they would have earned in
the fields. These women expected to earn
INR 20-50 a day. And now they earn
INR 6000 to 7000 a month depending on
how much work they turn around.”
Payod Industries has not only led to
an economic empowerment, but also set
the stage for a social and behavioural
transformation in these rural areas.
About 95% of the employees are
women from socially disadvantaged
families, widows, women family heads,
BPL families and economicallybackward
families. Regular income has meant that
many of the children of these poor
families are able to remain in schools.
There has been an increase in enrolment
of children in the schools and reduction
of drop outs because of access to
livelihood opportunities for their parents.
Payod has walked a step further by
engaging in village development
initiatives. The industry has adopted the
local government school and provides
global classroom facilities. The school
going children are provided with
educational aid as well as shoes and
books whenever required. The village
also boasts of a free library, ‘Hingagaon
Village Knowledge Centre’ which has
3000 books, 15 magazines and holds
seminars on topics like agriculture and
technology, women health, child
nutrition etc. All of this is aided and
maintained by Payod Industries as part
of its corporate social responsibility.
Payod has earned awards and accolades
for its exemplary work from many
national level agencies and platforms
like the Officers Forum of Maharashtra,
DICCI 2011, Sankalp 2014, Perarna
Puraskar – IBN Lokmat and World Rural
Entrepreneur forum.
Kajal Karpe, a victim of fate has
become a hero of her destiny after
getting trained and absorbed by Payod.
The young widow is an expert tailor
spinning thousands of gloves a month
and earning enough money for her
family to live a comfortable life. Kajal is
getting her younger sister educated,
footing expenses for her father’s medical
care and has installed a water filter in her
house. A perfect example of positive
economic and behavioural progress,
Kajal believes in the importance of
sanitation and hygiene. The change in
perspective has been brought about by
the economic liberation and financial
independence which she has gained by
getting skilled at Payod Industries. 180
clusters of villages, 850 women employees,
200 machines and a new generation of
economically and socially liberated
women is the turnover of Payod Industries.
Snehal, Devanand and their team have
truly proven to be the oasis in the drought
prone villages in and around Sangli.
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| February 2016