Kudumbashree, the poverty eradication mission of the State Government that doubles up also as a rural women empowerment scheme, will bring some of its best-known products from its rural enterprises under one common brand.
While ensuring fair price to the consumers by avoiding the middlemen, these micro-enterprises also make sure that the manufacturers get the best prices for their products.
COMMON BRAND
“Now the plan is to give a better institutional framework for marketing these products by introducing a common brand, called the Kudumbashree Community Brand, and pitching them against the established ones,” Ms Sarada Muraleedharan, Executive Director, Kudumbashree said.
Those selected under the initiative include four categories - apparels, food items, traditional healthcare products, and health and hygiene products for homes and people. As many as 40 products, hitherto marketed under different brands, will come under the common branding.
Kudumbashree, which has scripted a silent revolution in the past years by guiding rural women to find livelihood through micro-enterprises, has selected some of its quality products to be marketed under the common brand.
NICHE MARKET
It is also looking to carve a niche for itself in the open market outside the traditional Kudumbashree fold by competing with big brands on the strength of its attributes - purity, quality and Kerala taste.
The micro-enterprises under Kudumbashree are able to rattle up a turnover of Rs 125 crore annually through its traditional marketing modes.
Home shops, daily fairs, monthly fairs and special fairs like Onam and Vishu are the existing marketing windows for these women groups.
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
More than the figures, what is more significant is the success of this livelihood mission through which thousands of poor families earn a steady income, Mr Sarada Muraleedharan, said.
This has proved as an effective tool of economic empowerment, she added. As many as 75,000 families, mostly from the below poverty line, are associated with these ventures.