Through its ArunaKaryashala programme, ArunaSocial Ventures wishes to skill, train and support women from these villages to start sustainable livelihood generation activities, either individually or collectively, which can be scaled up over time to generate employment opportunities for large numbers of women and youth from these communities. Post training and start-up of their enterprises, ArunaKaryashala will support them in providing market linkages for their products in some key markets of North and East India.

Learning through field visits is an important part of the Business and Entrepreneurship Training programme at ArunaKaryashala. One such field visit introduces the trainee-entrepreneurs to the modern retail environment by taking them to malls and showrooms of established brands. During this market visit, the trainee-entrepreneurs get to experience first-hand how products are sold at such marketplaces and the branding activities undertaken by established brands.

Other important learnings from these market visits include customer handling, display management, identifying market trends and new product development.

For some trainee-entrepreneurs, this happens to be their first visit to a mall or opportunity for travel on the metro. Such visits help in building their confidence and in giving them the motivation to travel and interact with strangers independently and without hesitation. There is also an element of fun in these field visits, as they get to end the day with a hearty meal of their favourite food at the food court of the mall! 

Interesting and innovative ideas were used to recycle waste products like pistachio shells, disposable plastic spoons, disposable paper cups, plastic bottle caps, non-woven bags, used garments and waste paper to create aesthetically appealing and useful items such as handbags, pillow covers, coasters, bottle covers, toys, wall hangings and other decoration items. The emphasis was not only on recycling waste products but also on designing and making products which are functional, well finished and saleable.

Through this exhibition the trainee-entrepreneurs not only became aware about ways to reduce waste in their immediate surroundings but also on how to ensure functionality, aesthetics and quality control to design and develop products which can be sold to potential customers at a reasonable price.

ArunaKaryashala is providing garment design training and advanced stitching training to many such women to upgrade their skills and help them make marketable products. Garment manufacturing can be a good option for microenterprises, as it can be undertaken even at a small scale and from the homes of the community women. The challenge is to ensure that the designs, cuts and quality of stitching meet the expectations of the customers in a highly competitive market segment. Upskilling and providing market-oriented training helps in overcoming these challenges.