Udyog Samachar
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MSME-Development Institute Kolkata Vol: IV, March 2019 0 Udyami Bangla Vol: IV, March 2019 From the Desk of Director: Let me first pay our homage to the Martyrs of Pulwama. No amount of opprobrium of the dastardly and cowardly attack on our soldiers is enough. The whole nation is mourning under the grief of the loss. But we should also maintain our integrity and peace in this time of crisis. Further, the bells of the General Election are ringing loud day by day. In this fluid situation, the MSME sector will have to hold their base firmly and avoid treading in to risky ventures. Government of India and the O/o DC(MSME) is coming up with new plans and proposals .The path breaking social security scheme, Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM) is one of them to safeguard the interests of the labour force of the unorganised sector, especially the Micro & Small sector of the industry with pension after retirement. MSME-DI, Kolkata vowed to propagate the scheme among the stakeholders. We expect co-operation from all the stakeholders in popularising the scheme, so that the poor labourers of the MSME Sector may reap the fruits of the scheme. MSME-DI, Kolkata organised a special meeting with other Central Government organisations and Industry Associations on 25-02-2019 to explore the ways to popularize this scheme. This issue of the E-Newsletter of MSME-DI, Kolkata for March, 2018 has elaborated the scheme. Ajoy Bandopadhyaya Content A. Director’s Message 01 B. Editorial 02 C. Success Stories 03 D. AV Space 09 E. From the Districts 10 F. Focus District – Purba Medinipur 14 G. News & Views 20 H. Special Feature 27 Editor : Sri Debabrata Mitra, Deputy Director (G&C) Sub Editor : Sri Chitresh Biswas, Asstt. Director (Stat) Cover Pic : The Republic Day is being celebrated by the Officers & Staff members of MSME-DI, Kolkata 1 Udyami Bangla Vol: IV, March 2019 Editorial: The existence of Indian MSMEs is deep rooted in clusters. It is estimated that around 63 % or approximately two-third of MSMEs are situated in various clusters. Evolution of these clusters has helped to reap the benefits of mutual co-existence. The member entities support each other in growing together and faster. However, the growth has not been as high as compared to their potential. The reasons for this underperformance are many and are often related to lack of ”targeted joint action” and “promotion of passive cooperation among the enterprises to address issues related to finance, infrastructure, technology, human resources, market, raw material, etc. Not all clusters have the same or similar readiness for adopting sustainable production methods. Accordingly selection of clusters is critical for sustainability linked financing. Bankers need to aware about the factors that are critical for the offtake of technology and therefore institutional financing. The Government of West Bengal is supporting more than 430 clusters in the State that include MSME, Handloom and Khadi clusters. Besides providing need based common facilities to these clusters, the Department is focusing on skill development and capacity building, technology support and support for financial and market linkage. You will find some important information related to MSME cluster in this issue. We organised Annual cultural event at DI, Kolkata that ended on Republic day. A great appeal of workplace recreation clubs is that they give staff the opportunity to take part in activities they might not otherwise have considered, or have found the time to take up. Clubs can also be an effective motivational tool. reducing employees’ stress levels and boosting their overall health and wellbeing. This issue covers East Medinipur district which has an excellent transport and communication network of national highways and railways. A major existing industrial base at Haldia & Kolaghat, availability of skilled man power at comparative low rates, abundance of electric power and a business environment conducive for industrial growth are few plus points for promotion and development of MSME in this district. Hope this issue will be a good reading pleasure for you. Debabrata Mitra 2 Udyami Bangla Vol: IV, March 2019 SUCCESS STORY An Organisation for the Physically Challenged SILENCE Regd. Office : 2/1A, Monohar Pukur 2nd Lane, Kolkata - 700 029 Phone No. : +91 33 2474-3761 / 5962 Website : www.silence-india.org SILENCE, a centre for socio-economic rehabilitation of the deaf and other physically challenged persons of the society. SILENCE, came into existence in the year 1979. It all started with a handful of deaf artists with a bit of creative skill-sets and lots of dreams to achieve an economic and spiritual self-sufficiency. Their dedication and a bold initiative to create hand-painted greeting cards attracted a group of self-effacing social activists. And together, they formed a society that got itself registered as an NGO. In SILENCE, Persons With Disabilities come from all economic sections of the society. Irrespective of economic classes, deaf/blind/mentally-retarded/orthopedic, (PWDs) have different problems – but one thing in common, that is, they are severely marginalized in the mainstream of the society and live with poor status due to lack of economic rehabilitation. PWD Act (1995) has taken place for the Persons with Disability (PWD) “shall reserve not less than 3% in all poverty alleviation for the benefit of the PWD” (Chapter VI art. 40). In spite of the Act, less than 0.02% can avail the opportunities due to lack of infrastructure essential for their special education and training facilities. Apart from that PWDs are attached with the stigma “PWDs are not pro work culture” thus ‘why invite trouble by employing them’. In lower economic sector they remain as unpaid labour, in middle class they survive doing odd-jobs in their families with no or negligible allowance but treated as second class citizen. Yes, there are some charities available for them in form of grants which is just like few drops in the desert for their economic rehabilitation. Silence is a small NGO (Society) which rehabilitate PWD socio-economically. The PWDs are mostly Deaf (Hearing Impaired, HI), in Silence along with few Blind and Mentally Retarded (MR) and Orthopaedically Handicapped (OH). Silence’s main purpose or objective is to convert these PWD adult drop outs of poor or no-income to economically self-reliant as far as possible through:- 1. Skill Development 2. Attune to work culture 3. Placement services. A huge number of PWDs are found dropout from the mainstream education due to lack of special assistance they need to cope up with the general level of their classes resulting thrown or dropping out of their schools, majority by 8 to 11 years age. By the time they approach adulthood, they become wild, frustrated to a point of no return. Mostly their guardians are at a loss when they 3 Udyami Bangla Vol: IV, March 2019 appear Silence for counseling for help as their pupils are functionally uneducated, frustrated, and angry. When they are tied in Silence, the guardians are already hopeless about them. Except for pinching their pocket money from their guardians they have no income, no prestige within the family, and rank themselves much below to their own siblings. And they appear to be unemployable by temperament. In Silence even before any vocational training to be imparted, they need to calm down first and that happens when they find the other PWDs are working happily within Silence workshop. At this stage Skill development training is initiated with them. This training is free of any charges passing from one to three years. Most of the cases they start earning while learning after completion of first year. Till they find placement a large section of the PWD trainees are taken within Silence as their base camp. At present 87 such PWDs are in full time occupation with Silence producing handicraft items with PF, Gratuity, Pension and other facilities. In addition Silence runs a subsidized Canteen for midday meal for the PWD stakeholders. When they start earning money, irrespective of meagerness of the amount, their body language changes radiating with confidence for such achievement. Henceforth, in every step their advancement brings dignified satisfaction in them. After this turning point they never look back. Silence does not run from charity/grants but by selling the handicraft items which they produce. Most of the successful trainees (till they get employment) join Silence workshop and collectively produce different handicraft items. They take the workshop as their transition camp before placement. By that time, they are no more frustrated as they were found before coming to Silence. There are quite few cases, even after getting employment outside, they declined to leave the Workshop as they felt more secured with prestige than outside. However, they get over with it with time about outer world. The craft items produced at Silence workshop are sold in the market. 50% are sold in domestic market and rest is exported. In addition to that Silence trades gift items through its Gift-shop. This sales turnover meets all expenses Silence incurs for production, training/placement, and marketing. Silence does not make profit. Whenever there is an Income over Expenditure, >90% of it is plowed back to the PWD workers and staff in different blocks e.g. exgracia, producer’s dividend, festival allowance etc. Besides, there is Monthly Salary, ESI, Staff Benefits, etc. Out of the profit, only <5% is kept back as reserve to meet rainy days. Within it capacity, Silence organizes annual educational tour to different places in India. The journwy and feat of Silence is indeed making loud noise of the success and showing the PWDs the way of life with bright light of examples.