RANgsutra
Research Activities:
Fellows developed a socioeconomic impact assessment tool to measure Rangsutra’s impact on artisan employees. They field-tested and refined the impact assessment tool. Using this impact assessment tool, the fellows collected baseline data in Barmer, where Rangsutra has recently launched a new venture, and impact data in Bikaner, an established Rangsutra operation. The fellows completed 131 interviews with participating artisans, of whom 100% were women. The women ranged in age from 16 to 55, with an average age of 31 years old. Just less than 100% of the participants worked for the local craft market at some point in time, if not simultaneously while working with Rangsutra, giving participants a comparative insight to the benefits of working for Rangsutra.
Key Findings:
1. Women want to work. 60.8% of the women artisans asked for more work, and the remaining 39.2% were content with the number of hours they were currently working. Nearly 20% of women explicitly expressed interest in working more hours than they currently were. This was unprompted. Many of the women did not have specific opinions about other topics, but were bold enough to express this view.
2. Women spend wiser. Whereas only 24% of women reported their households saving money, 41% of women reported saving themselves. Women were also about 9% more likely to report spending money on education, whether that was for themselves, or other members of their families.
3. Center-based work is preferred. 87% of women were able to list benefits to working in centers over working in their homes. These benefits included, but were not limited to, socializing, learning new skills, having a focused workplace, and feeling motivated and inspired by other women.
Team
2016
Social Enterprise:
Fellows:
Sandhya Bodapati
Public Health Science
Grace Matthews
Public Health Science
Deliverables
Creating a Social Return on Investment: The fellows’ second deliverable is meant to link social impact assessment and investments, and is a tool for Rangsutra to create a social return on impact investment profile for future use.