Urban slum-dwellers to get help in setting up their own businesses

AHMEDABAD: Ashwin Pujjara, who runs an electric motor rewinding shop in Ahmedabad, earns Rs 25,000 every month. Life was not so kind to Pujjara, who comes from a slum in the city, till he was armed with the technology thread.
Similarly, Gitaben Vaghela's life was steeped in poverty till she decided to set up her own flour-grinding mill in Ahmedabad.Today, Vaghela earns Rs 3600 per month, which she claims is enough for her to meet her family's expenses.
Slum-dwellers like Pujjara and Vaghela now have a ray of hope with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Ahmedabad-based International Centre for Entrepreneurship & Career Development (ICECD) implementing SIYB (Start and Improve Your Business) programmes in the urban slums of Ahmedabad.
Over the past five years, ICECD has helped set up more than 5,000 businesses. Among these are readymade garments, old wood craft, pan parlours, tailoring, beauty parlour, footwear, jewellery and tiffin service.
In the next three weeks, around 100 potential entrepreneurs will be empowered from various slums in Ahmedabad to set up their own businesses. These groups of women and men are either less educated or uneducated and hail from economically backward communities in Amraiwadi, Anandnagar, Gokulnagar and Chandlodia areas.
The training intervention is designed to assist these potential entrepreneurs to find out if they are the right persons to start a business, to identify feasible business ideas, and to choose the idea that matches best with their personal entrepreneurial characteristics and their local environment. Business start-up training targets potential entrepreneurs who want to start their own business and already have a feasible business idea.
Hina Shah, director, ICECD, said, "We will teach the trainees how to establish a new business and prepare a bankable business plan to assess financial needs, link them for finance, and improve business and management skills in costing, finance, and marketing."
According to Shah, almost 40 per cent of Ahmedabad's population lives in slums with little or no access to basic services while an additional 18 per cent lives in underserviced tenements.