Building girl power, brick by brick

They can well be called the ‘enterprising eleven’ — all of them girls barely out of their teens whose visiting cards say they are in the business of ‘construction services’. The 11 of them, who’ve formed six companies, specialize in building modular kitchens and modern baths in apartment blocks. These 11 girls are from the 2014 batch of the Howrah-based Don Bosco Self Employment Research Institute’s three-year civil engineering technicians’ course, which is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations and the West Bengal Council of Technical Education.They’re all part of a novel initiative christened ‘Nariprise’ (a combination of ‘nari’ and ‘enterprise’) that is the brainchild of the institute’s director, Brother T V Mathew. “Over the past three to four years, construction companies where our students from this course would find employment as site supervisors have been expressing reluctance to take in our girl students since they didn’t want to get mired in issues of workplace harassment. Many girls failed to get jobs. So I decided to make entrepreneurs out of them,” says Br Mathew. He broached the idea with the girls who had completed the course in 2013, but they didn’t like the idea of specializing in constructing toilets. “I started speaking to the 14 girls in the 2014 batch and after a lot of explaining, managed to convince 12 of them to become entrepreneurs. One dropped out later on and we now have 11,” he adds. Br Mathew started by counselling the girls, who underwent more specialized training in constructing modular kitchens and toilets. He then selected six of the most skilled from this lot and assigned the remaining five as partners by a lottery of names to the six. Next came the formation of the companies, which were then registered with the state government’s MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) department and the Howrah district industries centre. “I got a lawyer to draw up partnership deeds between the girls for a year. Thus, two girls are partners of one company,” he explains. But the biggest task was getting contracts for these girls. That was when providence stepped in. “A five-storeyed apartment block was coming up just beside our campus and I approached the promoter about three months ago with an offer he couldn’t refuse,” says Br Mathew. “I told him that the girls would make 10 kitchens and 10 toilets free of cost if he supplied the materials. He immediately agreed. They worked for two months and completed 10 kitchens and 11 toilets. The owners of the new apartments loved the work.” All the six teams of girls were assigned a master mason each, from whom they learnt the tricks of the trade. The promoter then offered the girls the contract for constructing the kitchens and toilets in the remaining 20 apartments of the building. Br Mathew got a renowned brand of sanitaryware to sell tiles and other fittings for the toilets and kitchens at nearly half the price. Meanwhile, on getting to know about their quality of work, a local temple management committee approached Br Mathew to have the ‘Nariprise’ girls construct three toilets and pave the temple’s floor with marble. “We completed that task successfully and in a very short time,” says Anisa Khatun, who is one of the partners of ‘Piyasha Nariprise’. Their next big job is a premium 14-storeyed apartment complex coming up on GT Road. “This is a prestigious project and we’re hugely excited. Each of the six companies we have formed has committed to complete one toilet in two days and one kitchen in three days. So, collectively, we will be able to complete six toilets in two days and six kitchens in three days,” says Neha Lodh, who partnered with Juli Kumari Rajak to form ‘Skylark Nariprise’. These eleven entrepreneurs are confident of making it big on their own. “We can now negotiate with suppliers to get materials at concessional rates. We have learnt a lot over the past three months and can guarantee that our work will be of the highest quality. We will guarantee 100% customer satisfaction,” says Pinki Bari and Shipra Sanbui of ‘Ulysses Construction Nariprise’. Br Mathew also has total confidence in his girls. “They will surely make very successful entrepreneurs,” he believes. The girls are looking to make handsome profits. The seed capital for their first project was put up by the institute, which paid them Rs 300 a day as stipend and then gave them an equal share of the profits. Their individual earnings came to more than Rs 12,000 a month. This model will be followed for the next big project too, but the profits from that work will be much higher. “I have always dreamt of making big buildings. This is the start and I will achieve my dream one day,” says Rumpa Ghosh, who partners with Preeti Kachhap in ‘Craftsman Nariprise’. This is a dream that all the 11 have. This dream is also shared by Br Mathew, who is more than a friend, philosopher and guide to them. He’s sure his ‘Nariprise’ project will take wing and empower many more girls in years to come.