ORGANIZATIONAL

UNDERSTANDING

KALA RAKSHA TRUST

Sumrasar Sheikh
Plan of P re sent ati on
 Introduction
 Origin & Evolution
 Vision & Mission
 Design
 Performance
 Resource Providers
 Target Groups
cont d…
 Commensals
 Future Plans
 Conclusion
Intro duct ion
 Kala Raksha (KR) is registered as a society
and trust under the Societies Registration
Act 1860 and Public Trust Act 1950
respectively in 1993

 Beneficiaries: more than 350 artisans in 9

villages of Kutch district in Gujarat
 Traditional crafts: embroidery
(suf,Rabari,Jat,mutva,kahrek,pako) appliqué,
patchwork and leatherwork
 Product range: garments, home furnishings,
accessories, gift items and traditional fabric-
games
 Sales: exhibitions, orders, consignments
Origi n & Ev olu ti on
 Chance meeting between a Fulbright scholar
and a student of law in 1989
 1991-93 : Funds from Ford Foundation routed
through Dastakar to set up “Dastakar- Kutch”
 August 26 1993, registered as a society and
trust with the name Kala Raksha
 April,1997 moved into its own premises.
Mis sion
 To preserve and present cultures of ethnic
communities through their traditional arts, in order to
encourage understanding and appreciation
 To facilitate the transformation of traditional arts
in contemporary products by encouraging
innovation within the tradition
 To assist communities in achieving economic self-
sufficiency through cooperative efforts, and to
provide opportunities for basic education
 To provide opportunities for direct sale of
contemporary arts
Ana lysi s
 Intervention choice set is specific and
influenced by the educational training and
background of the initiator
 The mission statement ought to be simple
and concise
 It’s a problem defined mission as opposed to
people defined mission
 Boa rd Of Tru st ees

Chief Execu tiv e Pr oject C oor dinat or

Desi gn Pr odu ction Mar ketin g B & G E & H A& A

PA-I PA-II Driver VHW (n) Head Teacher

Cook
Fieldworker (n) Supervisor (n) Local Teacher (n)

Peon

PA: Production Assistant, VHW: Village Health Worker,

B&G: Buildings & Grounds E&H: Education & Health
A&A: Administration & Accounts
De si gn

 KR has a divisional structure

 Complexity : Medium
 Formalization : Low
 Centralization : Medium
 Size: 36 employees, 5 tailors on contract
 Technology: Intensive
 Style of management: Driven by values and
deeply held convictions
 Human Resources:
• Recruitment : from the immediate locality
• Selection: personal contact (informal)
• Skills : On the job acquisition
• Pay & Promotion: No explicit policy
• Demography:
• 27yrs (av. Age)
• Male : Female :: 2:1 (24 females, 12 males)
Other salient features of
design
 Board of Trustees:
• founding members including 3 artisans, experts in
management and design, architecture
• Passive role
 Wages Committee
 Price Committee
 Reluctance to employ professionally trained
individuals exists
 Role of interns
 Strategy

• Innovation within tradition

• Decentralization and diversity
 Values:

• Honesty
• Self-determination and participation
Perf orma nce
Financial
 Unsold stock : 2 lacks
 Production: Constant growth before declining
in 2004
 Sales

• growth @ 70% peaking to 100% in 2001

• Decline since in 2002 till date
• Exhibitions(60%), Orders(20%),
Centre(10%), Others(10%)
• Ratios:
• Current ratio: 2.62
• Stock Turnover Ratio: 2.32 (5.08 months)
• Debtor’s Turnover ratio: 2.72 (4.41 months)
• Strengths: quality, variety, tradition
• Weakness:
• Inordinately high dependence on exhibition,
• Inadequate financial planning
• High inventory
• Long lag periods
 Museum and resource centre
established
 Villages: 1 t0 10

 Artisans: 20 to 500+

 Craft styles:

• Embroidery styels1 t0 6
• Patchwork, appliqué, leatherwork
Re sou rce p ro viders
 Ford Foundation routed through Dastakar
 Development Commissioner (handicrafts), GOI
 Sir Rattan Tata Trust
 Winrock International
 Unniti Foundation
 Aid To Artisans
 UNIDO
 NABARD

For training and design workshops, marketing, working capital, education

and health program, museum and resource centre development
Targe t Group
 Skill up gradation training programs
 Design workshop (twice a year)
 Teacher’s training
 Relief and rehabilitation in times of relief
 Recently in many artisans have been weaned
away by the daily wage sector
Commensals
Works independently, the local office of DC-H,
other government agencies and NGO’s
The Ro ad A head . . .

 Decentarlization of production process

 Design school for artisans in Tunda Vandh, Ta:
Mundra,
Co ncl usi on
 Actions directed to achieve mission
 The evolution of crafts which KR seeks to
preserve had a cultural basis. But today, it is
sought to be preserved primarily on it being an
economically viable source of livelihood. With
artisans being weaned away by seemingly more
lucrative employment options, KR possibly will
have to reorient its development model to make
it sustainable.
Organisational Action
Component

Management Information
System
Obje ctiv es
 To identify and understand the information
requirements for various departments namely
production, marketing, education & health
(E&H) and buildings & grounds (B&G).
 To analyze the identified information for
meaningful decision making.
 To identify and establish a system of reporting
and information sharing amongst the
departments
Sc op e of t he Stu dy

 The scope was limited to design, production,

marketing, E&H, and B&G departments of
the organization.
Me tho dol ogy

 Interviews and group discussions with personnel

in each department and inspection of current
records/documents maintained by these
departments
Ma jo r f indings

 Format of recorded information was informal and

non-standard which made retrieval, collation,
and analysis of information extremely difficult.

 Recording of information was irregular in some

departments.
Findings (contd. . .)

 Managers lacked proficiency in the use of basic

computers applications

 Field workers were generally averse to

systematically recording information
Findings (contd. . .)

 Earlier attempts at standardizing information

systems of production and marketing
departments, unsuccessful
Thus. . .
 An acute need for a simple and user-friendly
man-machine information system

 Effectiveness of the new system requires

factoring in the current skill-sets and
proficiency with computers of the end users
is essential in the design
Actions T aken

 Alterations in the design of challan books were

suggested
 Formats of recording information were
standardized for all departments
 A system of information storage, retrieval, and
reporting was developed and implemented in
MS-Access
Re comme nda tions
 Employ a data entry operator
 A monitoring system comprising
• daily inspection of records for data entry,
• fortnightly submission of reports in the Monday-
meetings
• quarterly, half-yearly and yearly submission of summary
and analytical computer generated reports in review
and evaluation meetings
Lim ita tions

 Inadequate supervision of the work of data entry

in registers and the computer system may
render the system ineffective
Thank You!