A consortium is a group made up of two or more individuals units in the same sector that work together toward achieving a chosen objective. Each entity within the consortium is only responsible to the group in respect to the obligations that are set out in the consortium's contract. Therefore, every entity that is under the consortium remains independent in his or her normal business operations and has no say over another member's operations that are not related to the consortium. The consortium/societies have been established to deliver a host of services to Kudumbashree units, through establishing backward and forward linkages and instituting a professional management structure. The consortium is owned by Kudumbashree women entrepreneurs, and run with professional support. The consortiums in Kudumbashree are legally registered under Charitable Societies Act. A charitable organization is a type of Non Profit Organization (NPO). Its goals are social well being of the units and its members. eg , charitable, educational, or other activities serving the public interest or common good.

The consortiums are organisational forms that will improve the bargaining power, net income and quality of micro entrepreneurs, contribute to the scale of production, helps in cost reduction by collective raw material purchase and organized marketing. This helps in collective action and reduces the chances of defunctioning of member units. Also if some member units/members come to a crisis they financially support from the pooled funds. The consortiums take all licenses and other legal requirements.

The steps involved in the formation of Consortiums are

  • Mobilization of Micro entrepreneurs
  • Awareness classes
  • Selection of Adhoc Committee members (7 members)
  • Preparation of MOA and byelaws
  • Selection of Name of the Society
  • Finding an office
  • Formal registration process

The General Body consists of one member from each unit. The General Body meetings are conducted once in three months and the Executive Committee meetings are conducted in every month. The General body members elect the Executive member in each district. The Executive members are formally elected from the member units in each district through procedures mentioned in the Byelaws. The President, Secretary and Treasurer are elected from the Executive members. The Executive committee takes decisions regarding the day to day affairs of the Consortium and major decisions are presented in the General Body meetings and get approval. The Secretary presents the accounts in the General Body meetings. If one third of the quorum approves the decisions are taken.

 

 

 

Saphalam Project implemented in Kasargod involves the collection and processing of cashew nut grown in the district by the local rural women, who are members if Saphalam Womens Cashew Processing Society. The society operates and manages 13 cashew processing units, which includes one Central Grading and Packing Centre at Chattanchal and twelve primary processing units, spread across 12 GramaPanchayat, which function in a hub and spoke format. The membership comprises of 78 women. The society produces 21 grades of Cashew, Cashew Pickle and Cashew Syrup.

LIST OF MEMBERS
Sl. No. Name of member Designation Contact No
1 Shobana President, SVKSS 9946460584
2 Santhakumari Secretary, SVKSS 9747063844
3 Radha Treasurer, SVKSS 9544734807

 

 

The Unnathi Society of IT Enterprises seeks to provide employment opportunities to women having a minimum educational qualifiaction of 10+2 or above with a diploma or certificate level exposure to computers. The first IT Services based livelihood opportunity for women group in urban areas was the Techno world Digital Technologies set up in September 1999 with presently 63 such computer data processing units and 5 hardware units staffed by 10 member women’s groups function across the state. The Unnathi Society takes up government orders for IT related work such as data entry for provident fund offices, voters list, Ration card data entry works, RSBY works, Disability Census data entry works, BPL surveys, etc in addition to low end software development, e –surveys ,website design, hosting and maintenance. As the units offer employment to more than 2500 women, Kudumbashree set up an IT consortium with the capability to execute assignments for bigger clients including various government and quasi – government institutions. The consortium has a pan Kerala presence to canvass for business development for various sources. The consortium is headquartered in Thrissur.

LIST OF MEMBERS
Sl. No. Name of member Designation Contact No
1 Vijaya President, Unnathi Society of  IT Enterprises 9447637621
2 Suja Secretary, Unnathi Society of  IT Enterprises 8281229508
3 Nimmy Treasurer, Unnathi Society of IT  Enterprises 9633563348

 

 

The promotion of Amritham Nutrimix is an attempt to ensure nutritious food supplement provided to all Anganwadis of Kerala under the Take Home Ration Scheme (THRS) for children of 6 months to 3 years of age group while encouraging women entrepreneurship. Nutrimix model of business helps Kudumbashree in achieving its multiple objectives by engaging these women in the production and distribution of nutritious food with the help of Central Plantation Crops Research Institute(CPCRI), Kasargod. CPCRI has developed the formula for the Food supplement and given training to all those women groups involved in the production of Nutrimix. The ingredients are Wheat, Groundnut, Bengal gram, soya flour and sugar which will provide essential Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates, Iron, Calcium, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Crude fibre which are inevitable for the proper growth of children. Kudumbashree Mission formed a consortium ‘Amrutham Society of Kudumbashree Nutrimix Enterprises’ to enhance the capabilities of women groups associated with the management of value chain so as to act as an Anchor to coordinate with various institutions and issues associated with the business.

Amritham Nutrimix has started its journey as a pilot in 2006 now 368 Micro enterprise units fully owned, managed and operated by women (2023) supplying to all the 33,115 Anganvadis in Kerala. In order ensure the timely supply of raw materials, FCI started allotting subsidized wheat @ Rs. 2.25/ kg for the production of nutrimix. Standardization of machineries and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) have become mandatory since 2013. This is a model for perfect convergence of Kudumbashree Mission , CPCRI, Department of Social Justice, Local Self Government Institutions including Gram Panchayat, Banks and Nutrimix production groups and Consortium. This is also considered as the best business model addressing both backward and forward linkages to achieve the goals of every department or institution associated with local governance, technical training, infrastructure support, financial services, women empowerment, supply of safe, nutritious and healthy food supplement to all the eligible children and adolescent girls. Fifty percent of their time of every month is devoted to production of Nutrimix, which is an obligation of every group to supply the same with assured market and the remaining time and capacity is to involve in similar food processing activities with a range of nutritious food supplements. Most of the units were running with good profit margins as they are able to make good quality mix. The Kudumbashree Mission ensures periodic Performance Improvement Programmes for the units, includes technical training as well as overall capacitation programmes apart from food and safety trainings and certification. The sale price of Nutrimix fixed in 2011 by SJD is revised to Rs 70/ Kg with retrospective effect in view of its cost of production. The way forward is Product diversification with appropriate standards beyond Nutrimix targets aiming to compete with all the multi-national companies involved in production and marketing of nutritious food supplement of branded products. At present an attempt is done for grading the nutrimix units.

LIST OF MEMBERS
Sl. No. Name of member Designation Contact No
1 Pretty President, Amrtiham Society 9847381216
2 Maheswari Secretary, Amrtiham Society 9387415700