Women domestic workers of Harijan Basti are now regularly organizing meeting among themselves. They discuss about their issues and problems and simultaneously they explore ideas of business plan for them. Sandhya, one of the member of women domestic group said “We try to meet at least once in a week. The date and time for the next meeting is also decided in the meeting.”
In the last meeting women domestic workers discussed the main reason behind starting their social enterprise. They focused on the ‘WHY’ element of doing the business. One of the women from the group facilitated the discussion and asked, “Why you actually want to start the business?”
Most of the women domestic workers answered, “It will help us sustain our life.”
It was surprising to listen that they don’t want to do business to earn extra but in fact it will help them to sustain their lives. As it came out in Needs assessment report that Minimum income from part-time work in one household is between ₹2000 and ₹3000 and If they are employed full-time (working for 12 hours in one household), then they are paid between ₹7000 and ₹8000.
The group has decided common norms for all group members like meetings are important to attend and if for any reason one cannot attend the meeting, they must convey the message to the group through phone call or in WhatsApp group. They also highlighted that the group should respect each other views and must support each other. The group has created a chart displaying name and phone numbers of all the group members. As explained by one of the group members that display of names gives a sense of belongingness and ownership to them.