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In June 2020, when Nand Kishore Patel, 38, got a call from West Champaran District Magistrate Kundan Kumar, he thought someone was playing a prank on him.
A few days ago, when the country went into lockdown during a pandemic, Patel, his wife Archana and brother Om Prakash left Surat, where they worked in a garment factory, and returned to Nautan village in West Champarang. . His Nand Kishore, one of hundreds of migrants who have returned to Bihar from different parts of the country, was in the quarantine center when he received the DM’s call.
“At first, I didn’t believe it was the DM who called me.Once I convinced myself, I went to see the DM with my brother Om Prakash,” says Patel.
That meeting marked the beginning of Patel’s journey from worker to entrepreneur, and his tailoring and embroidery business in Sally and Lehenga became one of the first units in West Champarlan’s now-famous Startup Zone. . It is home to 58 small units depleted of the abandoned State Food Corporation (SFC) Godown in the district’s Champathia block.
Chanpatia’s startup zone is The Indian Express Excellence in Governance Award 2020 and 2021. Awarded every other year, the award recognizes the highest achievements by local magistrates, who are considered the foot soldiers of the administration, to make a difference that affects the lives of millions across the country. Kumar won the Startup and Innovation category, with the award handed over by Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah at an awards ceremony held in New Delhi on January 17.
About the beginning of it all, Kumar says: As he talked to them, he was struck by the breadth of their talents. They all left Bihar as unskilled workers, but over time they acquired good skills. Some had very good knowledge of the production process, some had great marketing skills and so on. This went against the popular impression that only workers went home during the pandemic,” says Kumar.
A skill-mapping exercise conducted by the district administration with approximately 80,000 people in quarantine centers across the district confirmed Kumar’s guess.
Federal Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, Indian Express Group Chairman and Managing Director Vivek Goenka, Executive Director Anant Goenka, NxtGen’s AS Rajgopal, UPL’s Vikram Shroff and New Delhi on Tuesday. Other partners with winners of The Indian Express Excellence in Governance Awards held. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
For example, Nand Kishore, who started working as a Surat garment factory worker in 2000, started operating industrial sewing machines and also worked as a technician. that deal. By the time his family left Surat in his 2020, Nandoki Shore was earning his 55,000 rupees a month and his wife Archana as a tailor he was earning 18,000 rupees. His younger brother Om Prakash, who specialized in making Benarasi sarees, also worked in the same factory.
Once district managers mapped skills and identified potential entrepreneurs, DMs approached each to discuss plans.
“I told the DM that we need at least a 250,000 rupee loan to start the Salirehenga manufacturing unit.The sewing machine alone will cost 175,000 rupees,” says Nand Kishore.
Once the loan was paid off and the machinery procured, each entrepreneur was assigned a space in the sprawling 20-acre SFC attic separated by plywood screens.
The winners were chosen from a flood of 400 entries from 182 districts in 29 states.
By mid-2021, the Champathia Startup Zone had 58 units. Most of these are units that manufacture school uniforms, wool, socks, shirts, sarees, lehengas, stoles and shawls, but currently supply all panchayat under the district’s Swacchta Abhiyan program. There is a unit that manufactures stick bins and footwear. Unit with slippers available at Rs 50-Rs 70.
Once the unit was up and running, the next challenge came. It’s about finding markets for things that are made in Champatia.
DM Kumar started by pioneering small shopkeepers and offering them ample profit margins for purchasing from Chanpatia units.
Nando Kishore, who sources raw materials from Gujarat, Ludhiana and Delhi, says the strategy has worked. “During Diwali, we had sales worth Rs. Not only that, but I’m getting requests from Nepal, and it’s a great feeling, plus I can stay at home,” he says. His brand of sarees and lehenga is called ‘Champalin’, a tribute to his return home.
Like Nand Kishore, each Chanpatia unit tells a success story.
Aamir Hussain, who worked in Dubai before the pandemic but now runs another lehenga unit in Champathia, says he has received orders to supply Malaysia with 4,000 lehenga each month. “It’s not that we’re out of demand right now, we’re ordering too many,” he says.
Niyajuddin Ansari, who returned from Ludhiana and now runs a shirt manufacturing department in Champathia, plans to scale up to meet demand. “For the demand of 1.25 million shirts, in the last three to four months he could only supply 25,000 to 30,000 shirts. We need more machines,” he says.
DM Kumar admits that much more needs to be done and this is a model that is a “work in progress”.
“We have more to achieve by acquiring more textile parks and making the district an industrial hub, because we have cheap labor. We use a plug-and-play model. and significantly reduce claims from investors.So far, I have had no hand in anything other than backing the initial capital.Find your feet, fight, grow, excel. It is up to them to do so.
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