Rural services and products for rural consumers
Jiyo’s new brand Jiva is a rural initiative to village products and services made accessible to rural consumers.
India is undergoing rapid growth with ambitious plans to develop numerous smart cities and industrial small towns; a large part of India is still rural. As per the World Bank, 68 percent of the sub continent’s total population resides in the rural areas. In response, multinational corporations and domestic business houses are bending backwards to flood rural market. The massive market opportunity this rural population generates can be a lucrative proposition for local producers and service providers. Traditional rural haat and bazaars are moving away as direct retail places for local skilled communities such as potters, weavers, metal smiths, spice makers, farmers, beauticians and health professionals.
Gone are those days when a basic cotton striped sari worth rupees 250 woven by the local weaver would be available to the farmer who needed appropriate clothing to work in the field. Group of potters on their way to the local haat with their pots for domestic use cleverly stacked for transport is a rare sight now. Hand crushed vermilions, Ubtan, homemade lampblack, finely carved wooden clips and combs carried on a basket by a lady in the rural neighbourhoods are no more to be seen. Those short saris have been replaced by the synthetic mill made jarring printed fabrics: cheap? Yes but safe...doubtful. The earthen pot that were most suitable for keeping the water cool in a summer afternoon have been replaced by bright tinted plastic jars that do not serve the original purpose of cooling water and innovative products like terracotta “ rural refrigerators” haven’t found distribution or producers in rural areas. The village remedies made of natural ingredients for the well-being have been replaced by cheap chemical based products. Such instances of invasion of the market are ample in India’s villages. Not only that, India’s Jiva range of products is proposed to be introduced with an aspiration to bring back the real essence of “locally produced for the local by the local”. The AHF’s Jiyo initiative as part of its 2nd phase will be working in all the 6 states with skilled communities to re energise the weekly haats and bazaars
directly retailing the Jiva range of products. These could also be developed to cater to various other market segments as well.
Jiva’s product portfolio will attempt to address the provision of most basic necessities in the villages in the subcontinent from cottage industries in the neighbourhood. It is hoped that this initiative will also provide livelihood for those who perhaps had migrated to cities for work. Jiva will be a tribute to revive the essence of sustainability of the Indian villages at a time when we contend with the global.