SHIVAMOGGA: The Covid pandemic has hit the Charaka Women’s Multipurpose Industrial Cooperative Society, forcing it to declare insolvency as it could not repay the debt. Founded by social activist Prasanna Heggodu in 1994, the Society at Bheemanakone in Sagar taluk of Shivamogga district was empowering around 800 handloom weavers, natural dye manufacturers and hundreds of women financially.
Charaka had opened its marketing arm ‘ Desi ’ f ive years after its inception. While Charaka makes fabrics, Desi sells readymade garments. It has 13 shops, including five in Bengaluru and the remaining in Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada districts.
“Our society was profitable for many years. We recorded a small profit this year too. Around one-and-a-half years ago, the slowdown hit the sales, and Covid forced it to the ground. But we were concerned about weavers and natural dyes manufacturers as they had become jobless. Since we had some resources, we continued to pay them.
Now, that reserve is also exhausted,” says Prasanna, who is also the mentor of the society. “We have taken up certain government projects under the public private partnership (PPP), but the government has not released money for the last 12 years. Though the chief ministers has sanctioned the grants, officials are dilly-dallying, simply because we don’t bribe them,” he alleged.
The society has to get Rs 2 crore for various PPP projects, while it has invested its share of Rs 57 lakh. “Charaka and Desi registered sales of Rs 1.80 lakh every day before the pandemic. It was almost zero during the lockdown. Now, we are recovering slowly,” he said. One of the reasons why the Society declared itself insolvent is to tell the world as to how rural India has been affected by the pandemic.
Prasanna said, “Some brands have a margin of around 60 per cent on garments, we had only 40 per cent. Now, we are planning to sell garments at a reduced price. This will help increase the demand. We are planning to increase our daily sales turnover to Rs 2 lakh on an average with the new strategy.”