Legitimization, domination and signification of silk weavers in Ram Nagar and Kanchipuram
| Silk weavers in Ram Nagar, near Varanasi (India) | Silk weavers in Kanchipuram (India) | Recommendations for BoP weavers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legitimization | Low | High | |
| Control over information and communication | Medium – Information in terms of design pattern and color scheme shared indirectly through middlemen | High – Information in terms of lead-time, cost, design pattern and color scheme provided | Develop cooperatives to deal directly with shops. Facilitate the flow of information and integrate the supply chain from shops to raw material providers |
| Supply chain integration | Low – Limited or no supply chain integration | High – Cooperative integrates with marketing of products | |
| Domination | Low | Medium | |
| Uncertainty mitigation | Low – There are no long-term contracts or forward visibility | High – Provide long-term contracts | Develop cooperatives to increase the scale of production. Use economies of scale to make forward contracts |
| Volume/Scale | Low – Middlemen operate individually with each weaver. Batch size can be as small as one | High –Aggregation by cooperatives. Cooperative is the interface with raw material providers and shop | |
| Regulations and monopolies | There are 600,000-700,000 weavers in Varanasi area, all of whom compete with each other. Middlemen control the supply chain by providing poor weavers the raw-material needed for production. Middlemen and politicians are interconnected and sometimes siphon off government grants and benefits that should have been allocated to the weavers | In Kanchipuram, there are 15,000-30,000 weavers. The cooperatives allow for some monopolistic behavior by the weavers | Create unions, gain political influence via voting banks, create branding to monopolize on the name of Benaras silk or Kanchipuram silk products |
| Signification | Medium | High | |
| Identification with buyer | The silk weavers generally belong to the Muslim community. The middlemen also belong to the same Muslim community. The large aggregators that buy from the middlemen are Hindu. Muslim silk weavers are largely isolated from the mainstream community, especially due to illiteracy | The weavers are part of the buying cooperative. Cooperatives are women run. Women are literate and direct participants in the weaving/production process | Increase literacy among BoP players, expand social networks beyond local communities and integrate with the mainstream community |
| Silk weavers in Ram Nagar, near Varanasi (India) | Silk weavers in Kanchipuram (India) | Recommendations for BoP weavers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control over information and communication | Medium – Information in terms of design pattern and color scheme shared indirectly through middlemen | High – Information in terms of lead-time, cost, design pattern and color scheme provided | Develop cooperatives to deal directly with shops. Facilitate the flow of information and integrate the supply chain from shops to raw material providers |
| Supply chain integration | Low – Limited or no supply chain integration | High – Cooperative integrates with marketing of products | |
| Uncertainty mitigation | Low – There are no long-term contracts or forward visibility | High – Provide long-term contracts | Develop cooperatives to increase the scale of production. Use economies of scale to make forward contracts |
| Volume/Scale | Low – Middlemen operate individually with each weaver. Batch size can be as small as one | High –Aggregation by cooperatives. Cooperative is the interface with raw material providers and shop | |
| Regulations and monopolies | There are 600,000-700,000 weavers in Varanasi area, all of whom compete with each other. Middlemen control the supply chain by providing poor weavers the raw-material needed for production. Middlemen and politicians are interconnected and sometimes siphon off government grants and benefits that should have been allocated to the weavers | In Kanchipuram, there are 15,000-30,000 weavers. The cooperatives allow for some monopolistic behavior by the weavers | Create unions, gain political influence via voting banks, create branding to monopolize on the name of Benaras silk or Kanchipuram silk products |
| Identification with buyer | The silk weavers generally belong to the Muslim community. The middlemen also belong to the same Muslim community. The large aggregators that buy from the middlemen are Hindu. Muslim silk weavers are largely isolated from the mainstream community, especially due to illiteracy | The weavers are part of the buying cooperative. Cooperatives are women run. Women are literate and direct participants in the weaving/production process | Increase literacy among BoP players, expand social networks beyond local communities and integrate with the mainstream community |
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