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Mall-crawling,
village style
Rural India is changing
fast, unknown to many urbanites, thanks to IT penetration
and marketing-savvy private companies. A first-hand account
by Jayalakshmi Sengupta who goes mall-crawling in the backwaters
of Madhya Pradesh.
"I have never seen anything like this before",
exclaims Lacchhmi as she looks agape at the huge plasma TV
welcoming her in a slow rambling documentary decibel. She
is here for the first time with her brother Thaman Lal Yadav
from the remote village of Kulamba in Madhya Pradesh. She
inhales the centrally air-conditioned super mart experience
of ITC Echoupal Sagar with the same delight as Kalpana Chawla
in her first expedition to space. This is no less an experience
for the half dozen women who trickle in, faces behind ghungats,
precariously perched behind their husbands on mobikes. Large
and small families in tractors stream in to be initiated to
their first ever experience of mall- crawling right in the
midst of nowhere this weekend. It is just as amazing for me.
As they move around stealthily looking wide eyed at the neatly
stacked fast moving consumer goods and the attractively arrayed
consumer durables, I try and capture every nuance of this
changing face of India.
A rural facelift was evident in the wake of the huge churning
process brought about by ICT (Information Communication Technology).
It has since cut through hundreds of villages across India
in lightening speed. Wherever it has made a connection it
has gradually changed its bucolic backdrop into busy, bubbly
hamlets. This is a historic moment indeed. To witness the
ongoing economic and technological forces shaping the cultural
configuration of a modern village, drive along with me on
the NH-3. Some 45 kms from industrial hub of MP, Indore, skirting
the sleepy little army garrison of Mhow.
Amidst the vast expanse of soya and wheat fields and the Vindhiya
hills in the yonder, out of the blue and literally so, E-choupal
Sagar welcomes you like an oasis to a Guppie (Gurgaon Yuppie).
On further enquiry you realise this is the procurement and
soil testing centre of ITC 's E-choupals- extended to serves
as a one-stop precinct complete with a supermarket, a fast
food joint, a clinic, a petrol pump and a playground for children
. This is, in fact, just a month old store and second of its
kind in entire India.
ITC, one of the leading private companies, which has pitched
for rural marketing rather aggressively in the past, envisioned
the e-Choupals as a unique information and an e-commerce hub,
for every village squar . Launched in June 2000 "e -choupals"
are undoubtedly the largest and most successful private initiative
in rural India . It reaches out to more than 3.5 million farmers
today, growing a range of crops in over seven states (MP,
Karnataka, AP, UP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerala)-expanding
at the rate of three to four kiosks a day. These choupals
with the help of a VSAT connection under the local Sanchalaks
(in every village) has had a huge impact in an average farmer's
life.
Firstly, it has empowered them with correct information at
every step of their agrarian life from sowing to harvesting
to selling. Secondly, it has eliminated the middlemen and
consequently the exploitation ingrained therein. Finally,
they have brought them out the credit loop and the clasp of
the moneylenders by offering them to buy their produce cash
down. The Echoupal Sagars are extension in the same scheme
of things.
Here ,while Thaman Lals wait to sell their wheat and soya
produce, Lachhmis hang around relishing the promise and opulence
of a city life. The fact that these farmers are paid cash
down right on the spot, empower them with choices they have
never made before.
With just over five bighas of land Thaman Lal Yadav is a
typical small farmer of India straddled with fragmented land
holdings , making barely enough to make two ends meet. Yet
he is one of the very few to ride a motorcycle which he has
bought on credit, against the wishes of his family. But the
e-choupal concept is new to him and he wonders if he should
sell his meagre produce to the ITC procurement cell like his
friends, instead of going to the mandi (market). The e-chouplas
give farmers more control over their choices, a higher profit
margin on their crops and access to information that improves
their overall productivity. It will help him cut transport
costs and secondly, he has been promised competitive rates
"I have been buying soya at Rs 2,000 and selling it at
the Rs 1,200 (that too on credit)" he muses .While he
completes his enquiry for the harvest to be brought in by
September, his sister along with some other village belles
cannot resist the temptation of buying a perfumed soap.
Targeting the highway transit population, the local city
dwellers and the farmers, these stores have been adequately
stocked with almost all supermarket items, down to mobiles
, watches and CDs. They are a one stop shop for agricultural
inputs, household items and FMCGs from ITC and ITC partners.
Apparently the grocery items alone make up for 30 per cent
of the sale. Amar Singh, state manager, Operations, seems
happy with the response of this store which has been inaugurated
only in Aug 15. The second of its kind in the whole of India
it may not enjoy its privileged places for long though. Amar
Singh has already received orders to open the next store at
Vidihsha on the state highway 86. On an average one store
a month- Echoupal Sagar's expansion plan is more than modest.
"We are open 365 days a year with an exception of 15th
Aug and 26th January," informs store manger Vikrant Thakur.
At the turn of the century when the malls outnumbered the
churches a new religious fervour swept over us . In India
the wicked luxury of a weekend mall-crawling was restricted
to a meagre 30 per cent. Not any more! Even rural India will
know a few things about Monday Blues very soon, if it is of
any comfort.
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