MICA students get creative for SEWA's homestay

Taking classrooms beyond four walls, students of MICA had been sent for a rural immersion programme across the country where they spent a few days in villages to understand the community of artisans, craftsmen, issues and concerns faced by villagers to create a strategy.

The rural immersion programme aims to educate the students about various grassroot level issues faced by villagers and gives them a platform to interact and engage with organisations working towards the betterment of these communities. The aim of the course is to create a knowledge base for students to understand and embark on rural marketing efforts, as the industry is shifting their focus towards Tier II, Tier III cities and rural areas.

This year, MICA tied up with multiple organisations like Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Jaipur Rugs, UNICEF, Adani Foundation, Swades Foundation and others. The projects in collaboration with SEWA required formulation of marketing and communication strategies for their homestay property at the Bakutra village in Patan district. The homestay project of SEWA, titled Hum Sab Ek Hain, seeks to provide an alternate source of income to the thousands of women associated with the women empowerment organisation.

The project not only helped the students understand the scope of a homestay and tourist interests in and around the Patan district which included UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Rani ki Vav, the Sun Temple at Mother, the Little Rann of Kutch and the 5000 years old site of Dholavira, but also the nuances of the hospitality sector and the challenges faced by the homestay owners at the grassroots level.

The faculty-in-charge for the same, professor Mini Mathur said, "Lower overall resources, but strength in terms of pooling resources, confidence, love, and respect, is what our students witnessed in rural immersion. As against the earlier model of open immersion, we worked closely with 11 prominent organisations working independently or supporting government initiatives in villages across India."

Speaking about his experience, Ayan Bairoliya, a student of MICA said, "This course is an icing on the cake of the MICA curriculum and I am grateful to all the people and organisation involved in it to make the entire programme one of the most relevant learning processes during our PGP course duration."

Some students were also given branding and communication projects and were required to stay in rural settings for two weeks. Ten groups of students worked for Jaipur Rugs, India's largest manufacturer of hand-knotted rugs, with weavers across Rajasthan and were asked to observe and understand lives of the weavers, live amongst them and become one with the community.

MAKING LIFE EASIER

• Another project dealt with the eradication of child marriage through adolescent empowerment
   
• Students interacted with teens and formed groups in the village to help prevent child marriages, and talked to girls who were married as children and have since stepped out of marriages