AVAL is a social enterprise dedicated to providing skills training and sustainable livelihoods for women from disadvantaged communities in rural Tamil Nadu. With 30 years in the field of community development, Anbu Sironmani, Founder of AVAL, is on a mission to address the challenges women face around unemployment and unequal pay.

AVAL, meaning “she” or “her” in Tamil, provides women with training in tailoring and crocheting to produce products such as clothes and accessories. Each product is handcrafted and provides a meaningful, sustainable livelihood to the women jobholders.

Together with Co-Founder Shrimayee Dutta, Anbu is determined to bring dignified jobs to women in rural India, and AVAL has already created livelihoods for over 20 women and it is looking to grow the number in the years ahead.

AVAL is one of the startups participating in Upaya’s 2020 Accelerator Program. We are pleased to introduce Anbu Sironmani and her vision for AVAL in our Entrepreneur Spotlight Q&A!

Q: What are the key problems your company aims to address?

“We address the problems of rural poverty, unemployment, lack of skills among women in particular, and the lower wages women receive compared to men. Since working closely with the communities as director of Auroville Village Action Group, I wanted to come up with an initiative that would find a solution to the key issues of women.”

Q: What inspired you to start your company?

“Auroville Village Action Group was an implementing partner of the government of Tamil Nadu’s funded project that aimed at giving livelihood and enterprise training to the people, especially women in the bio-region of Auroville. This project helped us to interact with other business units in Auroville and this gave us the inspiration to start a unit to support women.”

Q: What have been your greatest accomplishments to date?

“Women provide high-quality training in tailoring and crocheting and make quality products. Women at Aval, who started from scratch, are now the master tailors and quality controllers at the enterprise. The enterprise is fully managed by the women who have taken up many leadership roles and are now involved in the decision making of the organisation.

We love when we see our products printed in catalogs and get positive comments from the customers, and when the newly designed products do well in the market.

On the social side we feel our work purposeful when women are able to find solutions for their problems and support each other. Also when we hear stories of women being more and more recognised in their families we feel really satisfied.”

Q: What has been your experience in working with the jobholders and their community? 

“Despite the multiple challenges that come along with this work, it is a very satisfying feeling to work and support women from  marginalised families. We often must pivot to different paths and be flexible to suit the women.”

Q: What has been your biggest learning so far?

“This sector is very fluid and we need to be updated with the trends. The production has to be proportionate to the sales.”

Q: How do you approach problem-solving on the ground or in your day-to-day operations?

We have a small team called core group that would help to solve day-to-day issues on the ground. Also, we interact with all the unit members at regular intervals. Each team is self-independent and has the autonomy to make certain decisions without relying on the founder or higher-management all the time.

Q: What is your vision for your company?

“Our mission is to be a sustainable, conscious and ethical fashion brand from rural India that brings solutions to the key challenges faced by women belonging to rural communities.”