It is almost evening and 20-year-old Avina Jakasania, dressed in a faded ‘salwar kameez’, is hard at work, bent over an electronic device being assembled at a low-cost, clock-manufacturing unit in a dusty town of Morbi in Gujarat.
Avina is no ordinary girl. Having lost her father when she was barely in her teens, this nimble village girl goes through the daily grind to support her family, unperturbed by the fact that she has polio in her legs and needs assistance to move around.
Avina is not alone. At the Ajanta clock manufacturing unit, nestled away in the countryside of Rajkot district in Gujarat, it’s mostly women who keep the hands of time moving. Untold stories of grit, determination and fightback abound at the two units of Oreva Group’s (the second being in Kutch) where over 7,500 women—mostly under the age of 25— work in unison to churn out profits for the Rs 1,000-crore group.
Terms like feminism, women’s liberation and empowerment might sound alien to this motley group, but quiz anyone and they eagerly narrate how their experiences at Ajanta have infused confidence into their young personalities.
Recounting the history of the clock-manufacturing unit, the MD of Oreva group, Jaisukh Patel recalls that the unit was earlier a male-bastion. However, after the first group of 15 female workers joined in 1987-88, there was no looking back. “Today we have about 100 buses that ply to and fro daily from the unit carrying women from 185 villages situated in and around Morbi,” says Patel.
From producing about 100 pieces of clocks per day, the women today help churn out about 40,000 units of low-cost clocks a day. At Ajanta, females occupy all rank-and-file. “The group has women working at all levels. We have women holding ME electrical degrees, MBAs and BBAs working at our corporate house in Morbi. It’s women who man crucial positions in purchase, marketing and import sections,” he said.
“We do precision work at this clock manufacturing unit. The nimble hands of women are best suited for this kind of jobs. The management had a lot of difficulty recruiting female workers when it started off in the early 1970s. I was among the first batch of employees who were recruited at the unit, most of whom were the relatives and friends of the owners,” says Ranjana Patel, who at 55, is perhaps the oldest female member at the Morbi-unit.
In the past, convincing women to join the workforce was the most difficult part. “We had to meet their parents, convince them of the advantages it held for their female child and guarantee the safety of their wards,” says Ranjana who is also the production manager and incharge of all recruitment and HR matters at the unit.
And it not just about the money that they get from this job. “In all these years I have also earned a lot of self-respect within society,” says 45-year-old Harshaben Vadaska who was forced to take up a job at the Morbi-unit after her husband passed away 14 years ago. A job at the manufacturing unit has kept women like her going. “This work has helped me raise my two kids,” she says.
If instances like Harshaben are tales of struggle and determination, then the predominantly younger lot of the female workforce, comprising of the likes of Bharti Serariya (19), Asha Pithwa (22), Bharti Bhatsana (22) and Chetna Kotadia (23) look at Ajanta’s clock manufacturing unit as a means to carve out their careers in a region where girl education and employment are not spoken about in very respectable terms.
“People in this part of the world do not speak highly of women who step out of their homes for work. However, my coming to work not only helps my family financially but also opens up an avenue to build a career for myself,” says Asha who is one of the five female siblings at her house in Bagathala village situated about 13 kilometers from Morbi.
Today there are women coming to the unit not just from Morbi, but even from the nearby villages. The Ajanta unit has now become symbolic of women independence and liberty. “Apart from generating incomes for their families, women have learnt discipline and earned self-respect,” remarks Ranjana.