Promoting entrepreneurship in incense stick business

Manufacturing and production of joss sticks or incense sticks has been a traditional industry in India, which provides livelihood opportunities, especially in rural areas. Since ancient time, in India, there has been a practise of using aromatic incense sticks in religious ceremonies. Owing to this, incense sticks have always been in high demand in India, which surges during the festive season. India is instrumental in fulfilling more than half of the global demand of incense sticks as it has captured both Indian and international market. During Ancient era, it was believed that various vedic rituals were incomplete without agarbatti. It is also believed that agarbatti purifies the air. There is a large user base for these incense sticks in India, with a market size of around 7500 crore, annually, with the involvement of about five lakh people. Moreover, almost800 crore of this production is exported every year. This business has huge opportunity and more chance to grow because of the low-cost investment and high return on investment.
The Girl Power Project funded by the European Union and implemented by the All India Institute of Local Self- Government, Jharkhand are playing the role of independent agents that bring transformative changes in the lives of 5000 women and girls of Jharkhand. Lighting incense sticks is a common practice in almost every Indian household, and in lieu of this the project team organised a three-day residential training program on making of incense sticks at Divyanan, Rama Krishna Mission Ashram, Ranchi. Around 41 women beneficiaries of Vishnugarh Block, Hazaribagh District, Jharkhand learned the art of making and packaging the incense sticks.

Objective of the training program

To provide thorough knowledge of making and acquiring tools and equipment for Agarbatti making
To increase local production capacity of incense sticks
To upgrade the standard of living of local artisans involved in making Agarbatti manually or with the help of machinery
To provide self-owned venture training.

At the opening of training program, women beneficiaries were briefed about the objective of the training program. After orientation about training, the trainer explained different aspects of Agarbatti making followed by the practical session. The training started right from the identification of quality raw materials to the manufacturing of sticks. Further, he explained different types of incense sticks and how to maintain the quality of these sticks, the trainer guided the participants on how they should dry these sticks, i.e, under sunlight or shadow for how much duration before different fragrances are added to these sticks.

On the second and third day of the training program, the trainer demonstrated and taught the process of making incense sticks and discussed the importance of adding fragrance to them by dipping technique. He also briefed about the raw materials used in making the sticks namely, charcoal powder, jigatu, sandal wood powder, bamboo sticks, kuppam dust, white chips, fragrance and DEP (Di Ethyl Phthalate), and explained the complete process in detail. He also explained how the composition can be modified as per the requirement and how paste is prepared by mixing all the raw materials with water to get semi solid paste. Then the paste is further wrapped in plastic paper from which it is taken in small quantities from rolling it on the bamboo sticks. Incense sticks are available in different sizes and colours. Its burn time depends from 15 minutes to 3 hours based on their quality and size. The trainer began the session by specifying the importance of the fragrance that must be added to the sticks to have a sweet smelling fragrance that lingers for a long time.

The trainer discussed the use of machines for making agarbatti in bulk. It helps to increase the quantity as well as the quality. He briefed about different types of machinery available namely manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic in the market for the preparation of Agarbatti. The machinery helps to make the rolling part simpler and costs from 10,000 to1 Lakh. Beneficiaries were also provided opportunity to work on machines. During the training, beneficiaries prepared agarbatti manually as well as with using machinery. Most of the trainees were satisfied during hands-on training on machinery for manufacturing agarbatti.

Benefits of agarbatti

It helps to purify the air around us, as per some studies
It is also used as natural insect repellent in rural areas
The fragrance has several therapeutic benefits for human minds
It also helps to increase concentration

Branding and Packaging

Packing of the products is also an important factor as it is closely related to marketing. Women beneficiaries also learned the key points of packaging of these sticks in different boxes and packets, so that it could be directly supplied in the market. The packaging of the product should be cost-effective and appealing. The packaging should be distinct with logos, colours, and its fragrance from other brands already available in the market. It should clearly mention about product type, composition like handmade, made from recycled flowers and adopted nature-friendly process in manufacturing to attract more customers. The product can also be exported overseas resulting in higher margin of profit.

Outcome

This training program has created awareness and skill of buying good quality raw material at reasonable prices for Agarbatti manufacturing and making good quality incense stick adopting appropriate tools and machinery. Thus, the Girl Power project aims the creation of agarbatti based rural enterprises in Jharkhand, which will boost the confidence of rural women to become entrepreneurs and also pave the way for self-employment and promote women entrepreneurship.