Visiting Dharamsala groups this week

Visiting the groups in Dharamsala this week with Mr. Pankaj ji who is a resource person for calculating the living wage.
The first main objective is to study how much they are paid and whether their income is meeting their basic needs in life. Besides, it's also a helpful tool to know for the producer organization about their artisans' thoughts on wage and work.
We as a buyer do not have influence on the payment of wages for the artisans because each organization work on their own sets of principles and regulations. On a yearly basis, there is an increase in wage for the artisans based upon their organization's capacity. We act as a facilitator to the producer organization.
The basic needs include the following: Minimum calories for a family( 2 adults + 2 children), clothing, health facilities, education for kids, social/entertainment cost, house-owned/rented, savings for future, medical insurance, life insurance and their life quality.
The methods used are: interview using a questionnaire and the benchmarks them against the parameters of living wage (basic needs).

Tsering Youdon
Fair Trade Coordinator