9121
A Study on Awareness Level of the Customers towards Khadi Products – A Study with Special Reference to Nagapattinam District, Tamilnadu
Dr.E.K.Sivasakthivel1
Head & Associate Professor of Commerce, Poompuhar College, Melaiyur-609107
G.Dhanalakshmi2 Ph.D, Research Scholar, Poompuhar College,Melaiyur-609107
Abstract
Khadi products are liked by a section of people in the society. Many people do not know about the products and their quality. There are various aspects to be known by a customer before purchase of khadi products. The paper has studied the level of awareness about various aspects of khadi products in the study area. The study has been made with the primary data and these data were collected from 384 sample respondents in Nagapattinam district (before bifurcation into Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai). A well structured questionnaire was used to collect these data. The researchers applied simple percentage, mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and Chi-square test as statistical tools. The study found that the respondents had high level of awareness on the factor „method of usage of khadi products‟ followed by „how khadi shops help for village and small industries‟, „place of availability of khadi products‟, „durability of khadi products, and „quality of khadi products‟. Low level of awareness was identified on the factor of „price of khadi product‟ followed by, „material used to make khadi product‟, „know to compare khadi products with other products‟ and „place of production of khadi products‟.
Increase of level of awareness among the people about khadi products in the study area will help the khadi and village industry to grow further and which will increase employment opportunities in the study area.
Key words: Awareness,khadi, village industry, association and durability.
Introduction
Food, dress and shelter are the necessary goods for people. But now apart from these goods people want to buy and consume some other goods also. In olden ages, in India the necessary goods were manufactured in villages in the form of small industries. But after the
invasion of British, they started to import goods manufactured in their country. Even after independence, India has been importing goods from foreign countries. After industrialization in India, many giant companies were started and started to manufacture varieties of goods and marketed the same to people. This trend crushed the village and small industries. Village and small industries are located in rural areas and raw material used for manufacturing the goods are obtained from local farmers and local manufacturers. These goods are marketed by few marketers in both rural and urban areas. Among them Khadi shops are playing a pivotal role in marketing khadi products in India. Textiles, ayurvedic products, natural cosmetic products, handicrafts, leather products, selected food products and selected grocery products are the major products marketed by khadi shops in Nagappattinam district. Every type of product has its own features and uniqueness. Similarly, khadi products also have its own features. Before purchase of khadi products it is important to have awareness about various aspects of such product. A total of 10 various aspects were identified on which a customer necessarily to have awareness before purchase of khadi products. The level of awareness of the customers are studied in the present paper.
Review of Literature
Kumudha A and Rizwana M (2013) in their study found that consumers were not very much aware about the handloom products. Hence sufficient measures had to be taken place in order to increase the awareness of handloom products. Pallabi Mishra (2014) identified that generation Y was the most valuable customers for khadi because they did not have price conscious but they had brand conscious. Kalyani Anumala and Acharyalu GVRK (2015) in their study found that the customers had adequate awareness about handloom products. Deepti Pargai and Shahnaz Jahan (2016) in their study evidenced that majority of respondent were not aware about the handloom products.
Online shopping practices of these handloom fabrics were almost negligible among young consumers. Pradnya P. Ambreand Sugandha Lad (2017) in their paper found that the people knew about khadi and why this movement was started, who initiated it and its impact. Though the pace of technological development in rural cottage and village industries including Khadi sector in India was extremely slow. Ranjith Paul and Horen Goowalla (2018) found that majority of the handloom customers were getting awareness on handloom products through advertisement, trade fairs/exhibitions followed by sales personnel, friends and relatives. Jyoti Goel (2019) in their study found that Khadi and Village Industries had good potential for generating gainful employment opportunities along with avenues of self - employment with less capital investment.
9123 Objectives
The study has been done with the following objectives.
To study the level of awareness of the customers towards khadi products in Nagapattinam district and
To study the association between level of awareness and socio-economic background of the respondents.
Methodology
The study has been made with the primary data. The researchers selected sample of the study using convenient sampling method. The sample size of the study is 384. The study area is Nagapattinam district (before bifurcation into Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai). The researchers collected primary data from the respondents using well structured questionnaire. The researchers applied simple percentage, mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and Chi- square test as statistical tools.
Results and Discussion
This part of the research paper presents the results regarding the awareness level of the respondents towards khadi products in the study area. The results of number of respondents in each category were categorised and respective percentages were calculated and the results are presented in table 1.
Table1: Awareness Level about Khadi Products Sl.
No. Factors EA MA SWA SA NAA Total
1. Quality of khadi products 113 (29.4)
97 (25.3)
27 (7.0)
106 (27.6)
41 (10.7)
384 (100) 2. Price of khadi products 77
(20.1) 49 (12.7)
39 (10.2)
171 (44.5)
48 (12.5)
384 (100) 3. Availability of varieties 99
(25.8) 79 (20.6)
48 (12.5)
106 (27.6)
52 (13.5)
384 (100) 4. Place of availability 80
(20.8)
164 (42.7)
58 (15.1)
40 (10.5)
42 (10.9)
384 (100) 5. Materials used to make khadi
products
75 (19.5)
80 (20.8)
27 (7.0)
175 (45.7)
27 (7.0)
384 (100)
6. Place of production 95
(24.7) 70 (18.2)
43 (11.2)
117 (30.5)
59 (15.4)
384 (100) 7. Compare khadi products with
non-khadi products
111 (28.9)
33 (8.6)
56 (14.6)
134 (34.9)
50 (13.0)
384 (100)
8. Durability of khadi products 140 (36.5)
49 (12.8)
59 (15.4)
106 (27.6)
30 (7.7)
384 (100) 9. Methods of usage of products 152
(39.6) 90 (23.4)
49 (12.8)
66 (17.2)
27 (7.0)
384 (100) 10. How khadi shops help village
industries?
143 (37.2)
78 (20.3)
69 (18.0)
73 (19.0)
21 (5.5)
384 (100) Source: Primary Data
EA- Extremely Aware; MA – Moderately Aware; SWA – Somewhat Aware; SA – Slightly Aware; NAA – Not at all Aware
The results of table 1 shows that 29.4% of the respondents were extremely aware about quality of khadi products, 25.3% had moderate level of awareness, 27.6% of the respondents slightly aware.. A considerable portion of respondents (44.5%) were slightly aware about price of khadi products, 20.1% were extremely aware about price. One fourth of the respondents (25.8%) were extremely aware about availability of varieties in khadi products, 20.6% had moderate level of awareness and 27.6% of the respondents slightly aware. A considerable portion of respondents (42.7%) were moderately aware about place of availability of khadi products in the study area. A considerable portion of respondents (45.7%) were slightly aware about materials used to make khadi products. It was known that 24.7% of the respondents were extremely aware about place of production of khadi products and 30.5% of the respondents slightly aware about it. One third of respondents (34.9%) were slightly aware about know to compare khadi products with other products, 28.9% were extremely aware about it. More than one third of the respondents (36.5%) were extremely aware about durability of khadi products and 27.6% of the respondents slightly aware about durability. A considerable portion of respondents (39.6%) were extremely aware about method of usage of khadi products and 23.4% of the respondents were moderately aware about it. More than one third of respondents (37.2%) were extremely aware about how khadi shops help village and small industries and 20.3% were moderately aware about it.
In order to know in which factor the respondents had high level of awareness and on which they had low level of awareness, mean value was calculated and the factors were ranked based on mean value and these results are presented in table 2.
Table2: Descriptive Statistics of Awareness about Khadi Products Sl.
No. Factors 𝒙 σ CV Mean
Rank
1. Quality of khadi products 3.35 1.42 42.35 5
2. Price of khadi products 2.83 1.36 48.03 10
3. Availability of varieties 3.17 1.42 44.88 6
4. Place of availability 3.52 1.24 35.19 3
9125
6. Place of production 3.07 1.45 47.19 7
7. Compare khadi products with non-khadi
products 3.05 1.45 47.60 8
8. Durability of khadi products 3.42 1.41 41.29 4 9. Methods of usage of products 3.71 1.33 35.79 1 10. How khadi shops help village industries? 3.65 1.30 35.58 2 Source: Primary Data
It could be known from the table 2that the respondents had high level of awareness on the factor „method of usage of khadi products‟. Its mean value was highest at 3.71 and ranked first.
Followed by, the respondents also had high level of awareness on the factors of „how khadi shops help for village and small industries‟, which was ranked second with the mean score of 3.65.
Apart from these factors, the respondents also had high level of awareness on the factors of „place of availability of khadi products‟, „durability of khadi products‟ and „quality of khadi products‟, they were ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively with the mean scores of 3.52, 3.42 and 3.35 respectively. It was also found that the respondents were poorly aware about „price of various khadi products, its mean value was lowest at 2.83 and it was ranked last (10th). Followed by the respondents also had low level of awareness on the factors of „materials used to make khadi products‟, „know to compare khadi products with other products‟ and „place of production of khadi products‟ their calculated mean values were 3.00, 3.05 and 3.07 respectively and they were ranked 9th, 8th and 7th respectively. The results of standard deviation and coefficient of variation show that there was moderate level of deviation in level of awareness from the mean value.
Inthe view ofunderstanding whether there was any significant association between awareness level of the respondents towards various aspects of khadi products and socio-economic background of the respondents, the researcher framed the following null hypothesis and tested applying Chi-square test and the results are presented in table 3.
Ho: There is no significant association between awareness level about various aspects of khadi products and socio-economic variables.
Table3: Association between Awareness Level and Socio-Economic Factors Sl.
No. Factors
Gender
(df:4; TV:9.49)
Age
(df:12; TV:21.03)
Education
(df:16; TV:26.30)
Occupation
(df:20; TV:31.41)
Income
(df:16; TV:26.30)
Res. Place
(df:8; TV:15.51)
𝒙𝟐 P 𝒙𝟐 P 𝒙𝟐 P 𝒙𝟐 P 𝒙𝟐 P 𝒙𝟐 P
1. Quality of khadi products 1.608 0.807 12.200 0.430 27.264 0.041 17.153 0.643 12.604 0.701 5.445 0.709 2. Price of khadi products 9.567 0.049 32.828 0.001 23.368 0.104 17.265 0.636 26.901 0.048 3.548 0.895 3. Availability of varieties 1.875 0.759 23.331 0.024 15.656 0.477 17.191 0.641 27.408 0.046 16.028 0.047 4. Place of availability 10.040 0.040 9.657 0.646 26.174 0.047 12.430 0.900 31.751 0.019 15.590 0.049 5. Materials used to make khadi products 0.534 0.970 22.132 0.035 26.939 0.043 39.079 0.016 6.194 0.986 9.248 0.322 6. Place of production 11.056 0.026 10.189 0.599 14.751 0.543 14.136 0.824 11.694 0.765 16.939 0.042 7. Compare khadi products with non-
khadi products 5.194 0.268 32.452 0.000
18.667 0.286 24.718 0.212 32.268 0.010 8.878 0.353 8. Durability of khadi products 0.879 0.928 17.765 0.123 9.600 0.887 32.713 0.042 28.618 0.026 13.143 0.107 9. Methods of usage of products 9.704 0.048 23.686 0.026 12.274 0.725 44.775 0.001 17.262 0.369 9.153 0.330 10. How khadi shops help village
industries? 3.720 0.445 8.604 0.736
30.801 0.013 32.946 0.034 15.567 0.484 6.068 0.640 Source: Primary Data, (T.V: Table Value; df: degrees of freedom)
9127 It was known from table 3 that significant association was found in level of awareness on quality of products with education. Significant association was found in level of awareness on price of products with gender, age and income of the respondents. Significant association was found in level of awareness on availability of varieties with age, income and residential place. Significant association was evidenced between level of awareness on place of availability and gender, education, income and residential place. The study found significant association between level of awareness on materials used to make khadi products and age, education and occupation of respondents. Gender and residential place had association with level of awareness on place of production of khadi products. Significant association was found in level of awareness on „know to compare khadi products with other products‟ based on age and income of the respondents. Occupation and income of the respondents had significant association with awareness level on durability of khadi products.
Significant association was evidenced on level of awareness on „method of usage of khadi products‟
based on gender, age and occupation of the respondents. Education and occupation had significant association with level of awareness on „how khadi shops help village and small industries‟.
Conclusion
Khadi products are liked by a section of people in the society. Many people do not know about the products and their quality. There are various aspects to be known by a customer before purchase of khadi products. The paper has studied the level of awareness about various aspects of khadi products in the study area. The study found that the respondents had high level of awareness on the factor „method of usage of khadi products‟ followed by „how khadi shops help for village and small industries‟, „place of availability of khadi products‟, „durability of khadi products, and „quality of khadi products‟. Low level of awareness was identified on the factor of „price of khadi product‟
followed by, „material used to make khadi product‟, „know to compare khadi products with other products‟ and „place of production of khadi products‟. Increase of level of awareness among the people about khadi products in the study area will help the khadi and village industry to grow further and which will increase employment opportunities in the study area.
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