Showing the way for women empowerment

Mukti Datta, Managing Director of Panchachuli Womens Weavers, Almora, in Coimbatore.

COIMBATORE,India: It is a story of women who wove success with courage and determination. An initiative that started as an effort for better livelihood by reviving a lost art has earned world-wide recognition for the fabrics, Pashmina shawls, stoles, scarves, and home furnishing that the women weave.

Mukti Datta, Managing Director of Panchachuli Women Weavers, who was here on Friday to speak at the TIDES Leadership Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, spoke to The Hindu on the challenges, growth and success of the Panchachuli Women Weavers.

In the late 1990s, in the rural areas of Almora in the Kumaon Himalayas, a group of women who did not have access to technology or education to improve their lot came together, learnt the basics of hand weaving and started making products for the rural market, initially with the local lamb’s wool.

In the early days, the funding was private and so there was scope for creativity and mistakes too.

“The basic training took two years. Refining it took another year and we started making jholas with strips of fabric,” she says.

Now, Panchachuli Women Weavers has two entities: Panchachuli Women Weavers, the company that has about 750 women as its shareholders, and the Panchachuli Women’s Cooperatives that give inputs for training, design and marketing.

Totally, about 1,500 women are involved in the programme in hand spinning, hand weaving, administration, finance, vegetable dye processing, making Pashmina blankets, shawls, etc.

Apart from the domestic market, about 50 per cent of the products made by these women is exported.

The women have also travelled to Bhutan and Nepal and are likely to visit Morocco soon for exchange programmes. Through these they are able to learn and exchange weaving techniques and designs with weavers in mountain regions in other countries.

The products are hand-made. While some of the classic designs are in-house, National Institute of Fashion Technology students are involved in the dproduction of the collections. “We are now working on winter collection for 2011-2012.” Once the women learn the basics, they are creative and experimenting. “They are proud that they are artisans,” Ms. Datta says. They even compete with each other in spinning or weaving better.

“It has shown the path for women in remote areas.” The Panchachuli programme is replicable.

It only needs determination and proper leadership, she says.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/15/stories/2010031550930200.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu