VEDANTA SAKHI FASHION SHOW- WHEN DREAMS COME TRUE

Hindustan Zinc rural women empowerment project “Sakhi” was all glittering with fashion garments on a night when the designs created by them were showcased on the ramp by Delhi and Mumbai professional models and watched by none other than the home minister, women and child development minister and a large gathering of top designers of the country and fashion students besides many dignitaries...


After three months of meticulous planning, 45 days of hard work and immense brainstorming sessions on designs, look and fashion trends, the city of Jaipur finally hosted the first ever fashion show of garments made directly by rural and tribal women of Hindustan Zinc’s project “Sakhi”, to a jam-packed 500 strong audience.

Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, Women and Child Development Minister Anita Bhadel, MLA, Sawai Madhopur and the brand ambassador for ‘Beti Bachao’ campaign Diya Kumari and director Women Empowerment Richa Khoda had specially come to the see the collection made by the rural women.

Renowned fashion designer Jattinn Kochhar, Rajdeep Ranawat, Gaurav Gupta and Anand Bhushan who attended the show were mesmerized to see the garments made by the “Sakhi” rural women. Miss India 2014, Koyal Rana enthralled the audiences as the show stopper for the evening.

Fashion designer Jattinn Kochhar also had an interactive session with these women who are all from Kayad and Gagwana villages of Ajmer district.

Hindustan Zinc has been engaged in empowerment of rural and tribal women of Rajasthan since 2006 through formation of self-help-groups. Today, these SHGs are popularly known as “Sakhi”, and the women associated with these SHGs as popularly called “Sakhees”. “Sakhi” has developed product based clusters to strengthen the social and economic conditions of rural and tribal women. Clusters of fashion garments, school uniforms, home furnishing, candle making, spices, floor mats, pickle and papad, paper craft etc. have already been developed and successfully bringing sustainable economic empowerment among hundreds of these rural and tribal women.

Hindustan Zinc also organized an exhibition showcasing the products made by different clusters. People were cued to buy these products but they were not for sale.

Under the Project “Sakhi”, 50 rural women of villages of Gagwana and Kayad in the district of Ajmer had been working for almost two months to make designer garments. An exclusive training in this regard was provided to these rural women, most of whom are educated, as part of the development of “Sakhi” product cluster on fashion garments.

The show was directed and choreographed by leading Asian choreographer Rashmi Virmani.

Pavan Kaushik, who is the Head of Corporate Communication and also Head of Project “Sakhi” informed that the focus is to develop a hub of karigars that can help fashion designers, fashion students and other fashion experts from across the country. “With this cluster, Hindustan Zinc is aiming to create a sustainable employment for these women. This will also encourage thousands of rural women to take-up this creative art”, Pavan said.

Akhilesh Joshi, President, Zinc Business, Vedanta group informed “Sakhi” is making school uniforms and schools can approach these rural women for making their school uniforms for a better price. Currently the uniform cluster is busy in making school uniforms for the Anganwadi children. Recently Hindustan Zinc has adopted 3055 Anganwadis and the mats and school uniforms in these Anganwadis are being made by “Sakhi” rural women. Vedanta has also signed an MoU for making 4000 Nand Ghars across the country to bring child care and women empowerment under a single umbrella.”

The trainers, Zakir Khan and Rajni Kaur Khan and his team of 6 people, were before being engaged for such training for the rural women were also given a 6 days orientation program by Hindustan Zinc to enable them to bring desired results. To strengthen designing and execution, Hindustan Zinc engaged a Stylist from Delhi, Joyjeet, who spent a number of days bringing finishing and styling to the garments. Asha Baxi the former dean of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and perhaps the first fashion faculty of India visited these women along with the students and faculty of Fashion Design to give them tips and design sentiments.

Hindustan Zinc also decided to show-case a sequence of 12 uniforms with different combinations and textures. But it was also decided to use only Anganwadi children to present the uniform collection. 12 children were selected from Ajmer to wear the collection.  It was amazing to see the children, who were only going to Anganwadis, to walk on the ramp in presence of whistles and shouts of over 500 people cheering them. The Home Minister and Women & Child Development Minister too were up clapping and cheering them.

The group of 50 women worked passionately round the clock to have finally made 62 garments including sarees, salwar kurtas, kurtees, kaftans and school uniforms in a record time of about 45 days. Furkana Bano and Kukum Kavar from the village of Kayad had no experience of such work. The rural conditions had never exposed us to such forms of art. Similarly Tabassum Bano and Ryaj Bano from the village of Gagwana always wanted to do something like this but never got the chance for such training as it was expensive. The women were of the unanimous opinion, “Ye sab humari ummedon se uppar hai.”

I would like to congratulate and thank Hindustan Zinc for empowering the rural women of Rajasthan. Through the “Sakhi” programme Hindustan Zinc has taken an amazing initiative to make women financially independent by assuring them market. The government too has been working towards the upliftment of rural women but the results have been comparatively slow. However, this innovative concept has captured the essence of what the government has envisioned to do since a long time and has achieved results at a much rapid pace by developing product based cluster approach. I would further congratulate the entire “Sakhi” team for this innovative approach.

Gulab Chand Kataria, home minister, Government of Rajasthan

I am grateful to Hindustan Zinc for undertaking such a wonderful initiative. This concept and the entire programme is a great confidence booster for the women of our villages. There are many Self Help Groups and NGO’s that are working towards the empowerment of women, but a concept like “Sakhi” is really unique in its idea and execution recognises the women’s talents and more importantly gives them a market to showcase their creativity and their products.  

Anita Bhadel, women and child development minister, Government of Rajasthan

Hindustan Zinc is doing some great work with the Self Help Groups in the five districts of the state. I would be delighted and strongly recommend if this programme also comes to Sawai Madhopur as there are many women in the district and its villages that can be benefitted through “Sakhi” association.

Diya Kumari, MLA, Sawai Madhopur         


I have walked the ramp for so many designers but have not seen creations like these. These creations are at par with designs made by renowned designers. Actually my today walk is dedicated to all the Sakhees.

  

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