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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