Here are some of the images we shot at Bijapur
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
CD copy- Version one
FILM:
These women are survivors who instead of passively accepting their situation, have confronted their issues and fought for their self respect, emerging as independent women.
They came together as groups/ community which in turn united to make a large structure that acted as an umbrella (enormous rainbow coloured) for all of them.
(You are the spoke, you are the wheel)
kabir:
a drop in the ocean; this everybody knows,
the ocean in the drop; the rare one knows....
CD COVER:
Booklet
STORIES OF NARIS
The title
PAGES 2&3
Bijapur (Kannada: ವಿಜಾಪುರ) is a district in the state of Karnataka in southern India. The city of Bijapur is the headquarters of the district, and is located 530 km northwest of Bangalore. It was established in the 10th-11th centuries by the Chalukyas of Kalyani and was known as Vijayapura (City of victory). The city came under the influence of the Khilji Sultanate in Delhi by the late 13th century and was later conquered by the Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga. By this time the city was being referred to as Vijapur or Bijapur.
(Map showing Bijapur, migration of banjaras to bijapur)
(Use craft/ embroidery/ colours + landscape in visuals)
The Banjaras (also known as Lambani) are a travelling tribe originally from Rajasthan, and over time, have spread across India. Their name comes from sanskrit, meaning Vana chara, wanderers in forests. Their habitation, which is always away from the village, is called a ‘tanda’.
Members of the Banjara community of Bijapur can be spotted by their coloured ornaments, bangles and elaborately crafted clothing. Their clothes and accessories are a contrast to the harsh bleak desert conditions of the area.
Sabala, a non- profit organisation dedicated to women empowerment was founded in 1986 by Malamma.
It has, over a period of time strived towards reviving traditional Lambani and Kasuthi crafts. Sabala works in educating and training women and children to minimise migration and child labour and provides an opportunity for income generation. It is currently active in three Taluks of the Bijapur district covering 40 villages and 9 Tandas.
PAGES 4, 5 &6
#1
“Enough learning is never enough”
Shehzad Begum has been working for Sabala for the past 6 years. As a child she had learnt embroidery from watching her mother and sister, and later on picked up crochet and would tailor clothes. A widowed mother of four, she believes that one has to tell the world about one’s skills; otherwise it would die with time. As a person, Shehzad Begum is someone who encourages and embraces anyone who would like to talk to her. She also has an affinity to learn new things and teach the same to others because she feels that there is no point in being idle, and leaves us with a quote, “Enough learning is never enough”.
#2
“I want to show my husband that I also do good work. He should not look down upon me”
Malashree Posuram Rathore is a mother of four school going children. She works at Sabala much to her husband’s discontent. He does not think much of working woman. With a smile on her face, she said that she has made it a point to prove to her husband that she, as a woman can do very well for herself and that too without her husband’s aid. Becoming a part of Sabala has helped her bloom from a mournful to a confident Indian woman.
#3
“Sewing- people usually do not know anything about selling and vice versa. But the women here (Sabala) know of Fair trade and abide by it.”
Bowramma is originally from Angedagere, a village near Bijapur, and was married young at the age of 12 which ended her schooling. Her husband died within a year, leaving her to fend for herself. Her heart wishes her to go to school and learn more, but her husband’s family would not allow it. Bowramma decided not to remarry but help her mother support her five younger sisters. She wanted to give them an education she never had a chance at. With some prompting from Malamma, she was encouraged to put the tailoring and embroidery skills she had acquired at home, to use.
She has been working for Sabala for the past nine years where she was given training in Kasauthi and
jewellery -making. Independent and proactive, she tries to learn from anything she can get her hands on.
PAGE 7
Sangam
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
-Henry Ford
These women who have shared tragic pasts and stories have something that links them together; Sabala bridging the gap even more.
They are independent now and want to take charge of their lives. One way they do this is by forming small self help groups (SHG) within their communities. Some of them have even named their groups such as, ‘Santoshi Maatmera Abmoli Sangh’, one which is named after their god. Since there is no higher authority, they take charge and run the whole group. It is a big responsibility, and they enjoy doing it.
The group have weekly meetings where they discuss and find solutions to problems that they face, ranging from drainage, water, work to their personal lives. They also contribute to a common bank account each time they meet. The money in the bank is loaned out to people when in need.
Instead of battling it alone, they come together, under one umbrella and support each other.
Quotes:
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
-Henry Ford
"All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop."
— Kabir
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.
-John Donne
Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
-Kenyan Proverb
PAGE 8
Malamma- Founder of Sabala
Sushila Shivaji Rathore
Malashree Posuram Rathore
GanguBai Nemu Rathore
Shehzad Begum
Bowramma
Lalitha Subhash Rathore
Neelam Pom Singh Rathore
Laxmi Mallu Jadan
BACK
The Stories of Naris is a series of short films documenting the lives of women who have been empowered by voluntary organisations. This particular one is based in Bijapur, an arid district in Karnataka. Here, there are the Lambani or Banjara tribe, rehabilitated widows, and economically backward women who have been trained to learn a skill and translate it into productive activities that generate income. This is facilitated by an NGO named Sabala.
These women are survivors, who instead of passively accepting their situation, have confronted their issues and fought for their self respect, emerging as independent women. They come together in small groups, which in turn unite to make a large community where they help and support each other during times of trial.
Sabala, a non- profit organisation supporting fair trade. www.sabalaindia.com
WEIGO is a global action-research-policy network with institutional and individual members in 30 countries. It is currently undertaking a project which relates to MDG3: to promote gender equality and empower women. The project aims at improving the visibility, voice and viability for women in the informal economy. www.wiego.org
Monday, March 22, 2010
putting together of the transcribed data
This is a brief sorting out of the material that I transcribed. It categorizes the people, their work and their association with Sabala.
Day 1
23rd January,2010
Destination 1
This is an office kind of space that has been set up in the village. About 20 women work here. They do embroidery and most have been doing it for 12 years or so. The designs are given to them and they make it.
Children don’t want to be part of this kind of work, though they help their mother at times. They prefer to however go out to the main city and work rather than sit at home or go to Sabala. The Ladies go to the Sabala office to only pick up the material and the designs; their main work is however at home. They do this Work in the free time that they get in between meals and house work. Many of the homes are away from the Sabala office and the main mode of transport is autos and bus.
The women are dressed in traditional attire, the few who are not wear saris and their accessories show their marital status. The Lambani women wear lots of jewellery, toe rings, and anklets. Even though many of them are far from their ancestral land, they all speak the traditional Lambani language. Many of them speak the language as well as another language as they have to survive in Bijapur too. Since they dress up so elaborately they were fascinated that Nandini was not dressed up and wearing any traditional sign of marriage except the ring on her finger.
These women are Gujrati. However they have been travelling for generations and come to settle in this place. They are from the jungles are used to travelling. Earlier before Sabala they used to work in the fields. Now the men folk do that part of the work and the women do this work at Sabala. Those people who do not have fields or any land just work for Sabala.
They started working at Sabala when someone they knew told them about this place and the madam of the place came over to their village. They had 6 months of training and soon were acquainted with other people in the neighbouring spaces who worked with them too. They believe that the only way that they can earn money is if they work. They don’t really get a salary, they make things and based on the amount that they make, they get paid accordingly. They get mirrors in the market for about 8 annas per piece and it takes about 4 days to make something that will fetch them any money. 2 women keep the accounts for the rest of them and then the payment is distributed. They have bank savings too.
Some of them travel to other states for exhibitions and training sessions so that they can come back and pass on the knowledge to their peers. A few of them from this group went to Chennai (federation for sustainable training program)for some training , but going out into a place is difficult for them as they have language and understanding barriers as well as food that tastes different. Also they don’t understand what they buyers are saying and what exactly they want. About 200 women came for this training program and they learnt things about management and payments and how things can be more efficiently planned to deliver on time. These women also travel to other places to sell their wares, Chennai and Bangalore being some of them. These women are proud of the work that they make and are keen to be photographed and displayed to the outside world.
They sit and do the Sabala work after their daily duties at home are done, like looking after their children, food and cleaning of the house, looking after the animals, among a few of the chores. These people are very poor, and they do whatever work that they find. They do machine sewing of everyday clothes and look after the animals. Their schedule for the day goes a bit like this:
Get up at 4 am: make the rotis, go to the loo and have a bath etc.
At 7: Go to Bijapur to sell curd/ milk / paneer to places (people often order things in advance and they deliver these orders) It takes them 10 rupees to go to the main city of Bijapur. They make about 270 rupees per kilo of paneer or curd that they sell.
By 10: they come back to their homes by then and sit and finish all the household work.
By 1: They come to the Sabala office by this time and work here till about 3 or 4,
By 5: They are home.
These women though they are from different families and their way of dressing is varied, they still are very comfortable with one another. They playfully play with one another’s hands and bangles and laugh out loud, while others look at them and smile in a shy way. They are a rowdy group of women who really enjoy their work. They love talking to one another and thus have conversations and are constantly connected to one another and know everything about the other which helps in times of need.
These women do all the hand stitched work separately by themselves at home, they then collect what everyone has done and get whatever is left over to be machine stitched. They get new designs every few months. As all the pieces that are made are according to the orders that they get, every piece that they make is sold.
The women are very welcoming and hospitable. They offer water in a ‘Lota’ when we arrive at their homes and all the children arrive to look at what we are doing. Their houses are made of stone, some spaces are cemented too. The homes seem to have two or three rooms. They are clean and well kept and amazingly organized. They have old fashioned doors and windows too.
Profile 1
Name: Sushila Shivaji Rathore
Number of Children:
1 daughter and 2 sons (daughter is married and with one child, one son is doing his matrix and the other son is doing a B.Ed)
Personal :
She has studied a bit, but not too much. Her hometown where she was born and brought up is in Utigi, while Bijapur is her husband’s place. She has been married for 22 years now, and she was married off when she was 12 years old (thus her present age is 34 yrs). Her first child was born 1.5 years after she was married (thus she was 14). She used to live in a 1 room house with her husband and children. Her husband’s family was very supportive and she was looked after well and they helped out with looking after the child too.
She is a pure Lambani woman. However it takes time to dress up in the traditional Lambani Style of clothing and it takes money to dress like that too and maintain the clothing, and thus she prefers to wear Saris. Even to weddings she has now taken to wearing saris as they are more convenient.
Her husband has a flat business (real estate) and also dabbles with vehicles that are meant for travel. They together paid Rs 4 lakhs for the wedding. At present her daughter is at home as she has just delivered a baby. The family supports her and teaches her to look after the baby till she can go back to her husband’s place.
Sabala and its effects:
After working with Sabala she has become a very smart woman. She has gotten a bigger house now and more land and she has changed her husband’s mind too. She has worked for Sabala for 12 years. Initially her husband was reluctant to allow her to work elsewhere. He believed that a women’s place is in the house only, and thus the only work that she should be allowed to do is in the house. However when he saw the amount of money that was coming in for them to make a new house, he allowed her to work. She earns approx. 1200 rupees per month. From this amount she saves around two –three hundred rupees.
Before Sabala she didn’t do this kind of stitching work. The women used to make Lapos which used to sell for 50 – 100 rupees only. It took long to make these Lapos, and the money was not sufficient. Sabala also did not buy the Lapos at all. They only bought the work that they commissioned these women to make according to their designs. However the person who runs Sabala ‘their madam’ is open to the idea of their using their own designs too if it is good. So she asks them to make samples of possible ideas from which she chooses the possible workable ideas. This is apart from the designs that she gives them to make.
It was good that Sabala came along, because it definitely helped the financial situation. Sushila took a loan of Rs 500, which she paid back in 2 years slowly. She used the money to make her house and brought land too. She also did not need to give any mortgage.
These women call themselves a group and thus have a name for it too. they call their group ‘Santoshi Maatmera Abmoli Sangh’.
She knows how to write a bit. However her son keeps the accounts for all the women who work with her. Thus she and another woman keep the accounts of this entire group of women with Sabala. The entire group of women are strong and supportive to one another. They don’t really fight between one another though they do occasionally argue. Throughout the discussion that we had with these women there was constant prompting and suggestion from the others.
Sushila’s daughter also designs patterns. She learnt it from her mother when she was a young child and used to occasionally help her mother. He son too used to learn and help, but now he does not.
General observations and conversation:
These women are mostly married, have a mangle sutra, bichue, anklets and bangles. After the death of their husbands remove all of these things. Their attire represents their marital status. They seem to have more jewellery and adornments while they are married and they wear their attire in a particular way too, however eventually all this changes.
These ladies seem interested in personal details, and as we were outsiders they were more curious about us. We seemed to be a bit old to be students and they wondered why we were not married. These women’s children are into Hindi music, or more so it was the young men of this village. A truck passes by while we are talking with loud Hindi music p[laying, also the nearby houses seem to be emitting loud Hindi music.
Sushila’s Grandfather used to be a labourer. He used to stay and work wherever he got work. so often he would stay away days, travelling from place to place working and earning. They have been travelling for generations from Gujarat and settling here in Bijapur. The women in this group have visited Gujarat to see the kind of work that they do there.
These women find it funny, listening and observing the people who buy their stuff as they don’t seem to agree with their tastes. Foreign tourists often choose things that are contradictory to what the women expect them to buy. The women only make things that are in high demand. Their own things do not sell much as they don’t really make it with the view of selling them.
The women’s conversation revolves primarily around money, and the value of things. They looked at Nandini’s earrings and asked her a million questions regarding it ranging from the colour, the size, the work done on it and the price. The Nose ring that these women wear with their traditional dress is worth 10 times the value it was when they bought it.
This is a one caste village of sorts. They are all Hindus and there was not glimpse of any other kind of woman or man. They eat everything except for pork and cow.
Cycles are the main system of transportation. A couple of younger men in the village seem to have bikes. But maybe that is only 1 or two. The women’s husbands either work in the fields or in the city of Bijapur.
Profile 2
Name: Malashree Posuram Rathore
Number of Children:
She has 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. They all are in school.
Personal:
She left her husband over issues and now works for Sabala. She wants to prove to her husband how well she is doing and that too without his support.
Sabala and its effects:
This has helped her to make an alternative life for herself rather than mourning and crying over the past and moving on in life.
General observations and conversation:
There is a sewing machine in the house. The house is smaller than the earlier one but equally well kept and seems to carry a sense of pride within it.
Outside every house in the vicinity there seems to be a Neem tree. Not only does it provide a good breeze, but is also considered to be equal to GOD. Thus they pray to it and Treat it with respect and look after it well.
There is a prevalence of God and an importance in the life of these people. Their homes all seem to have a prayer space where there are multiple gods and goddesses.
Profile 3
Name: GanguBai Nemu Rathore
Number of Children:
She has 4 children. 2 boys and 2 girls. Her daughters work in a similar Sabala like structure. One son is a Mason while the other is a Digger. Her one daughter is married and has 3 sons. Her younger daughter lives in Copan. Her Daughter has her own sewing place too where she works. She studied till class 12.
Personal:
She dresses in the traditional way and has always done so. She sees the changing world around her yet she prefers to dress the way she does. When she goes to her daughters place, they are the same caste as her yet they do not dress the way she does.
She wants all her children to work, whatever kind of work that they get. She knows that you need to study in order to be able to get a good job anywhere. Thus all her children studied.
She is a Hindu and believes in all the gods and goddesses particularly Durga Devi. Her husband is alive, but her sister in law who is sitting next to her is a widow.
There are lots of Muslims, but they all live outside the circumference of the ‘Thanda’. ‘Thanda’ refers to village. Your locality when you refer to the above notes. In this particular ‘Thanda’ there are only people of her own caste.
They are strong believers in God. All the women in the ‘Thanda’ get together once a year to go to a temple which is located at some distance. They all go together for a week and the cost for this entire trip is about 10,000 rupees.
There is a custom here that was quite fascinating. Similar to the Hindu ritual of giving clothes to the groom when the engagement takes place. In their culture when Gangu Bai’s son will get married the girls side would give her a dress set that is traditional made by the in laws.
In total Gangu Bai has 3 sets of the traditional clothing that she wears. She circulates amongst them, and does not make new ones as it takes time to do so.
Sabala and its effects:
Before Sabala, she like some others in the village, used to sell the things that they made to other people. She sold an entire costume of hers for Rs 10,000. They also sell separate parts for different amounts (the blouse would be sold for 3500 rupees).
Many people take the costumes to wear and have photographs of themselves in it. The dresses are given on rent for a fixed amount of money .
She went to Bombay for Sabala work. The women all sold things there in a showroom. Looking at her attire, people there are fascinated and many of the foreign people take photographs of her and her work.
All the women in this group wanted their photographs to be taken and then sent to Sabala so that they could see it. They believed us to be govt. people and thus there to help them. The people are poor here, however it did not seem like it mattered a lot to them.
Gangu Bai seems to know everything that is going on in the world. She told us about a visit she took to Bombay for Sabala work where she saw the Taj Hotel. She also then recounted to us that she knew that the place that was there earlier was now demolished in the bombings and terrorist attacks and now stood in its place a more beautiful Taj Hotel. She told us that she knew all this as other people she knows see all this on the television and tell her about it.
There is no problem at Sabala in doing your own work too side by side. However the Sabala work needs to be done as priority. Also they don’t make much of their own stuff as it sells primarily among themselves only and not outside so much. So they stick to the Sabala work has it pays more and is more of an income bringer.
General observations and conversation:
The younger generation do not want to particularly be part of this Sabala thing and are more ambitious of what they want to do with their lives. The children all go to school. Some of them go on to go to colleges in Bijapur. Even the women in this area go to college.
School systems are interesting. In order to encourage the children to come to school, the school gives money to study + food + the uniform +the school books. They initially used to come home to eat lunch every day, however now the school provides that too and thus the children stay on in school till the end of the day. The school also provides children living at a distance cycles too.
There is no tuition system here either. If you don’t understand something then you ask your teacher in school and you study at home. If you do badly in school then you do labour work or any work that you may get. If you do well in school then you go on to do a B.Ed and become a teacher. One requires at least a 70 % to do a B.Ed.
All the students who study in colleges go together to Bijapur. In college one has to buy your own books. Or you can borrow it from the library, however which is very much lacking in the number of copies that each book has in its possession. The books if bought cost about Rs 2000.
The younger generation dress in clothes that are comfortable and accepted by the society. They primarily wear Salwar Kameez, or chudidar kurta, most of this is ready made, or made by their mothers at home. They do not like to wear the traditional clothing that their grandparents or even some of their parents wear.
So what does one do after finishing school or college? Ganga Bai jokingly says “you have a love marriage” . At this statement she is immediately rebuked. All women here have only arranged marriages. No one will dare have a love marriage. It’s up to the parents to decide a match for you and you then stick to it for the rest of your lives. The brother spends time with the boy to him he might want his sister married. This is done to figure out the character of the boy and once he has decided that the boy is appropriate he invites him home to see his sister.
All the younger children seem to be wearing foot wear, however most of them are wearing clothes that have holes in them. All the elders seem to be well dressed. Some of the people contribute to the discussion while others prefer to stay in the background and listen. The eager v/s the not so eager.
Destination 2
We next visited the Crafts Development Office.
This is a factory like outlet that does all the work after the patterns done by the women come in. In this space the machinery work, which involves the tassels, making jewellery, doing the finishing stitches, cleaning up any wrongs, the bag straps etc are done.
The straps tassels for the bags are made using jewellery ingredients and string left over from other things.
The well known Kasauti embroidery is done here. Kasauti is such finely done embroidery that by seeing the final piece one cannot figure out which side is the right side up. In summer the sales for this type of embroidery is very good. Things made from this kind of embroidery are primarily for export. The designs for this kind of work are sent in by the buyers, ‘madam’, and some designers from Madras.
Because the products that are being made are for the foreign market and export, it has a foreign touch to it. In terms of the forms used and the colour.
The bags are made in a community room. 6 to 7 ladies sit in one room on sewing machines and make bags of different sizes and shapes. Some of the patterns that are stitched on are from other cooperatives apart from the one that we interviewed earlier in the day, though we saw their work too.
At this place a month of training is given to what kind off of work is expected here. Te local Bijapur women who work here are given monthly salaries. 10 people sit here and stitch from 10 am to 6 pm.
Materials that are worked on over here are Jute, cotton, and silk. The raw material like jute for the bags comes from Belgaum and Hubli. However it also comes from local places around Bijapur. This is the last level of production over here. After this place it goes straight to the shops. The women do all the final touching up of the products and the weaving and stitching while the men do the transportation and the packing of the final goods. Most of stuff here is exported however some is sent to other organizations who work on these crafts. Only two other organization like this work on these kinds of craft items, Sabala and Sandoor. Sabala is a non- cooperative society (NGO).
Profile 4
Name: Shehzad Begum
Number of Children:
She has 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. Her daughter is married. Her 3 sons all work ; one is a tailor, other one works in a mobile shop and the third does bar bending.
Personal:
She is 49 years old. She resides in Bijapur itself. She studied till she was in class 9. After marriage too she studied for 2 years. Her husband died 9 years after they were married. She then used to work on leather bags. Her in- laws allowed her to work then as she had 4 children to support and bring up. Her mother and her friends are part of Sabala and became involved in this. She works from morning to evening at this place, and thus her daughter-in-law looks after the house. She believes that if she had not joined Sabala , her son would have never got a job in this place. She and her son both work here now.
Sabala and its effects:
She has been working for Sabala for 6 years. (I’m not sure; I think it is 16 years though) She learnt about this organization from newspapers and their exhibitions that happen all over the place. She works primarily on Jute bag designs and embroidery that is done on the bags. She learnt all this only after coming to Sabala. Earlier she remembers only what she used to do in school. Whatever she learnt in school she likes to do it. Even later she made things for friends, or for presents for weddings and celebrations. Small things that she had embroidered onto.
There is a SHG (Self Help Group) in this organization too. It consists of poor people and they all look up to this place as it benefits and helps all. It is a big responsibility but all want to be part of this. There are no higher educated or rich people who are part of this as it makes them greedy and thus they will help less, and be more keen benefit from it than allowing others to. This group gets together and talks and discusses that the people may be facing. They talk about all kinds of things from drainage, water, and work to personal problems that they may face. They discuss improvements that need to be done and each of them contributes Rs 10 per meeting so that it can collect and they can do something with it. She goes once a week to the SHG otherwise the rest of the days she is at Sabala. Their working day is from 10 to 6.
She along with other women who work in this place together go home in a TumTum (auto like structure that is larger).
She has never gone anywhere to exhibit any of the Sabala work. However she says that she learnt a lot from Sabala. She learnt all about money and the process of running a business from this place. She believes that it is essential to know all this.
Earlier Sabala used to comprise of only Hindu people. They used to work there alone with no one else of any other religion working there. Now after she joined, the madam has started to work with a lot of Muslim women too. However Muslim embroidery is different from the kind of work that Sabala wants. Muslims do more spaced out work, more of Zari work and all. So now Sabala is teaching them both kinds of embroidery and trying to incorporate these two together.
She believes that you have to tell the world about your skills otherwise it wouldn’t go anywhere and it would die with time. By creating samples per person one creates community design that is known to all. On does their own designs as well as the designs suggested to them by Madam.
Do young people come here? Young Muslim people do not come here, but young Hindu people do come .
General observations and conversation:
Shehzad Begum has a lot of courage and motivation to work and learn. She learns and teaches others too. She teaches in Devanpuri district, Shindli Taluk and Bagdi Taluk.
She believes that there is no point in just sitting around. Enough learning is never enough. She believes in teaching people the skill that she learnt. She has learnt to say NO when something is wrong rather than go along with it because others are continuing with it. She wants to learn more constantly, new things. What she learn she wants others to learn to and wants to pass on that skill.
Shehzad begum talks very clearly and loud. She is confident of herself and is sure of her knowledge and experience that she has. She smiles a lot, someone who encourages you to talk to her and someone you want to talk to . Thus she has the ability to become a great teacher as she wants to do it and gives others the courage to want to learn. Happiness radiates out of her, though one can never figure what she may be going through actually.
Everyone at Sabala gets through life by helping, teaching and supporting one another.
Handwork is slow and machine work is quicker. But handwork is always more valued. Earlier they used to cut things with a knife and now with scissors, not much of a difference ( the begum smiles after making this statement ). She believes that they brain is like a computer, yet much better than an American computer.
After coming out of the security of her home, the inspiration to work has increased, and travelled more over time (i guess she means evolved more). She plans to educate her children and grandchildren, making them not sit at home. She wants everyone to learn from seeing. You should think in advance of the work you want to do.
Profile 5
Name: Bowramma
Personal:
She is originally from Angedagere. But she works in Bijapur and lives in a rented room here itself. She stays with her mother here. Her husband died after a year of marriage and she has not remarried.
Earlier she used to do tailoring and embroidery at home when she was younger.
On Sundays she goes home as then it is a holiday at Sabala. She has 5 sisters to support who are in college. She herself went to school till class 8. At the age of 12 she got married and after that she left school. She can’t go to school anymore even if she wants to as her husband’s family will not allow it. Her heart wishes her to go to school. She wishes to learn more.
Sabala and its effects:
She has worked for Sabala for 9 years. She learnt about Sabala from Mallamma (madam) after the death of her husband. She suggested to her that instead of sitting at home and mourning a better idea would be to work here and earn some money. At that time there were only women who worked here at Sabala. At Sabala she does tailoring, embroidery. After coming to Sabala she learnt to do more concentrated work. She learnt Kasauthi and jewellery making here. At Sabala she says that the sewing people do not know anything about selling and Visa versa. The women here know of Fair trade and abide by it.
The men do all the running around, picking up the parcels and sending them for delivery and all. The parcels go primarily to cosmopolitan cities.
She went with a Sabala partner, Sadhna to Rajasthan for training. The problem about exhibitions in other cities and states is that she doesn’t know the language and it confuses her.
General observations and conversation:
What part of Sabala do you like? I like the fact that there is no tension or any kind of stress over here. All work here together. It relieves the mind and makes you happy. She gets enough money.
She wants to learn more and thus the influence of people like Shehzad Begum will help her. She also wants to travel more.
She loves watching cinema and from it she learns a lot too. She watches Kannada serials and movies too. She observes the dressing styles in the movies and tries to get ideas from it; she has even at times tried to make dresses that have a similar style.
She also looks at newspapers and magazines and tries to learn from it. Sometimes they have articles that teach how to embroider, or how to make dresses etc which she follows. These teach you to make things for yourself.
If we can’t afford expensive clothes, and the kind of clothes that we stitch , then we do embroidery on our own normal clothes and jazz it up.
Day 2
24th January,2010
Destination 3
This village seems to be more pressed together and compact compared to the first place we visited. Rooms of the house are smaller too. The rooms are filled with details like the first place. Gods, shirts, vessels and charpoys dominate the room. During this talk there were a large number of women, and they all seemed to be talking and contributing to this conversation at the same time.
Profile 6
Name: Lalitha Subhash Rathore
Number of Children: She has 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Her one daughter is married, the other one is doing PUC 1st year in a college in Bijapur. Her daughter does embroidery too. She goes to college in Bijapur and thus has seen the Sabala showroom in Bijapur. she goes to college everyday by train and wants to become a teacher and thus is doing a B.Ed. Her son is a postman.
Personal: She is from the Minchahala LT Thanda (village). She is a Lambani woman.
Sabala and its effects: She has worked for Sabala for 10 years now. The madam came herself here and asked me to work and offered this opportunity to work for Sabala. Before Sabala they used to farm in the fields.
The first time that they travelled by bus to go and get the material from Sabala in Bijapur, they were really scared as that was the first time that they were going out by themselves. This was the one experience among a number to follow that made them really really happy. A call comes for them to come and pick up the material or view the new design and then they all go to the Sabala office. This is not an everyday thing. In case an order does not come to make things then the women go to the fields but usually the order does come and they do work at home.
They now like to travel and meet new people. When asked if they have any problems they responded by saying that they didn’t. They believe that it is really nice to talk to other people.
These women used to know one another before Sabala brought them together. However not as well as they know one another know. They have learnt here to interact with other people too. they meet people from other villages too in the Sabala meetings and have got to know them too.
For them Sabala is a good things as they can be at home and still be earning money and doing it one’s own pace and do the housework too. Otherwise the other option would have been to go to the fields.
The SHG (Self Help Group) here comprises of 100 women. A group of a couple of women are in charge of about 20 women each. These women go out and get material for the other women and then they all come to them and collect the things so that that they can work on it at home. They all work at home as it is more convenient and then they also all have children to look after and house work to do. Lalitha is part of the main 5 women who do the running around for the other women.
Lalabai Nandur Rathore or Lalitha Bai was the first woman to join Sabala.
Sabala has taken her to many places. She has been to Bangalore, Chennai and Tirrupathi among a few names.
She and other women no longer go to the fields or outside, they work at home on the things that Sabala gives them to do. Sabala teaches them to read, how to manage money and how to stitch. She goes to training sessions and learns things and this is turn she teaches to the other ladies. Each piece that needs to be made takes about 2/3 days to make.
How do they get the material?
Their group has an account opened in Bijapur, it is a joint account and all the women are part of it. The bank has also given them a loan of 4000 or 5000 rupees. Out of which they repay 500 each month. After joining Sabala they started to get money and they really needed it.
The only disadvantage of working on such delicate work is that over a period of time the eyes get spoilt and one has to stop doing this kind of work for a while.
Things haven’t changed in 10 years at Sabala. This includes the money that we get. It is very little and often not sufficient. One gets paid according to the amount of work one does. Some people do more work while others do less work.
They make new designs, but rarely their own designs. They have a design training workshop which teach them different kinds of designs and that’s what they have to do. They are prepared to teach others to do the same patterns but only if they are taught how to teach.
General observations and conversation:
Her mother used to do stitching and embroidery, which got her interested. She used to do it for marriages and for her children’s clothes and hers too. But they were not for sale and were done just as enjoyment.
People do come and take photographs of them at exhibitions when they go to other places.
Their husbands are happy with them working at Sabala as long as they are bringing in money for the house. The present profile’s husband teaches in high school. Earlier they used to have money problems but since she is working in Sabala they don’t have problems any more. (Clerk in a college...I’m not sure which one)They get about Rs 10 per week for the work that they do and they save this in an account, based on that they take loans from the madam. Their daughters and sons keep account of the money as all of them don’t know how to read and write.
They watch no T.V when there is work to be done. This kind of work needs full concentration. Their schedule for the day goes a bit like this:
Get up at 5
Housework is done in the morning and in the afternoon, or one sleeps then. However if the Sabala work is urgent then they do it.
Then they work in the afternoons from 3 to about 6. Then the dinner and all is done.
These women sing while working at times. The sound of their singing echoes in the room. It gives a secure and nice feeling. These women sing well and very much in tune though their way of singing differs from the music and songs we may be used to. While singing these women are constantly laughing and talking in between. So their comfort levels with one another too shows. These women also sing in weddings.
Destination 4
This was another village. This was similar to the earlier one. However this space like the earlier one does not have people dressed in the traditional dress. The women are dressed in saris. However they do tend to keep the traditional clothing. Though the older people were wearing some of it.
Profile 7
Name: Neelam Pom Singh Rathore
Personal: She is handicapped and cannot go anywhere. So for her this kind of work is a refuge from her otherwise uneventful day.
This village is her own village. Her mother and father go to the fields to work. They go as labourers as they do not have their own fields that they own.
Sabala and its effects: She learnt about Sabala from another man in the village who works there. After which she joined Sabala. There are 10 people in this village who are part of this. The men folk in the village go far out to work, often returning after a day or two.
General observations and conversation:
She used to earlier make quilts and then she learnt about embroidery from Sabala. She makes these quilts which sell for 100 rupees per piece and are then exported to Goa,thus from this business she earns only 6000 rupees aprox per year.
She believes that we can do anything with money when we have it, and thus she likes to earn it and believes that’s why everyone wants to earn money.
Profile 8
Name: Laxmi Mallu Jadan
Personal: She has been doing embroidery for a while now. She was doing it earlier too in Bangalore. She used to work in Bangalore in a garment factory. She learnt a lot there. She learnt that they just give you the things and the patterns to do and one just does it then. The factory taught her export stitch and the things made in that factory were sold to foreigners. In Bangalore they also make things in large amounts. Pricing too is better there, and so is the payment. She earned lots and lots of money there. Place gave her a lot of experience too. She spent 5 years there.
Her husband had a CISF post. Her husband retired so thus she came back to Bijapur. She works to fill up her stomach and not to sit around doing nothing.
Sabala and its effects:
She has just started out in Sabala. She is trying to go out into villages and see other places. She believes that when they begin working in their own village then people from other villages will see and want to join too and do what we do.
The kind of work done here is a bit different from the other places that we have visited. Other places have their base and all stitched along with the pattern drawn out on the top, thus they have to only stitch on top. This place however has to do everything. They make their base first and then make the calculations and make the pattern on top. They have to think and make calculations. For the 1 piece that they make they get 12 rupees and it takes about 2 days to make 1.
They buy their own cloth and their own thread, and whatever they need. Some days .They work on this and other days they go to the fields and work. The field gives more money to them than the Sabala work. As time goes people will understand what Sabala does and more people will join this. Nowadays people go to the field. For any extra money they make Lapos and sell them for Rs 100. One lapo takes 15 days to make. In case people who don’t have fields then on the days there is no Sabala work they make lapos.
Sabala does not buy their designs or any of the lapos work. They only pay for work that is done on their designs.
General observations and conversation:
Mothers still wear the traditional dress. Especially when made for her by her daughter. They sell on blouse set if money needed for 3000 rupees.
A lot of people go outside BIjapur on jobs to earn more money.
Nowadays people can’t learn the traditional crafts anymore. No one can learn how to make lapos, or the traditional stitching methods. Only the elderly and the old fashioned women can do it now.
It is also compulsory to have a son. Having just daughters is not enough.
Her husband tries to stop her from going to places, out of mere concern and not from the need to dominate or stop her from doing things. She convinces him of the need she has to go out and learn new and more things and see how other people work.
They like singing while they work, but today they can’t because someone died in the village.
They wanted to know how we can help them, or rather how we think we can help them.
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