Pak Women Refugees in Bikaner Reclaim Dignity Through Embroidery

Dandkala village’s women, despite being refugees, are now earning for their families through embroidery.

The women of Dandkala village in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district are a class apart. Despite being refugees from Umerkot district in Pakistan’s Sindh province, they have fought displacement by taking ownership of their traditional embroidery skills, which has enabled them to become breadwinners for their families.

Located in Kolayat block 140 km from Bikaner city in the Thar Desert, the lives of rural women in Dandkala is not easy by any means. But it has not stopped the women artisans to earn a living with dignity.

Also Read: How a Group of Six Dalit Women in Rural Andhra Empowered Thousands

The villagers, who settled here in 1988, had earlier stayed at refugee camps in Barmer and Jaisalmer for almost 17 years. In these camps, there were lakhs of people ousted from Pakistan and who had fled to India during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. The Rajasthan government had at that time allotted land to these refugees.

In 1987, western Rajasthan suffered its worst drought of the century and Bikaner was one of the badly hit districts. Lack of food, water and fodder left thousands of families desolate and wiped off about half of the livestock. In these extreme conditions, the villagers either migrated to cities or earned a pittance at road construction sites.

Also Read: Google’s Internet Saathi Aims to Empower Women in Rural India

Artistic Heritage

When my husband was allotted 25 bighas of land at Dandkala, we were living in abject poverty. When we came first to settle in the village from the camp in Barmer, we were shocked as it was entirely a tough dry patch without trees, shrubs, shade or water. We, like the other 250 families in the village, had no option but to cultivate this land, which had never been tilled earlier.

Paaro Bai, 58

“The drought in 1987 further aggravated our problems. It was difficult to get one square meal a day. The condition was so bad that we did not take a bath for months together. My son and daughters were full of lice and used to stink badly,” she added.

In that terrible condition, to earn a livelihood, I used to accompany my husband with our young children on our laps wherever the thakedar (contractor) took us to work at road construction sites. Most of the women like me who came from Sindh province had only one skill that was special.

Also Read: These Afghan Women Refugees are Cooking Their Way to a New Life

Paaro Bai is referring to kashida, a special kind of embroidery that includes various styles such as taanka bharat, soof, pakka, kambiri, kharak, kachcha and sindhi.

At our camp in Barmer and here in the village, middlemen took advantage of our situation as most of us were illiterate, unorganized and were in need of money. The middlemen were exploiting us for a very long time by giving us very less for our exquisite hand embroidery.

Paaro Bai

Sitting nearby, Santosh, who had been working with women artisans, said, “The village falls in the command area of the Indira Gandhi Canal and in 1988 the URMUL Trust expanded its activities in these areas. The URMUL Seemant Samiti was formed at Bajju in Kolayat block to work in 113 villages.”

Also Read: In MP’s Betul, Pardhi Tribe Lives Like Refugees in Its Homeland

Watershed Moment

Earlier, Sanjoy Ghose, accompanied by URMUL functionaries, had seen me toiling hard at a road construction site. He had seen my son and daughters sleeping under the scorching sun subject to the dust, heat, noise and multiple hazards. Later, when URMUL health workers visited the village to treat tuberculosis patients, I showed them the handicraft. Their visit to my hut proved to be a watershed in my life. They acted positively and started a project to generate income for us through embroidery. 

Paaro Bai 

URMUL supported the women artisans to upgrade their traditional skills, provided them technical support and linked them with national and international markets. The non-profit also freed them from the stranglehold of the exploitative middlemen.

Women artisans in Dandkalan, Gokul, Bhaloori Bijeri, Bikendri and other villages of Kolayat and Pugal blocks of Bikaner district started getting organised in self-help groups (SHGs) and further enhanced their skills in kashidakaari (embroidery).

Constant orientation by famous designers like Laila Tyabji and graduates from the National Institute of Design (NID) and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) helped women to hone their skills. Now these women earn between Rs 3,500 and Rs 6,000 a month.

Santosh

Kashida mharo khet bhi suu aur fasal bhi (Embroidery is my farmland and my crop). When I started working with URMUL, my husband created a lot of hurdles. But when he saw that my earning is helping the family, he stopped resisting. Earlier, we were not able to feed ourselves and our children a square meal but now there is no such shortage.

Paaro Bai

Also Read: MP Village Women Dig a Well After Being Denied One by Panchayat

Ending Migration

Paaro Bai is a founding member of a SHG and she has helped 40 to 50 women in her village to earn between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 every month. She had also trained her daughters, Manguri and Mathri, who are now married and live in Barmer district. They, in turn, have trained other women in their villages. Women artisan’s involvement in kashida work helps them to remain in their villages, rather than migrating to cities.

Most of the work is done in homes and not under controlled conditions. Their own homes are their workplace and they earn with dignity. Capacity building training and regular interaction with URMUL functionaries, designers and buyers enables them to see the world in a wider perspective.

Paaro Bai does her embroidery work along with her daughters-in-law, nieces and other women of the village, which operates like a ‘Rangsutra Centre’. Shubham Sharma Sen, a graduate of NIFT, explains about Rangsutra.

Also Read: Notebandi Has Forced India’s Invisible Women Farmers Into a Crisis

It’s a company of artisans set up by social activist-turned entrepreneur Shumita Ghose 12 years ago. It was created to ensure regular work and market access for artisans. Artisans are co-owners and shareholders in the enterprise. They are part of the board of directors and have a say in costing, planning, production and wages. Paaro Bai is a shareholder in the company. Over 3,500 weavers, embroiderers and artisans from Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal have formed the company. 

Shubham Sharma Sen, NIFT graduate

Sharma Sen added:

Seventy percent of Rangsutra’s artisan owner-workers are women. The work and money they earn through embroidery have given these women more say at home. These women now want to send their daughters to school and some have become group leaders in their villages, motivating other women to follow in their footsteps.

Rangsutra is now a successful enterprise. Sharma Sen says:

Rangsutra’s biggest buyer is Fab India (a popular chain of stores). It also exports in small quantities to France, the Netherlands and the UK. The global attention means that there is a continuous need to augment the strength of the existing groups and increase their capacity by speeding up the work while maintaining the quality. While helping them retain their cultural identity, the traditional embroidery used for making personal trousseau is now market-affiliated and has been kept alive.

(This article has been published in an arrangement with VillageSquare.in)