Karnataka - Bidar   

Zardozi shows them the way

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

The members save money to buy raw material, add value to the saris by the intricate craft and sell them for a significant profit

THEY HAVE DESIGNS: Women working on a sari

BIDAR: Efforts of a Bidar-based cooperative society to organise poor Muslim women into self-help groups have started yielding rich dividends.

The City Minority Multipurpose Cooperative Society has trained members of the Razia Sultana and Chand Bibi groups in the Zardozi art of crafting designs on saris. The members save money to buy raw material, add value to the saris by the intricate craft and sell them at a significant profit.

Inspired by families of artisans who have converted Zardozi into a cottage industry in Hyderabad, some members of the society thought of replicating the model in Bidar.

"We brought together some women of the same socio-economic class and organised them into two groups. We taught them to save small amounts of money and to begin internal lending. When this made them confident, we trained them in the Zardozi art," says Abdul Quadir, a member of the society, who is in charge of the training programme.

Two award-winning craftsmen, Wasim Bhai and Sameer from Farukabad in Uttar Pradesh, were invited to train the members in the art. They stayed in Bidar for a year and conducted classes. Two senior members of the first batch of trainees, Taskeen Fatima and Vaifa Banu, have now taken on the role of trainers with at least 120 members learning the art.

They procure the raw material from Hyderabad. While each sari costs Rs. 200 to Rs. 300, some intricate designs enhance the value of the final product to between Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 4,000. "Some of our trainees have gone back and set up small units in their houses. They are now selling their wares in the local market only. We are planning to help them sell their product in Hyderabad and even export them to South-East Asia and other countries where there is a huge demand," Mr. Quadir says.

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Zardozi shows them the way

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