Tag: Phulkari

Manpreet Kaur

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In this era of western culture…a daughter of Punjab is contributing to preserve our heritage

With passing time, we are forgetting the rich heritage of Punjab by adopting Western civilization. Our culture, heritage and background have become part of an exhibition. In ancient times, stitching mats, shawls and phulkaris used to be the hobbies of Punjabi women. But nowadays instead of stitching Phulkaris, women doesn’t even like to wear them. Our new generation may not even know what Phulkari is?

In this era of western civilization, there is one girl of Punjab who is trying to maintain our heritage. Graduate in economics, Manpreet Kaur from Tarn Taran district, manufactures Phulkaris. After completing her studies, Manpreet wanted to help her family due to financial constraints at home. Manpreet’s grandmother and mother used to make Phulkaris. One day suddenly Manpreet caught sight of a Phulkari in her grandmother’s trunk. So she thought of starting a business of Phulkari manufacturing. To make her thinking a reality, Manpreet shared her thoughts with her friends. But her friends refused this idea by saying that there is no profit in this business and nowadays people do not like such stuff. Everybody said that there was no point in doing this.

“My friends said this is a backward thing, nobody likes it. This forced me to think about why people consider it backward. To find the answer of this why was very important.” – Manpreet Kaur

After this, Manpreet started making efforts to revive her heritage. In 2015, with the help of a group of 5 women, she made five Phulkaris. After making the Phulkaris she thought where to sell them now? For this purpose, she started searching the internet, from which she found that there is a government organization that buys Phulkaris. Manpreet showed those 5 Phulkaris to the organization and they took those for sale. The organization used to pay the money after the Phulkaris were sold. Because of this, Manpreet received the money after two or three months, making it difficult to keep up with the house. The same continued for a year.

“My parents put their every penny into this, because they believed in me that I could do it.” – Manpreet Kaur

After working in this manner for a year, she thought that this could not work, as she had to pay the rest of the group members. So she took the help of Internet. She created a page on social media. But here too people didn’t show much interest in buying Phulkari. Due to this, Manpreet thought that what people consider backward, why not give it a modern look?

To give our culture a bit of modern look, we started making Phulkari designs on light duppatas, so that girls could carry them with jeans. – Manpreet Kaur

This method of Manpreet proved to be quite effective. This increased the sales of their Phulkari. In this group, 20-30 women from the city were working, but Manpreet wanted to integrate with the village women too, as they are more aware of their heritage and culture and have considerable experience in this work. But it is very difficult for women in the villages to come out and work. Therefore, Manpreet herself comes to the women in the villages and gives them the material of Phulkari manufacturing, so that they do not face any problem. Manpreet’s initiative brought employment to women who could not work outside the home.

Through the internet, Manpreet’s group got their first order from abroad. They received an order of 40 Phulkaris to give as gift at the wedding. The Phulkaris sent under this order were greatly favoured, which increased the demand for their Phulkaris abroad. Foreign media also helped Manpreet’s group. They promoted Manpreet’s interview through video call, which resulted in receiving many more orders from overseas, such as Canada, United States, etc. Senior journalist Baltej Singh Pannu shared Manpreet’s post on social media, which helped her a lot.

People from abroad likes Phulkaris more than Punjab. Most of our clients are from overseas. – Manpreet Kaur

Along with this, a number of students from various colleges comes to Manpreet for training and internship.

Achievements
Manpreet has received many awards due to her efforts in preserving our heritage, some of which are mentioned below:
  • Honoured at Hamdard Virasati Mela
  • Sirjanhari award by PTC Punjabi channel

Due to these efforts, Manpreet has also been made Brand Ambassador of Tarn Taran District.

Future Plans

In the upcoming time, Manpreet wants to make this business of Phulkari popular in India as well, so that the future generations will understand their rich heritage.

Message
“The younger generation should make efforts to preserve their legacy. This work may also create job opportunities. Women who can’t go out and work can do it staying at home and it can be a source of income for them.”

Karamjeet Kaur Danewalia

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HOW A WOMAN PURSUED HER PASSION OF FARMING AFTER HER MARRIAGE AND IS LIVING THROUGH IT SUCCESSFULLY

Generally, in India, when daughters are married away and sent to their husband’s home then they get so busy in their life after marriage that they forget to think about their interest and hobbies, they just get bounded to the household chores. But one such woman who pursued her passion even after marriage and outliving it is Mrs Karamjeet Kaur Danewalia. Instead of just becoming house woman she chose to step outside the house and pursue her hobby of orchard farming.

Mrs Karamjeet Kaur Danewalia is a woman who was born raised in a typical Punjabi farmer’s family of a small village. As coming from a farming background, Mrs Karamjeet was always fascinated towards farming and had an interest in helping his father in the fields. But she never get a chance to be a helping hand to her father before marriage.

Soon she was married to Mr Jasbeer Singh, to a business class family. She never thought that after marriage she would get an opportunity to fulfil her dreams and pursue it as her profession. Just after few years of marriage, in 1975, with the support of her husband, she decided to start with the fruits orchards and give a chance to her interest. With the help of leveller machine and workers, she levelled 45 acres of land and prepared it for orchard farming. She planted kinnows in 20 acres, Plums, pear, peach, java plum, banana, naak pears on 10 acres and in the rest of the 5 acres she planted wheat in winter and cotton in summer.

Her hobby changed into passion and she decided to continue it. In 1990 she build up a pond and stored rain water in it so that, she can irrigate her orchards with it. But later on, she started fish farming in it and used it for both purpose fish farming as well as irrigation. To expand the business to one level ahead she also started preparing seedling herself.

In 2001 she created a record of Kinnow production in India. And to make the kinnow orchards business more successful, she especially went to California in 2003 to take kinnow packaging and processing training. After coming back she implanted that training and gained a huge profit from it. Since she has started kinnow farming from that year her kinnow quality is always no. 1 in district level and state level, every year. And because of her growing popularity in kinnow production, Prakash Singh Badal (Former CM of Punjab) entitled her as the Kinnow Queen in 2004

For the farming purpose, she has every type of modern technological farming equipment and machinery at her farm. Her popularity in the horticulture field has made her member of many prestigious communities and recipient of many awards. Some of them are listed below:

• Awarded First Prize in State Level Citrus Show by Agriculture Minister S. Gulzar  Ranika (2001-02)
• Awarded Desh Seva Rattan Award by Ravi Chopra by Shahee Memorial International Seva Society, Ludhiana. (2004)
• Entitled by Punjab’s Former CM- Prakash Singh Badal as Kinnow Queen in 2004
• Best Kinnow Grower Award by Agriculture Minister by S. Jagjit Singh Randhwa in 2005
• Awarded 2nd prize in state level citrus show kinnow crop (2012)
• 1st prize at district level citrus show kinnow crop (2012)
• 2nd prize district level citrus show kinnow crop (2010-11)
• 2nd Prize in state level citrus show kinnow crop (2010-11)
• Best women kinnow grower awarded by agriculture minister- S. Such Singh Langhah (2010)
• State awarded as innovative women farmer at kissan mela by PWD Minister S. Shranjit Singh Dhillon & V.C PAU, Ludhiana (2012)
• Champion Female Farmer Award for excellence in agriculture at 7th National conference on KVK at PAU, Ldh. Presented by Mr. Sharad Pawar Minister of Agriculture, Govt. Of India. (2012)
• Award of Honor in progressive women farmer on 64th Republic Day at Amritsar presented by Chief Minister, Punjab, S. Parkash Singh Badal. (2013)
• Award of appreciation in innovative contribution to Indian agriculture at global agri connect (NSFI) IARI, New Delhi presented by Dr. R.R Hanchinal, Chairperson PPUFRA, Govt. Of India, Ministry of Agriculture. (2013)
• National Awarded as Best Kinnow grower of Punjab at NRCC (National Research Centre of Citrus Nagpur) (2012)
• Bharat Jyoti Award for Meritorious Service, Outstanding Performance & Remarkable role in Agriculture presented by Dr. Bhisham Narain Singh(former governor of Tamilnadu & Assam) (2013)
• Bharat Gaurav Award as in Recognition of contribution and dedication to worthy cause and your achievement in keeping the flag of India high presented by Justice OP Verma former governor of Punjab at New Delhi. (2015)
• Zee Punjab/Haryana/Himachal Agri Award as best farmer horticulture of her outstanding contribution as a horticulturist in adoption & promotion of kinnow farming presented by Agriculture minister S. Tota Singh and Cabinet Minister S. Gulzar Singh Ranika and Mr. Dinesh Sharma editor, Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal.
• Member of PAU Kisan Club,
• Member of Punjab AGRO,
• Member of Punjab Horticulture Department,
• Member of Mandi Board,
• Member of Changi Kheti,
• Member of Kinnow Utpadak Sanstha,
• Member of Co-operative Society,
• Member of Kisan Salahkar Committee.
• Member of PAU, Ludhiana Board of Management

Despite being a recipient of so many awards and appreciation, she is always curious to learn something new and that’s why she never misses any district level agricultural events or meetings. She also regularly visits farms of the farmers who are associated with PAU and Hisar Agriculture University to learn something new from there and gain knowledge.
Today she is harvesting 130 ton of kinnows per hectare and generating revenue of 1 lakh and 65 thousand from it. From the rest of the fruit orchards and wheat and cotton crops, she is making revenue of 1 lakh each in every season.

Behind all her success, she gives credit to his husband who supported her dreams also helped her in farming all these years. Other than farming she is also contributing to a very good cause for the society; she helps in poor girls get marriage by providing financial help and other marriage material also. Her future plan is to make agriculture a more profitable commercial business.

MESSAGE TO FARMERS-
“
Farmers have to start maintaining their expenses properly and stop showing off what they don’t have. Today, agriculture field needs more attention, so young kids even daughters should also be involved and taught about this field. And everyone should remember one thing that every human being in the field of agriculture is a farmer first and then a businessman.
”

Sunita Devi

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How a Dynamic Mother-Daughter Duo Is Attracting People towards Their Handcrafted Phulkari Products

In our Indian society, from the beginning men are considered as the subject matter and the ruling head member of the family, who earns the livelihood for the family. On the other hand, women are given the label of homemaker and a person who is quite helpful, polite and is responsible for making everything (clean clothes, food, clean home, etc.) available to the family members on time. Well, these trends were followed in the beginning and not at present. Today many successful women have come up as an inspiration for the society and are playing roles of both man and woman for their family, and turning the world upside down.

A couple of two such women, which are originated from a small village (Chanarthal Khurd) of Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, are today running their own successful phulkari business by leading a group of 10 women from their village. This couple of women are a “Mother-Daughter Duo” which manages every functioning of the business very smoothly. The head of the group is Sunita Devi (mother) and Beant Sharma (daughter). Beant as being an active, young and communicative member, is the one who represents the group on every platform.

In 1996 Sunita Devi’s husband expired and for the family, it was a distressing situation. Since then it became very difficult for the family members to survive. But, gradually with the time Sunita Devi and her children recovered from that shock and start peddling slowly, to make their life smooth and get back on the track. They faced many difficulties and crossed many hurdles to reach where they are today.

Anganwadi tried to help the women of that village on a local level and formed a self-help group in 2012. And Sunita Devi’s daughters were the member of this self-help group. They were working so hard on every piece of the phulkari suit, dupatta, shawls, and jackets, but they were not getting the real worth of their produced products. Nothing was properly managed. So, in one of the PUNFED meeting, Beant Sharma expressed her and other women’s problems; after that two groups were created in May 2017 – “SHRI GURU ARJAN DEV SELF HELP GROUP” and “DEVI ANNAPOORNA GROUP”. Sunita Devi was made the president of “SHRI GURU ARJAN DEV SELF HELP GROUP” and Beant was the re-presenter of the group. Well yes, it was a group effort, but Beant’s willpower and Sunita Devi’s strength to support her daughter is what helped in the formation of this group. And when love and skill work together, it is expected to get a masterpiece.

Earlier, due to financial crisis Beant and other children were forced to stop their studies in the middle, but now as the things are going good, Beant and other girls are planning to continue their studies. Beant has planned to pursue BA privately from Punjabi University.

In Sunita Devi’s family, there are total six members, four daughters, one son and she herself. Son is working with Honda City in Gujarat on the contract basis and the four daughters are supporting the mother in running their group. Beant is the active one, out of all the four and represent the group in different events and exhibitions. Now Sunita Devi and Beant are connected to a large mesh of customers and they sell their products themselves to their customers and get the right value of their produced goods. Beant is a young girl and she is well-aware about the current marketing trends and she is also following them. She is connected with all the customers through WhatsApp group and you can get their phulkari by just ordering them and it will get delivered at your home. The handcrafted products made by this group are really very beautiful, unique and best in quality. They buy their raw material from Sirhind and make phulkari suit, dupatta, keyrings, book markers, shawls, jackets and other home decor things out of it. In future, they are planning to come up with more phulkari products with creative designs.

Message By Mother-Daughter Duo
“A woman has the potential of doing everything, it’s all about the inner strength and determination. So never underestimate yourself and always try to make your skill useful to yourself. One of thing that make the woman stronger is education. Every woman should study and complete their education in order to be updated and aware of the current situation of the world.“

Raksha Dhand

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Story of a Woman Who Is Helping Phulkari Artisans in Showcasing their Rich Cultural & Artistic Work

Gone are the days when women were only bonded to work in the kitchen and were financially helpless. Earlier there were very few people who rarely acknowledged the fact that women were as good as men in parameters like hard work, intelligence quotient, and leadership skills.

Today also there are many women who are confident, passionate and have the enormous fire in their bellies and brains to take on the best in the business and beat in the real game. One such smart woman who is leading a self-help group cum business by using the creative skills of phulkari workers is Raksha Dhand. She is trying her best to keep the art of phulkari alive with new design trends and innovation.

Raksha Dhand is a resident of Chamkaur Town of Punjab and the president of Genda Self-Help Group. She formed this group in 2010 with the unity of 16 Phulkari workers. And after her phulkari handcrafted material cluster was approved by the Development Commissioner Handicraft (New Delhi), she never looked back. She started with a boom in upturning the Punjab’s traditional handicraft. After getting the approval, fashion designers were specially sent from NIFD to train the skilled workers under this group. Total 25 days of training was given to fully skilled workers, and gradually their work started getting admiration from the people. Slowly her group’s effort gained good numbers of customers and she started earning good profit. Today Raksha Dhand has its own shop with the name of Chamkaur Sahib Phulkari House in the same town where she lives and she sells cloth material designed, embroidered and crafted by her Genda Self-Help Group workers in the shop. Her son is supporting her with the work and all the exhibitions and events.

There was no compulsion, family pressure or financial problem which led Raksha Dhand to form a group and start selling their product. It was Raksha Dhand’s passion of showcasing the rich cultural and artistic history of Phulkari artisans and craftsmen and also to be independent. She always tries to motivate her group members and help her workers in making the use of different phulkari techniques combined with beautiful and vibrant designs to make the most attractive and unique phulkari suits, dupattas, shawls, jackets, and other products.

Currently, Raksha Dhand is living with her full-fledged happy family including husband, two sons, and daughter-in-law. Out of two sons, the younger one is settled in Australia and the elder one- Harsh Dhand is helping her mother in her business. Under her Genda self-help group, she also teaches other women the art of phulkari, so that they can also craft phulkari material and become self-independent. She buys raw material from the Ludhiana market and gives it to the workers under her group and workers spend their day-&-night to produce exceptionally beautiful phulkari products; as soon as they are done with the work, Raksha Dhand pays them on the spot. She doesn’t wait for the customers to buy the products because the workers working under her are all women and are from humble families and they also have to run their livelihood. She understands the situation of working women under her and that’s why she always pay them the right price for their work.

Future Plans:

In the future, she is planning to expand her business and make their handcrafted work get available to the people on the global level. Recently they have contacted India Mart to make a deal with them and sell their products through their website.

Message by Raksha Dhand
“Every woman should be independent and do what she likes. Because if you are determined to build a future for yourself then nobody can stop you. I’m trying to give the women in my society a future, if you are also capable of doing so then take a step forward in helping the deprived females who come from poor background and teach them how they can use their skills and be independent and self-regulating.self-regulating.”