Tag: Punjabi Tradition

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.”