Bags of Mekalamaradi reach fashion streets of Europe
The Hindu
Jesuit NGO trains women in handicrafts, which has helped them build a life of confidence
Just as the bus screeches to a halt at the Mekalamaradi Cross near Gokak at day break, a group of women is seen briskly walking to a building without a board. It is an old godown with some work sheds.
As many as 40 women sit on the floor, cleaning jute, grass and cotton pieces, boiling them to separate the fibre, weaving and knitting pieces and stitching them together. These are a few illiterate women from a remote village in the State who have built an internationally respected brand of women’s accessories.
Bags and accessories made from natural material, by some unlettered women of Mekalamaradi, are ending up on the shoulders of women in Europe. Bags made from jute, bamboo and grass fibre, being sold under the brand Mitan, have a following in France, Italy and England. This is apart from the steady market they enjoy in India.
This, however, did not happen overnight. Over two decades ago, a group of women from Mekalamaradi village near Gokak got together to listen to a young Jesuit priest who had been organising skill training sessions for farmers.
He was Jose Chenakala of Jana Jagarana, one of the organisations run by the NGO Shramik Abhivruddhi Sangha, a unit of the Goan Jesuits.
He had taken up residence in the village and had been training farmers in watershed development and improved farming practices. Rev. Fr. Jose wanted to find a source of stable employment for the poor women of the village. He got in touch with his friend N.B. Gopikrishna, NGO mentor and handicrafts promoter.
Mr. Gopikrishna who had worked with tribal communities in the northeastern States, suggested that women make value added products using locally available material.
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