Picking her fight with undomesticated grit
Moved by the irrepressible desire to learn some utilitarian skills in order to improve the financial conditions of her family Meera Devi, an inhabitant of inaccessible Khunti tribal district of Jharkhand acquired training in decorative and creative antique design-making with bamboo only to succeed in ushering her family in the new dawn of prosperity.
There are many women who are faced with same financial hardships in tribal districts of Jharkhand but only a few can manage to muster up the courage and devotion to change their circumstances, Mira Devi is a one of the few gritty women with a strong desire to learn some technical skills in order to support the family’s financial condition.
Rusticating into the forest clad region, inaccessible to inhospitable to even the authorities, it was hard for her family to fulfill the end meets as the piecemeal income of husband earned from irregular masonry work in the locality was insufficient for the household to sustain a livelihood.
It was then, Mira Devi resolved to participate in the one-month bamboo handicraft training at Kelo, Rania block, Khunti district, with the intervention of Torpa Rural Development Society for Women (TRDSW), supported by EdelGive Foundation, where more than 18 women participated and she obtained the skill of bamboo handicraft art.
Realising that one month training won’t do what she aspires to accomplish with the acquired skills she again joined in a follow-up training programmes in Ranchi to hone her skill on bamboo handicraft art at her own expense where she learned to make some decorative and creative antique design-making with bamboo and created an assortments such as globes, pen stands, boxes, lanterns, and other utility products etc. in order to compete with market products which she has showcased in many handicrafts fairs like SARAS Mela and other Entrepreneurial fair organised by Udhyog Vibhag.
Buoyed by the confidence she gained after earning a significant monetary returns out of her crafts she has become a master trainer in bamboo handicraft art and is also thinking of an expansion of Bamboo Handicraft art by opening a shop of artefacts along with imparting opportunities to other women whose financial condition is not good and who struggle to meet their household requirement.