Slum products find shelf space

HANDICRAFTS

What is common to the laundry bags at Goa's Cida de Goa hotel, the jute bags at Delhi's School of Planning and Architecture and the paper folders sold at some export houses in London?

It's the over 30 women from the slums of Dakshinpuri, Madangir and Sainik Farms in Delhi who make these products at their Udyog Kendra set up by the NGO, Vidya Integrated Development for Youth and Adults (Vidya).

Though Vidya has been working with girl children of the slums in Delhi since 1985, it started the skill training-cum-production centre to empower the illiterate slum women only in 1993. And the good news is that after 12 years, the Udyog Kendra has finally broken even. All these years the NGO did not manage to recover its modest investments.

"However, for the first time, after a great struggle, we've managed to break even this year. But we need corporate sponsors to sustain ourselves," says Vidya's chairperson Rashmi Mishra.

Ever since the Kendra acquired a registered trademark and an Import-Export Code (IEC) last year, its jute and paper products like diaries, photo frames, folders, holders, bags, candles, diyas and laundry bags have gradually made their way onto the shelves of some upmarket stores and boutiques not just in the capital but even abroad.

"We've managed to widen the horizon of these uneducated women and are trying to turn each of them into a business leader. But since the programme involved training them even as they manufactured, it took some time to break even," points out Pratima Goel, the project in charge and a textile designer.

Some of the products, she claims, are being exported to London while there have been enquiries from Spain and Germany. The team is now hoping to expand its business "" to bring in more women under its aegis and to increase production and sales for which it's looking for corporate clients, sponsors and export houses.