Seeds of discontent

'Their agenda is always to figure out the social impact of businesses like mine', says the author

In my 15 years in the crafts business in Santiniketan, there have been a few times when social researchers have come to meet me. Their agenda is always to figure out the social impact of businesses like mine. Of all their questions the one which I have come to dread over the years is, whether my enterprise is aiding “women’s empowerment”. 

Many of the girls I work with have in the years that we have worked together gone through a divorce. The reason is that over a period of time, they tend to earn more than their husbands, given the