As an award winning Radio Jockey in one of Lucknow’s leading FM stations, Meenu Singh has wowed listeners with her inimitable style. Not one to rest on her laurels, Singh moved on to reinvent herself as a filmmaker in Meraki Inc. Here too luck favoured her.
Singh’s first short film as a director won the prestigious NOVA film house award, making it to be the first in India. But Singh considers her charitable cause her biggest calling. Just when she was at the helm of a flourishing career, Singh decided to put her spare time to charitable use. “I set up my T Shirt store so that the amount generated from the sales of exclusive T shirts and accessories goes towards one of our NGO partners,” said Singh, Governing Body Member of the Khadi and Village Industries Lovers Association (KAVILA). The store, operational in Lucknow and Delhi, also caters to online shoppers.
The way forward
As a radio jockey, Singh had interacted with small and micro enterprises many of which needed a platform for sustenance. Coincidentally, she too wanted to ‘do something’ for the needy. Both ends of the spectrum fell into place when she chanced upon KAVILA, whose aim is to facilitate village industries and khadi. In 2016, she became a member of KAVILA which gave wings to her dreams of creating better earning standards for weavers and other village industries dwellers.
“In KAVILA, I mostly focus on innovative design areas that can enhance the livelihood and ensure better returns to those for whom it is a livelihood. The design is deep rooted in terms of the fabrics or the way a particular process is being carried out,” she explained. For instance, a group of people living about 120 km away from Lucknow embroidered fabrics. Due to various reasons, they were not getting their due.
She said: “I tweaked their approach and got them to do smaller sample pieces mounted on wooden frames, then sold as gifts. I also interpret the research from the exhaustive Indian and overseas markets to finetune product designs in sync with the market needs. This has systematized processes whereby products move faster, hence ensure timely returns.”
Craft Corner
KAVILA is in the process of approaching various government bodies and agencies to create a market for products from khadi and village industries to regulate streams of revenue for craftsmen and artisans. Notwithstanding that, KAVILA plans to tap educational institutions with its khadi uniforms, paper products and foldable desks.
Besides, KAVILA has an outreach programme to reduce the role of middlemen, beginning by rolling out a training programme for 5,000 weavers from Eastern India. They need immediate attention because of the current economic scenario, and given the density of weavers in this region it’s necessary to hone their weaving skills. Social media platforms are also being leveraged to generate awareness.
The loom factor
KAVILA is working on loom sizes to meet quality standards of certain fabrics. For example, a khadi bedsheet requires a certain width to make it appropriate for that particular sector. Not all looms are equipped to deliver the criteria. “Once this is done, weavers will have work throughout the year and earn more money per hour that they put in. In addition, we have also requested for a Khadi Day to be observed in honour of this great fabric of Indian freedom,” reasoned Singh with a sense of pride.
The charkha approximately costs Rs. 13,000, and so far the Khadi and Village Industries Commission has been providing women with such charkhas free of cost. Further encouragement comes from banks like the Bandhan Bank and loan schemes like Mudra that offer women micro loans to set up a village industry.
KAVILA is in the process of establishing an online store for these products, apart from exploring the overseas market by setting up stores to bring khadi on a global pedestal. KAVILA is developing training modules for weavers in collaboration with industry experts from different arenas. Training and workshops are being offered by the Federation of Small Industries of India.
KAVILA is also reaching out to designers to help tweak creations of weaver clusters and village industries to meet contemporary needs. “We are also developing products based on sustainable designs which are eco-friendly. We cannot reform the entire nation at one go, but we are trying to, a few clusters at a time, so well equipped with knowledge and skills that they can handle many more such clusters on their own,” she concluded.
In simple terms, when KAVILA works on a particular cluster, competent weavers are selected to handle other clusters, wherein they act as co-ordinators, prepare and execute further cluster development plans.
Let’s hope that in times to come, self-sustained weaver clusters will spring up in different regions of India.
Photos credit: Meraki Inc.