“It is said, when you socially and economically empower a rural and tribal woman, she in- turn empowers her entire family, the village and ultimately contributes to the progress of the Nation…”
Hindustan Zinc has been engaged in empowerment of rural and tribal women of Rajasthan since 2006 through formation of self-help-groups. Today, these SHGs are popularly known as “Sakhi”, and the women associated with these SHGs as “Sakhees”. “Sakhi” has developed product based clusters to strengthen the social and economic conditions of these women. Clusters of fashion garments, school uniforms, home furnishing, candle making, spices, floor mats, pickle and papad, paper craft etc. have already been developed that have been successful in bringing sustainable empowerment in hundreds of these rural and tribal women.
The fashion garment cluster, developed in Ajmer in village Gagwana and Kayad with 50 rural women, has emerged as a hub for providing a source for fashion designers, fashion students, and people associated with fashion industry. This is a unique source for fashion colleges in Rajasthan which are based out of Jaipur.
These 50 rural women of village Gagwana and Kayad in Ajmer, post training, have been working for more than 2 months to make fashion garments, comprising – sarees, sarwar kurta, kurtees and kaftans, and embellishing them using zardozi, zari, gota-patti, danka, pearls and embroidery work etc.
Hindustan Zinc has now given them a platform to showcase the garments through “Sakhi” Fashion Show on 28th October 2015 at Jaipur. The show is choreographed by leading Asian choreographer Rashmi Virmani and would have leading models from Delhi and Mumbai. Renowned fashion designers like Jattinn Kochhar, Rajdeep Ranawat, Gaurav Gupta, Anand Bhushan and also Asha Baxi (former Dean NIFT) the first fashion faculty of India would also be attending the event. The Miss India 2014, Koyal Rana, would also be part of the show.
“Sakhi” would also present designs for the uniforms for children of Anganwadis and Nand Ghar. A range of six school uniform designs would be presented.
