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The Better India

24 Oct, 11 tweets, 3 min read

@Her_and_Now

(1/11) “I was clueless when I left my village to make it big in the bustling city of Guwahati. I have skipped meals, travelled kilometres on foot and even survived for days with just Re 1 in my pocket. @Her_and_Now

(2/11) I had no guiding light then. So I have become one now, to help marginalised artisans sail through the global pandemic,” says Sansri Basumatary.

The 29-year-old entrepreneur was running a successful handicraft jewellery business until COVID-19 disrupted her life.

(3/11) Orders stopped coming and she once again stared at a bleak future.

However, her spirit couldn’t be crushed and this time, instead of finding a survival plan just for herself, Sansri launched a website for small-time craftspeople struggling to cope financially.

(4/11) Called “Hathai” (a Boro word for Market), she has listed Boro traditional items like attires, jewellery, musical instruments and much more on the website.

(5/11) Apart from generating livelihoods, Hathai will also preserve and promote Assam’s indigenous handcrafted art that is soaked in folkloric heritage.

“Our community makes all kinds of items, from a bamboo pen stand to gamsa and face masks.

(6/11) Lockdown has affected offline business, so we went online. However, the worst part is the racism attacks we faced where our community is blamed for coronavirus because of the way we look. This has further affected our sales,” informs Sansri.

(7/11) Hathai is a ray of hope for local craftspeople & Sansri, as it has already begun to give fruits.

Starting a new venture in the middle of a crisis is not easy. From setting up a website to marketing, logistics, it takes hours of undivided focus & passion to do it right.

@herand

(8/11) So, how did Sansri do it right?

She credits a support programme, ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ @herand by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

(9/11) The programme is being run on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India. It has been implemented locally by Dhriiti.

10/11) The support programme helped Sansri learn business skills and instilled in her the ability to build, nurture and leverage peer networks.

“I was very under-confident when I started. I did not believe that my handicraft jewellery was worth any money.

(11/11) Thanks to the programme, a strong social media presence, networking with successful entrepreneurs and access to market opportunities are now my core competencies,” says Sansri.

You can buy authentic boro items from Hathai: bit.ly/3mjvhfT

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