Samoolam started in Gaya district of Bihar in 2010 with an aim to generate livelihood for local community, realizing individual’s potential towards positive social change. Our strength comes from our roots, we work with community in need women in specific. More than an organization it is a message for youth reminding their responsibilities towards their society.

Samoolam has bore its fruits in the form of beautiful handcrafted crochet products giving pride to our women and helping them realize their creative soul. Started as a small social enterprise it is now spreading its roots far and wide, creating awareness and awakening lives.

We aim to create a self-sustainable organization empowering women through creative energy and build a craft identity of this region.

In last two years, eighty women, have joined Samoolam and earning their livelihoods with creative crochet craft work doubling their household economy. On average they have started earning appx Rs 1200-1500/ month. Our target is to reach minimum wage standard of this region that is 3000/month.

I would like Samoolam to inspire youth of the country to contribute to their roots in direct and indirect manner. I would like to scale up this model in other district of Bihar and help the state gaining its respect back by awakening Gaia. Our target is to make Samoolam 500 women organization by 2015 and make its product reach national and international platform.

Problem

Bihar being one of the under developed states of India is also happen to my home state. I have experienced the brain drain from my childhood due to lack of education and employment opportunities within the state. I am also one of the victims of this phenomenon. In addition to that weak political scenario in past had made the situation worse overall. Being a woman I always questioned the identity, roles and respect for women in our society. I wanted to come back one day and work for our women. Women’s work in unorganized sector is critical in Bihar. They work as wage workers and earn mere Rs 12-20 /day. I wanted to bring a positive change to this scenario through my direct and indirect contribution. It is Ironical that in history Bihar was known as ‘land of knowledge’. I felt this is the time to take a collective step, bring that positive energy back and awaken our people. Gaya is the land of enlightenment where Samoolam (Collective roots) was founded in 2010. We are currently working with 80 women from three villages of Gaya district of Bihar and expanding its scale in neighboring regions. We are giving them handicraft skills and helping them earn their respectful livelihood. Gaya is a known for its tourism and Samoolam envisions building a sustainable organization with collective community effort where we can use local skill, local material and market at local, national and international level.

Solution

Samoolam is working with women in need by giving them set of skills and livelihood. Our target groups are largely underprivileged women especially the ones who did not have any craft background and never knew what is it about to earn their livelihood and self-respect through their creativity. They needed to be trained with some innovative, easy to learn and yet marketable skill that can help them generate income. At Samoolam, innovation lies in using appropriate local skills, local material and connecting with local market. Initially when I started Samoolam in 2010, I did not have any financial backup, for that reason I decided to focus on techniques that require low infrastructure investment yet products should be innovative with global value and demand. I began my journey with crochet technique because for crochet the only equipment is required is needle that costs Rs 5/- and lasts for years. It was taught to a group of thirty women and small producer group was setup. Our women are trained to make creative crochet jewelry and their products received very good response in local, national market. We conduct skill-building and product development trainings on a regular basis. Now slowly our women themselves have started taking responsibilities at organizational level becoming leaders. So new leaders are coming up! At present we are working with 80 women from three villages in Gaya.

Exemple

Our journey has not been smooth from day one since we started our first group training in Jan 2010. Thirty women were trained and most of them did not follow up with skills they learnt and discontinued to work. Out of all only three of them continued to work with us because most of them shared that they were discouraged by their family members that crochet jewelry craftwork was non-conventional work and these kind of activity will not last for long. But I continued to work with three women ensuring their regular income. I continued to give work to our women on regular basis because I wanted them to improve their skills step by step although products were not of marketable quality. Journey of skill building and gaining trust of community was challenging took more than one year and half. After one and half year products quality had improved to a great extent, I had started feeling confident to bring it to a market platform. Now we are on the path when product quality has started creating its own demand. Most of previously trained women participants started joining the organization back. By March 2012 we had eighty women who joined the organization making crochet craft social enterprise bigger everyday. Every time someone sees Samoolam’s product they question is this craft traditional to Gaya, Bihar? And my answer goes back to them ‘who creates the tradition?’ I guess it’s the need and context of people and place. If so, then we are on our path of creating a craft tradition of this region. Decade later people will know Gaya women as respectful crochet artisans who are strengthening their self respect in the society.

Marché

At present craft producing organizations are our biggest competitors. Craft sector is a very competitive sector and requires regular innovation considering the market demand. It is a very difficult and expensive to patent any techniques/designs for small initiatives like us. Samoolam is focusing on continuous design innovation and market linkages to create a sustainable organization on a long run.