| Mariam Beevi, Gowri Palm Mat Unit, Kayamkulam, Kollam |
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Living with her husband, a daily labourer, who hardly gets 10 days job a month, 7th standard drop out could not have dreamt anything big. For her and for other of her ilk, weaving articles using screw pine leaves was a means of meeting the needs of certain household articles.
But everything changed when she became part of the women empowerment and self employment initiative of Kudumbasree, the mission that envisions eradication of absolute poverty in the State.
She and 9 other women formed the Gowri Palm Mat Unit. The mission gave them intensive training in producing new items like cushion covers, executive files, vanity bags, sun hats, baby beds, jewel boxes etc. Their unique products displayed at the Kudumbashree pavilion at the India International Trade Fair 2000 attracted the attention of a Shiel International, a Delhi-based company, which procured an order for them to export to Frankfurt. Thus did these poor women confined to their homes, suddenly become ‘exporters’.
“It is nothing but a miracle,” says Mariyam Beevi. “We poor women confined to the 4 walls of our dwelling places and the kitchen are sending our products to a foreign country”. The unit has earned Rs.3 lakhs from the export of 2 types of cushion covers produced in the unit.
Screw pine weaving was a traditional activity among poor women. In the olden days it was limited to the household use of poor families. It is this background that makes the achievement of Beevi and friends a real ‘miracle’, as she puts it.
With advanced skill training, the unit is able to produce more mats. And with increased production, they are finding avenues for marketing the product. Whole sale agencies take the products directly from the unit and the members make a monthly earning of Rs.2000 a month.
Courtesy: T.Pushkaran, Small Steps Great Leaps, Kudumbasree, 2001
Contributed by: Administrator
