City Green

The Bamboo Queen Transforms Lives Of Rural Women





The Bamboo Queen Transforms Lives Of Rural Women

Women’s economic participation and empowerment are fundamental to strengthening women’s rights and enabling them to have control over their lives and exert influence in society. The economic empowerment of women is a prerequisite for sustainable development of any community. Empowered women are catalysts for multiplying development efforts. Skill development is a key to improve employability and income-earning opportunities for women and for enhancing sustainable rural development and livelihoods. Social outcomes are reflected in indicators of income inequality and poverty. Priyadarsini Das, a Bhubaneswar-based social activist has become a role model for green innovation and green skill development. She has been on a mission to create bamboo-based sustainable sources of employment, enterprise and income generation in rural Odisha.

Turning the COVID 19 induced lockdown into an opportunity to empower rural women in different districts of Odisha, she has successfully empowered rural women to stand on their feet. From teaching the nuances of making bamboo jewellery with locally-available material free of cost to experimenting with bamboo as the base material, she has conceptualised and developed a variety of products with the help of eco-friendly items. So far, she has trained more than 100 rural girls and women in Jagatsinghpur, Rayagada and Kendrapara districts.

“In this age and era of technological boom, going eco-friendly is a much-needed alternative for mankind. My experiments with bamboo are solely to create a proxy for the injudicious use of the available resources on Earth. The bamboo is first treated and then processed with neem, turmeric and karanja extract. This increases the longevity of the product by ceasing the decaying process of the bamboo,” said Priyadarshini.

“Keeping in view the growing market and need for eco-friendly products in mind, I started exploring local resources and did a lot of experiments at home. My kitchen was literally converted into a workshop. I experimented with bamboo-treatment by using neem, karanja, turmeric, cow dung, castor oil, and other locally available natural materials. Similarly, I also use turmeric, mehendi, onion peel, marigold, tea, coffee, teak leaf, pomegranate as natural dyes for making bamboo beads,” she added. 

The jewellery items that she designs and teaches the other women are all products of the local bamboo of different varieties. The jewellery items range from bangles of different shapes and sizes, hair clips, earrings, studs to necklaces, and other similar adornments. Besides, she has applied the motifs of pattachitra art on these ornaments to appeal to the masses and keep intact the rawness of Odia culture. Besides, she also experiments with natural dyes for the jewellery by using different naturally available materials. To enhance the elegance of the jewellery, she uses solid bamboo with other wooded beads, stone, glass and metal beads for making the pieces. She also collects seashells, conch, and dead snails to give a different visual effect to the jewellery items.

“Bamboo is a grass which has been around ever since the onset of civilization and it has become an integral part of our culture. In olden days, when a baby was born, people used bamboo as a spoon to give the first taste of food, conventionally honey. Even after a person’s demise, the corpse is carried on a bamboo-bed to the cremation ground. From birth to death, bamboo has multiple uses throughout our life,” enlightened Priyadarsini on the importance of bamboo in people’s life.

A climate resilient and environment-friendly plant as it is, bamboo plant does not require watering, pesticides or any chemical fertilisers. It is a unique resource and Odisha has over 10 different varieties of bamboo, most of them are suitable for making jewellery, home décor and even furniture. 

Besides being an environment-friendly activist, Priyadarsini has also taken upon herself to empower and motivate women to stand on their own feet. “The dependency of young rural women on forests has considerably reduced. Consequently, cutting down trees from forest can also be reduced if they find an alternative to their means of livelihood. My objective is multifaceted. I do not want people from Odisha, particularly young girls, to migrate as forced labour to different cities and states in search of a menial job. When the world is talking about climate change, we need to focus more on green skills and green enterprises based on local sustainable and renewable resources. My tryst with empowering women is through a small initiative to teach and encourage them to start earning from bamboo-jewellery,” asserted the reformer.

Bamboo as a plant has tremendous potential to create an economy around it and hence it is rightly called ‘Green Gold’. “I switched to bamboo using this concept of Green Gold to make bamboo-based jewellery as I saw the market for eco-friendly jewellery, fashion and accessories are ever increasing, both in the domestic and the international market as the environmental consciousness of people is rising very fast. Besides, when my focus is to skill and enable rural and tribal women for a better source of income, I see bamboo-jewellery as a zero-investment venture,” she said when asked why she uses bamboo.

“Another reason why I chose to work with bamboo is that it is readily available everywhere, especially in the rural areas. There are many bamboo jungles on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. I procure them at very low rates because my investment is less and I sell all my products at affordable rates,” she added.

Priyadarsini has trained tribal women at different rural destinations so that they can create sustainable products and become self-reliant. This way, she has carved a niche for herself by making beautiful eco-friendly ornaments. She started her entrepreneurial journey 4 years back and in no time her hand-crafted jewellery became a big hit. “My recent training programme for 25 young tribal Kondh girls at Bada Chandili village of Rayagada district is a testimony to this. With the help of SPARSH Social Foundation and J K Papers under the leadership of Professor Prafulla Dhal, I could impart training to these young girls using local bamboo. Now these girls have set examples, getting support from multiple agencies both from the government and corporates like ITDA, DRDA, ORMAS, District Skill Centre, Van Dhan Scheme, J K Papers Ltd, and more. My next training programme is scheduled in Kalahandi district in the month of January 2022,” she added.

“I intend to diversify my product base from bamboo-jewellery to bamboo-based lifestyle accessories, home décor and utility products so that we can create a bamboo-based sustainable source of livelihood for rural Odisha. As a home-maker, earning money has never been my goal, nor do I intend to become an entrepreneur. I don’t have any organisation of my own, but thankfully many organisations are interested to work with me. That is how I engage different NGOs for the process of formalising a training programme. It capacitates them in a way, so that they can continue the work, even when I am not associated. I am so far going as an individual, and helping people, particularly rural women of Odisha in acquiring this new green skill for income generation,” she further added.

Odisha is abundant in local green resources which needs to be explored to generate income as an eco-friendly alternative. By paving a pathway, skilling and connecting that section of the population to the market, can instil a lot of confidence among the rural women and girls to become self-sufficient and independent.

When asked about the title given to her, she broke into a laugh and said, “For my initiative to explore and experiment with bamboo, people started addressing me as  ‘Bamboo Queen of Odisha’. But from my perspective, I am just a Queenmaker on a mission to create thousands and lakhs of Bamboo Queens in Odisha who need to be promoted and recognised by the masses. The pandemic was a boon for me as I could spend much time experimenting with my products at home. Now, many interested young girls are learning the craft from me. They sometimes come to my home to learn and know more about the art during my experiments.”

During this year’s Raksha Bandhan, the girls trained under her were provided free stalls by ORMAS at different places where they sold rakhis worth Rs. 50,000. “Bamboo has got a lot of potential and one single plant of bamboo costing around Rs. 100 to Rs. 150 can be transformed into Rs 1.5 lakhs to Rs. 3.5 lakhs worth of products by using basic skills and techniques. Proper utilisation of the resource can check forced migration of youth in search of employment,” explained Priyardarsini.

Taking inspiration from her husband, Binaya Bhusan Jena, who is a professor of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Bhubaneswar, she materialised his research on ‘farm to fashion’ in her noble endeavour. “Priyardarsini has always been very passionate about exploring her talents and working for the benefit of society. I do regret not identifying her true potential and intention initially, but I am proud that she has managed to make a difference and stand up for herself and for other women as well. I also work on the concept of ‘farm to fashion’ which focuses on revolutionising the fashion industry from the available eco-friendly resources. I am proud of the work she is doing and I am more than happy to be a part of her journey and help her in any way possible on my part,” beamed Binaya, her proud husband, who is also the Chairman of the Textile Association Of India (TAI), Odisha. Keeping the global pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in mind, Priyadarshini provides training to unemployed youths and homemakers to make them self-sufficient and self-reliant. “This is the right time to extend a helping hand to the unemployed people and create job opportunities. Everyone is coping with the pandemic-induced unemployment and financial crisis. Creating a window out of the local opportunities available in Odisha is a great way to empower all. India’s best kept secret is slowly and gradually being explored and for good,” she signed off. 

Author: Aafreen Firdaus

Aafreen is a doting mother to several kitties and a doggo who loves to pamper everyone with delicious food. She is a free spirit and a wizard of words and she loves to tell beautiful stories through her writing. She is also a loving and caring soul, always ready to pitch in with a helping hand and a smile on her face.

Read more from author