NGO Aham Bhumika Crafts Women's Livelihoods

Bhopal-based NGO Aham Bhumika equips rural women with skills which help them provide for themselves.

Women and children from two adjacent villages on the outskirts of Bhopal attend the NGO's special skills-set class after school every day, where they are trained in different kinds of art and crafts, particularly the Gond Art embroidery style, a tribal art form in central india. The NGO then sells these products, primarily through social media, and makes sure that the money reaches the right recipient.

Source: Aham Bhumika

Subrat Goswami started Aham Bhumika around five years ago.

"We are making the effort to provide livelihood to needy rural women through hand embroidery work. In this way, we are crafting their livelihood"

According to Goswami, rote learning and theory are not as useful as learning tangible skills which can help these women create products that people would want.

The NGO is run by people who have full-time jobs, but who give their time voluntarily towards helping these women. The embroidery initiative of the NGO was started two years ago, and more than 30 women have so far been trained.

Examples of the work the women make Source: Aham Bhumika

Examples of the work the women make Source: Aham Bhumika

The NGO sells most of its products via its Facebook page.

Apart from the embroidery project, the NGO also distributes old clothes, toys, games and books to those in need.

The volunteers who work with Aham Bhumika are from a wide array of professions. They are artists, teachers, housewives, tour guides, and others. The NGO is looking for donations so that they can supply more raw material to their students and so that they can expand the program and organise more workshops around the area.

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