HCL Samuday, an ambitious project ofHCL Foundation working towards creating a scalable and replicable development model for rural India, announced its partnership with Jaipur Rugs, one of India’s largest manufacturers of hand-knotted luxury rugs, to create livelihood opportunities for rural residents in Hardoi district, at their doorstep. This intervention aims to upskill women from Kothawan in District Hardoi in the craft of carpet weaving and help provide them with sustainable channels of employment.
Key highlights of the partnership: –
- Samuday to establish 30 manufacturing units in Kothawan where 500 beneficiaries will be trained and later employed.
- Jaipur Rugs Foundation to provide 120 looms to these 30 centres andofferintensive, six-months, hands on training.
- The training program will offer remuneration from day one and artisans will have the chance of earningupto Rs. 8,000/- per month, as they continue improving their skills.
- The project includes facilitating the eligible beneficiaries get artisan cards, which will eventually help them secure bank loans if they want to start their own business
The first of these 30 manufacturing units was inaugurated by Navpreet Kaur, Project Director, HCL Samuday and has commenced the training program from July 2, 2019. The unit is expected to start productionby September, this year.
HCL Samuday is currently working in three blocks of Hardoi district – Kachhauna, Behender and Kothawan – to develop these areas on six parameters which include agriculture, education, health, infrastructure, livelihood, and WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene).In order to help economically marginalized families, Samuday hasimplemented several innovative solutions that help households augment their income through skill development. The partnership with Jaipur Rugs Foundation will ensure financial independence of rural women and help the whole area develop by ensuring permanent linkages with the domestic and international markets through Jaipur Rugs.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Navpreet Kaur, Director, HCL Samuday said, “Uttar Pradesh is known for its crafts industry. Several women in the Hardoi District are already associated with the unorganized crafts sector but are not remunerated as per market standards. HCL Samuday’s tie up with Jaipur Rugs Foundation will ensure that women are skilled by proper hands-on training and they are able to find meaningful employment close to their home. This will not only make women financially independent but also ensure that migration away from these areas towards urban centres decrease substantially.”
Mr. Yash Ranga, Stakeholder Engagement Partner, Jaipur Rugs Foundationsaid, “Jaipur Rugs Foundation reaches out to women from the economically marginalized sections of our society and provides them with the opportunity of becoming skilled artisans in the carpet value chain and earn sustainable livelihoods. Today we are engaging with over 40,000 women across the country.”
About HCL Samuday:
HCL Samuday, a flagship program of HCL Foundation, is an outcome of HCL’s commitment to uplift rural India.
Established in 2015, Samuday intends to develop a sustainable, scalable, and replicable model – a source code for economic and social development of rural areas in partnership with central and State Governments, local communities, NGOs, knowledge institutions and allied partners. We do this through optimal interventions across Agriculture, Education, Health, Infrastructure, Livelihood, and WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) in selected villages.The program is designed to help the local people identify their problems, co-create solutions, and then implement the same on their own with professional support from team Samuday, thereby, lending the dimension of sustainability and ownership to the whole vision of development.
Currently implemented in three blocks – Kachhauna, Behender and Kothawan – in Uttar Pradesh, HCL Samuday is operational in 765 villages from 164 Gram Panchayats, comprising of 90,000 households and impacting around 600,000 people.
About Jaipur Rugs Foundation:
Jaipur Rugs Foundation established in 2004 is a non-profit organization. Built on the bedrocks of love and compassion, it works to engage with the communities to develop their creative capacities and sustain them as a part of an entire movement of empowerment. The overall work mandate of JRF is to reach out to remote rural areas and establish bonds with the underserved communities, especially women, thus enabling them to start weaving not just rugs but also their own lives. Such weaving of lives is done through two intertwined verticals: ‘entrepreneurship development’ and ‘social development’. Whereas the entrepreneurship development vertical focuses on the economic well-being of the artisans and their communities through skill development training, leadership development and sustainable livelihood support, the social development vertical promotes their social well-being through field interventions and linkages.
Currently Jaipur Rugs Foundation is working with over 40,000 artisans in 600 villages of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Rajasthan impacting around 200,000 people.
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