Women in the Sagar Islands stitch their path to success both locally and globally
Telegraph | 10 March 2025
About 100 women in the Sagar Islands who have been trained in stitching and tailoring are creating clothing items, quilts and bags that have found takers both locally and globally.
For most of these women who are homemakers, the money they get from stitching work funds their aspirations that revolve around their children’s education and extracurricular activities.
Their husbands work as fishermen or labourers on farms or in the city.
“The work that they do can be done by artisans at a much faster pace, but our objective is to empower women who are homemakers. This gives them financial independence,” said Dipalika Banerjee Joshi of the Purono Kolkatar Golpo Society, which runs the initiative called Selai Ghar.
Started in 2021 during the pandemic, there are five units of Selai Ghar in the Sagar Islands. “These women have responsibilities at home. It is the time that they get in the afternoon that they used to work for Selai Ghar,” said Banerjee Joshi.
“Our focus is on the revival of the kantha (quilts) that women would make at home for generations. For four years, we have been at it. So far, the women have made 500 kanthas,” she said.
Selai Ghar trains them and gives them a certificate.
Some of these women have studied till Class XII. They do send their children to school. “But they want their children would excel in other activities, too,” Banerjee Joshi said.
Manimala Bhuinya, 31, the mother of a 7-year-old boy who is in Class II, has enrolled him in drawing and tabla lessons.
“I want him to do well in other activities. The money I earn from Selai Ghar helps me meet those needs,” she said.
Manimala along with Kajol Bhuinya and Kabita Bhuinya carried loads of products from the Sagar Island to the city on Saturday for a two-day exhibition at Saroj Nalini Dutt Memorial Hall opposite Ballygunge Station.
The place for the 8th Selai Ghar exhibition could not have been more apt.
More than 100 years ago, Saroj Nalini Dutt worked to empower women at the grassroots level.
The two-day exhibition from noon to 7pm will end on Sunday. Till Saturday evening, there was a footfall of over 600 people.
“We put in more effort because that means greater financial independence for us,” said Manimala.
On the occasion of Women’s Day, the society at the exhibition felicitated Kabita Parui, 40, a teacher at a primary school in Nayachar, an island on the Hooghly.
When Banerjee Joshi and others went to Nayachar after Cyclone Amphan to distribute ration in May 2020, they noticed a woman standing at a distance, waiting to speak to them.
“She wanted a school in Nayachar. Looking at her sincerity, we agreed, though we had no such plans.”
The school was opened in February 2021.
A graduate, Parui, wants to stay in Nayachar and provide education to the children there.
“I am happy to be where I am. Before the school was set up, the children would roam aimlessly. Now, they go to school,” she said on Saturday.