Balasore: While thousands of youths across the country strive for employment opportunities, Sarojini Das (35) has carved a niche for herself by becoming self-reliant by adopting bamboo craft as her vocation. Today, Sarojini not only has a thriving business in bamboo craft but is also imparting training to 20-25 women in the Simulia block of the district and providing them with employment to become self-reliant.
After completing her Plus II, Sarojini has been striving for a livelihood opportunity. She first took training in tailoring but was not satisfied with the vocation. Next, she went to Bhubaneswar and received training in bamboo and cane handicrafts for two years. The desire to excel in this art took Sarojini to Agartala in Tripura, where she took advanced training in bamboo and cane for six months.
Returning to her village Jamujhadi in Balasore, Sarojini set up her own workshop and started churning out various bamboo handicrafts, especially decorative items and bamboo jewellery. As these were very popular items, they had good takers and soon she turned out to be an entrepreneur. Sarojini went on to introduce her own unique craft by using elements like soil with bamboo. She collects her raw materials, mainly bamboo, from her own area, Mayurbhanj, and Digha in West Bengal. After boiling the bamboo shafts to make them tender, Sarojini cuts them into various shapes to make unique products.
Sarojini and her team of girls make handicraft items like flower vases, natural scenery, images of birds and animals, peacocks, ships, yachts, furniture, jewelry, images of idols like Lord Jagannath, and various decorative items. These are sold to handicraft retailers and at different exhibitions in Odisha as well as across the county. Over the years, she has been marketing her products at Cuttack Baliyatra, Janata Maidan in Bhubaneswar, Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, and various parts of neighbouring Chhattisgarh and also in Madhya Pradesh.
Having established herself in the trade, Sarojini now receives orders from customers across the country to make customised handicraft items. Now, she has received a huge order for making bamboo dustbins for schools in the state. No mean achievement indeed for a village girl who was wandering in search of a livelihood a few years ago.
Women who are associated with Sarojini hail her for providing them with a new life and livelihood. They used to stay at home and depended entirely on their husbands or family members, but now they have become self-reliant and support their families.
Sarojini is a torchbearer of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s slogan “SHG to SME”. Now, Sarojini has only one request – a technical allowance from the state government to provide technical allowance to take her mission to empower women in her area further.
