Connecting women entrepreneurs with market

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 14

The mini replica of The Eiffel Tower, right opposite the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10, was the entrance to the sixth Women of India Organic Festival held in the city. Organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, it was an effort to connect women entrepreneurs and farmers with buyers. Union Minister Maneka  Gandhi visited various stalls and the food court on the concluding day of the festival.

Taking a stock of around 72 stalls set up by women from various states across the country, Gandhi elucidated on several initiatives and schemes related with women and child development. The Women of India Organic Festival has been held annually in New Delhi since 2015 and made its debut in Chandigarh this year to showcase varied products of women farmers and entrepreneurs. She said it would empower them through financial inclusion besides promoting organic farming in India.

Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, along with city MP Kirron Kher, interacted with the participants and even bought some of their products. Over 200 women farmers and entrepreneurs from different parts of the country had put up stalls of various products in this three-day festival. The Festival showcased over 1,000 varied organic products, including fabric, grains, seeds, jewellery and bakery items.

Addressing the media, the minister stressed upon the need for promoting organic farming while stressing on women farmers and entrepreneurs’ need for a well-knit marketing infrastructure. “We have set up several WCD centres, where we are equipping women with entrepreneurial skills and that, too, at the government’s expense. In fact, I am all for cannabis legalisation, especially for the production for hemp cloth; that’s a great idea, I feel,” she said, when this correspondent told her about the women-run government hemp cloth factory in Pokhara, Nepal, and enquired about her stance on cannabis legalisation, which she has been vocal about since last year.

Major attractions

Water hyacinth hats: Hailing from Bondhipur village on the India-Nepal border in UP, 45-year-old Shashikala weaves hats from water hyacinth, locally called Jalkumbi. She and her daughter-in-law are the only breadwinners in their family and having undergone a month-long training at a WCD centre in Assam, she now makes around Rs 6,000 to 7,000 a month. “This has been a boon for me. I sell at different festivals. As my husband and son are alcoholic, we run the show,” she says.

Organic chocolates: Claiming to be the only ones in the country making organic chocolates with honey, a mother-son duo, Aasha and Rishabh Singh, attracted large numbers. Priced at a minimum of Rs 50, the cocoa seeds, said the duo, were procured from Coorg, Karnataka. Hailing from Kaithal, Haryana, Aasha said, “This was my son’s idea. He looked at the customers’ deviation from sweets to chocolates and chose to make them healthy. We use honey, instead of sugar, in these chocolates.”

Healthy cookies: It started with Kiran Khanduri’s tryst to feed her reluctant granddaughter and now Indian Sisters’ Kitchen, Noida, is a full-time business this private company employee, based in Noida, runs. “I visited my daughter in Malaysia with a pack of cookies for my granddaughter who wouldn’t eat. These are made from ragi  and are very healthy. I started this business on my daughter’s insistence,” said Kiran.