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By: Ujjivan
Pair a dream with a microloan and you might discover a path to a greater life.
Whenever you take a proper flip on the Nakhra junction on the busy Bhubaneshwar-Cuttack freeway, and journey one other two kilometers, you’ll come throughout Phulnakhra, a nondescript city about 20 kilometers from Bhubaneshwar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. It’s in cities like these that India’s conventional and world-renowned arts and handicrafts had been born centuries in the past, reminiscent of pattachitra, a conventional portray fashion primarily based on Hindu mythology that the state of Odisha is understood for. These artists, often known as chitrakaras, use solely pure colours created within the conventional approach: grinding, boiling and filtering greens and minerals to provide the brilliance in hue related to the pattachitra.
As tastes in artwork have moved away from conventional handicrafts, many conventional artisans are giving up their craft to pursue extra profitable professions. So it comes as a little bit of a shock to seek out Kalpana Moharana, a 24-year outdated Phulnakhra native who desires to develop her pattachitra expertise additional and develop her enterprise.
Kalpana didn’t got down to be chitrakara. She has headed for the educated class, however her household’s monetary actuality proved a giant barrier: their month-to-month family revenue of Rs.6000 (USD 93) is usually barely sufficient to assist their household of 4. Her father and brother earn this revenue by means of furnishings work whereas her mom and sister-in-law run the family. Kalpana is the youngest within the family and so her freedom was usually restricted by her household. However they had been supportive of her training—in actual fact, she accomplished the matriculation examination to enter college in 2002. Nonetheless, given her household’s troublesome monetary circumstances, she needed to drop out of faculty shortly thereafter. For sure, Kalpana was devastated.
Whereas she was serving to out within the family and doing odd jobs to assist the household revenue, Kalpana realized about pattachitra from conventional professional artisans at Kendupitha, a close-by village. Step by step, she received extra within the work and began working with these artisans increasingly more. She picked up the talents shortly and felt that she discovered a renewed function to her life. Inside a yr of her coaching, Kalpana began engaged on her personal pattachitra designs from dwelling.
The largest bills in pattachitra creation are the canvas bundles and the pure colours. For Kalpana, these common to about Rs.100 (USD 1.56)for every pattachitra. She took a mortgage from Ujjivan (considered one of their first shoppers within the space) to be able to buy the canvas in bulk to get higher charges. At this time, she has a mortgage of Rs.12,000 (USD 187.23) in her third yr with Ujjivan and her enterprise is prospering: main shops in vacationer cities reminiscent of Bhubaneshwar have been putting orders for Kalpana’s pattachitras.
At this time, Kalpana earns about Rs.250-300 (USD 3.90-4.68) for every pattachitra she makes. She earns round Rs.3000 (USD 46.81) per 30 days from the gross sales of her pattachitras, half of what her father and brother used to earn! She is ready to assist herself and her household, and is reviving an almost-lost Indian custom on the similar time. Kalpana’s story is an inspiring reminder of how regardless of having one’s goals taken away, you possibly can nonetheless seize alternative and, with the assistance of a corporation like Ujjivan, make one other form of dream come true.
*Rupee to greenback quantities had been transformed utilizing June 12, 2015 international change charges
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