By Udhyam Learning Foundation
Just beyond the boundaries of Bengaluru’s historical and current central market lies the Anandapuram community. Populated by narrow by-lanes lined with snugly fitted homes, the community is largely inhabited by families who work in the informal sector, with many of them operating as waste pickers. However, in the past six months, Anandapuram has also become the home of a budding crochet circle that is shaping the future of the community’s women.
In Anandapuram, many resident families operate in Bengaluru’s waste-picking community – rendering an invaluable service to one of India’s leading metros. Waste pickers ensure the city and its endless neighbourhoods are clean and functional. Yet, they rarely get their due. Their incomes are low and their work, often, carries a stigma and is unsafe.
In Bengaluru, like the rest of India, waste picking is also a gendered occupation with women carrying the burden of picking and segregating waste. However, they are discriminated against and have little access to finance and education that can improve their lives and those of their families. Among women, issues like safety become more acute when they face violence at home and the workplace.
This has been the catalyst for establishing Saamuhika Shakti – a collaborative programme, taken up by leading non-profits in the city, that takes a multi-pronged approach to addressing challenges while also creating opportunities towards securing a dignified life for waste pickers and their families.
Udhyam Foundation’s Vyapaar team has pitched into this multi-layered effort by designing and piloting livelihood-enhancing initiatives for women. This is where Udhyam entered the lives of women in Anandapuram.
Through extensive groundwork and mapping exercises, Udhyam realised that the women of Anandpuram, many of who belonged to the waste-picking community, had tangible skills in crocheting. These women were scattered throughout the community and had little know-how of how to take their skills to the next level.
While identifying the women was easy enough, it was a challenge to bring the women together as they were weary of non-profits and doubted whether any good could come from engaging with Udhyam. Noticing this, the Foundation’s field team started making daily trips to Anandapuram, patiently waiting for the women to finish their household chores and for an opportunity to speak to them about the livelihood initiative.
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Among these were 36-year-old Ammu and 34-year-old Mageshwari.
Both Ammu and Mageshwari are from waste-picking households. The women moved into Anandpuram as young brides in their early 20s and have spent the ensuing years tending to their household and childcaring responsibilities. Both of them were denied the opportunity and support to complete their formal school education.
However, none of their life circumstances have stopped them from being dreamers. Mageshwari grew up in Tamil Nadu and had observed the women from her household earn financial security by embellishing sarees. Mageshwari wanted the same for herself.
Ammu too dreamt of being a nurse. However, her poor grades in Math ensured that she discontinued her education after the ninth grade. In the short time before their weddings, the women picked up skills on how to keep home and the basics of tailoring from their mothers. With these, the women built a life in Bangalore, nurturing young children and taking care of their households, always hoping that they would get the chance to do something more.
When Ammu, Mageshwari and a small group of women started meeting with Udhyam, they, together, saw a vision for a brighter future. During the meetings, the women shared with Udhyam’s field workers that they wanted to learn new skills that would help them strengthen their family finances, achieve economic independence, and even contribute to the education of their children.
Encouraged by their eagerness, Udhyam drew out plans to support these women in realising their dreams. Udhyam started off by establishing the crocheting circle, building a small, reliable sisterhood within the bustling community of Anandapuram. This encouraged the women to get together, share their crochet skills and knowledge and build solidarity that has helped them navigate the ups and downs of their lives.
Once the crocheting circle was set up, Udhyam swung into action. First, they got the women into a WhatsApp group to ensure they remained connected and had an exclusive space to share their ideas and thoughts. Then, the women were introduced to Pinterest – the platform for creative creators. The women were immediately hooked. With Udhyam’s support, they built a joint profile, exploring crocheting patterns and tutorials that helped them create adorable toys, coasters, key chains and other things.
As time went on, the women have been able to create and deliver complicated patterns, including, floppy-eared bunnies and cutesy dolls with detailed work on them. Mageshwari and Ammu say that the women help each other, every step of the way, to ensure that they all learn the patterns well and deliver products of quality.
As part of its initiative to create nano entrepreneurs, Udhyam is going beyond just imparting skills. At Anandapuram, Udhyam is working closely with the women to build their confidence to take charge of every aspect of their budding collective business.
Udhyam organised trips to the nearby wholesale market so that the women could access quality raw materials at budgeted prices. It has also arranged for them to visit craft stores, like Bangalore-based Varnaam, to give the women a clear picture of how to enhance the marketability of their products and how to create designs that cater to customers. Ammu says that these trips proved to be eye-openers and have gone a long way in building confidence and expanding the worldview of women who rarely step out of the house on their own.
Even in the short phase that Udhyam has piloted its livelihood initiative in Anandapuram, there have been remarkable changes. Mageshwari shares how the Foundation created an opportunity for them to showcase their products at two local exhibitions and she was able to earn a total of INR 2000 from both of these events. The money, she says, went into supporting her children’s education needs which gave Mageshwari a sense of pride. After all these years, she has come closer to realising her once-distant dream of standing on her own two feet.
Ammu too says that she dares to dream now and wants to work, with her crocheting sisters, to create an exclusive workspace for them to work out of and deliver orders across India and all around the world.
Ammu’s and Mageshwari’s crocheting sisterhood sure does want to put Anandapuram on the map!
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By Udhyam Learning Foundation
Just beyond the boundaries of Bengaluru’s historical and current central market lies the Anandapuram community. Populated by narrow by-lanes lined with snugly fitted homes, the community is largely inhabited by families who work in the informal sector, with many of them operating as waste pickers. However, in the past six months, Anandapuram has also become the home of a budding crochet circle that is shaping the future of the community’s women.
In Anandapuram, many resident families operate in Bengaluru’s waste-picking community – rendering an invaluable service to one of India’s leading metros. Waste pickers ensure the city and its endless neighbourhoods are clean and functional. Yet, they rarely get their due. Their incomes are low and their work, often, carries a stigma and is unsafe.
In Bengaluru, like the rest of India, waste picking is also a gendered occupation with women carrying the burden of picking and segregating waste. However, they are discriminated against and have little access to finance and education that can improve their lives and those of their families. Among women, issues like safety become more acute when they face violence at home and the workplace.
This has been the catalyst for establishing Saamuhika Shakti – a collaborative programme, taken up by leading non-profits in the city, that takes a multi-pronged approach to addressing challenges while also creating opportunities towards securing a dignified life for waste pickers and their families.
Udhyam Foundation’s Vyapaar team has pitched into this multi-layered effort by designing and piloting livelihood-enhancing initiatives for women. This is where Udhyam entered the lives of women in Anandapuram.
Through extensive groundwork and mapping exercises, Udhyam realised that the women of Anandpuram, many of who belonged to the waste-picking community, had tangible skills in crocheting. These women were scattered throughout the community and had little know-how of how to take their skills to the next level.
While identifying the women was easy enough, it was a challenge to bring the women together as they were weary of non-profits and doubted whether any good could come from engaging with Udhyam. Noticing this, the Foundation’s field team started making daily trips to Anandapuram, patiently waiting for the women to finish their household chores and for an opportunity to speak to them about the livelihood initiative.
Among these were 36-year-old Ammu and 34-year-old Mageshwari.
Both Ammu and Mageshwari are from waste-picking households. The women moved into Anandpuram as young brides in their early 20s and have spent the ensuing years tending to their household and childcaring responsibilities. Both of them were denied the opportunity and support to complete their formal school education.
However, none of their life circumstances have stopped them from being dreamers. Mageshwari grew up in Tamil Nadu and had observed the women from her household earn financial security by embellishing sarees. Mageshwari wanted the same for herself.
Ammu too dreamt of being a nurse. However, her poor grades in Math ensured that she discontinued her education after the ninth grade. In the short time before their weddings, the women picked up skills on how to keep home and the basics of tailoring from their mothers. With these, the women built a life in Bangalore, nurturing young children and taking care of their households, always hoping that they would get the chance to do something more.
When Ammu, Mageshwari and a small group of women started meeting with Udhyam, they, together, saw a vision for a brighter future. During the meetings, the women shared with Udhyam’s field workers that they wanted to learn new skills that would help them strengthen their family finances, achieve economic independence, and even contribute to the education of their children.
Encouraged by their eagerness, Udhyam drew out plans to support these women in realising their dreams. Udhyam started off by establishing the crocheting circle, building a small, reliable sisterhood within the bustling community of Anandapuram. This encouraged the women to get together, share their crochet skills and knowledge and build solidarity that has helped them navigate the ups and downs of their lives.
Once the crocheting circle was set up, Udhyam swung into action. First, they got the women into a WhatsApp group to ensure they remained connected and had an exclusive space to share their ideas and thoughts. Then, the women were introduced to Pinterest – the platform for creative creators. The women were immediately hooked. With Udhyam’s support, they built a joint profile, exploring crocheting patterns and tutorials that helped them create adorable toys, coasters, key chains and other things.
As time went on, the women have been able to create and deliver complicated patterns, including, floppy-eared bunnies and cutesy dolls with detailed work on them. Mageshwari and Ammu say that the women help each other, every step of the way, to ensure that they all learn the patterns well and deliver products of quality.
As part of its initiative to create nano entrepreneurs, Udhyam is going beyond just imparting skills. At Anandapuram, Udhyam is working closely with the women to build their confidence to take charge of every aspect of their budding collective business.
Udhyam organised trips to the nearby wholesale market so that the women could access quality raw materials at budgeted prices. It has also arranged for them to visit craft stores, like Bangalore-based Varnaam, to give the women a clear picture of how to enhance the marketability of their products and how to create designs that cater to customers. Ammu says that these trips proved to be eye-openers and have gone a long way in building confidence and expanding the worldview of women who rarely step out of the house on their own.
Even in the short phase that Udhyam has piloted its livelihood initiative in Anandapuram, there have been remarkable changes. Mageshwari shares how the Foundation created an opportunity for them to showcase their products at two local exhibitions and she was able to earn a total of INR 2000 from both of these events. The money, she says, went into supporting her children’s education needs which gave Mageshwari a sense of pride. After all these years, she has come closer to realising her once-distant dream of standing on her own two feet.
Ammu too says that she dares to dream now and wants to work, with her crocheting sisters, to create an exclusive workspace for them to work out of and deliver orders across India and all around the world.
Ammu’s and Mageshwari’s crocheting sisterhood sure does want to put Anandapuram on the map!
