KUMUDINI :  Turning the Tide

Kavita Charanji

KUMUDINI’s wide range of products has made the Trust a well-known name in Bangladesh.  It is obviously time for Kumudini to look at new frontiers. 

The pain of the loss is apparent in the carefully preserved interiors of her ancestral home in Narayanganj where her father’s living quarters are kept exactly the way they were. However, not one to be turned away by the vicissitudes of fate — which include two bypass surgeries — Joya has built on her father’s inheritance and gone on to expand the business. Today,  Kumudini is a well diversified trust with interests in garments, jute, handicrafts, paper made from water hyacinth and pharmaceuticals. The trust provides employment to 5,000 people during the dull season and 10,000 during the peak  months of August, September and October.

The trust has also been responsible for reviving the crafts of kantha embroidery, jamdani weaving and leather goods. Kumudini’s main work in handicrafts is with kantha. However, since many women have lost the skill of nakshi kantha, few feel free and confident enough to stitch original designs. To begin the work, Kumudini provides the design already printed on the cloth, with the thread needed to complete the work. Gradually, as the craftspersons build up their confidence, less design is given and the women are provided the opportunity to draw their own designs. An advantage of this approach is that though at least 98 per cent of the women come from nil or low income families, they greatly appreciate the beauty of their tradition. Kantha products include pieces for framing, handbags, briefcases and belts, table linen and cushion covers.

Kumudini also encourages the weavers of jamdani sarees to go back to the lush, delicate designs of yore. The organisation has made a significant contribution in promoting fine quality jamdanis by giving the weavers good wages. “Kumudini’s aim is that the weavers should be well paid and get appreciation for the work they are doing,” says Joya.

 Leather goods such as bags, briefcases and other accessories is yet another product-line of Kumudini. A particular attraction is the combination of leather with nakshi kantha and bhorat embroidery. However, because most of the top quality hides are exported, what is left requires extra effort to process into prime quality leather. Leather craftsmen, thus, work against all odds to create the fine leather products seen on the international market.

In recent years, Kumudini has developed cards and shopping bags from water hyacinth handmade paper. Reed, grass and bamboo crafts, traditional pottery, both terra-cotta and ceramic are some of the new additions. A continuing range of other rural crafts is being added to the existing repertoire all the time.

The wondrous creations of Kumudini are available at a retail outlet in Dhaka. Yet the Kumudini story would have come to an end if Joya had not stepped in at the helm of the organisation after the disappearance of her father and brother. And it was not easy for Joya by any yardstick. Overnight, she stepped into a totally new world, long dominated by males. Undaunted, however, she was determined to pick up the ropes with the help of the staff and business associates of her father. Says Joya: “ It was like a challenge to me when I was pushed into the business. Things were difficult for a woman in business in the early years after the liberation of the country. To be up to date with others, I had to do a lot of homework. All those who were with my father showed unending affection and sympathy to me. Though I was in this predicament, within a very short time I was given recognition.”

There are still bottlenecks, of course. Says Joya: “The biggest NGOS are foreign funded whereas we are not. There is also a marketing problem  because we need a lot of publicity, fairs and so on.”