Gujarat NGO to sell products online to support women

Gujarat-based NGO Gramshree Sanstha & Craft Roots, working in the field of women emancipation, is soon going to sell products made by rural women artisans online to reach out to international buyers.

Anar Patel, daughter of chief minister Anandiben Patel who runs the NGO, said they work with more than 10,000 women across the state who make apparels, home furnishing products, corporate gifts and Kachichhi crafts to make them financially independent and their endeavour to sell products through the e-commerce medium will further empower them.

“We are creating a craft brand to be sold online worldwide and looking for venture capitalists to fund it and for its expansion. Our aim is to cover about all the 3.5 lakh artisans of Gujarat,” Patel said on the sidelines of a seminar held ‘Pathways of Development – A Woman’s Perspective’ in Vadodara.

It must be noted that Gujarat is among the few Indian states with a declining sex ratio in India. Between 2001 to 2011 census, Gujarat witnessed its women per 1000 men numbers go down from 921 to 918. According to the SRS Statistical Report, 2012, the number is estimated to dip further to 909 women per hundred men.

Given these statistics, a bottom up approach from rural Gujarat to bring the creativity and artisanship among these women is a welcome move.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

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