This woman entrepreneur is helping women from Toda tribe preserve their traditional art form, earn a livelihood

Once a week, women from Toda, a tribal community living near Ooty, Tamil Nadu, travel to the city to sell Toda embroidery products. In exchange, they receive their earnings from which they buy the necessary raw materials to complete their upcoming orders. With these provisions, they happily return to the comfort of their homes, where they design the products.

These women work with Shalom Ooty, a self-help group (SHG) that is helping them sell the beautifully embellished and handcrafted products and become financially independent.

Shalom Ooty was started by 59-year-old Sheela Powel from Ooty, and was registered in 2005. Since its inception, Powel has collaborated with over 250 women through Shalom. Currently, she actively works with around 150 women.

“I realised that people hardly knew anything about the Toda community and their art form. Additionally, a very small number of artisans are actually practicing the traditional art. I decided to start this venture with the aim of providing financial freedom to these women artisans while promoting their traditional art,” she tells HerStory.

Empowering Toda women

Born and raised in Ooty, Powel has had a unique connection with the Toda community. Her educational journey led her to Gel Memorial Girls Higher Secondary School, an institution dedicated to the education of the Toda people. Throughout her schooling years, she had been up close with the community.

“Since then, I have been very intrigued by their craft,” she says.

After her marriage in 1984, Powel was focused on her family, but she wanted to get an extra income while staying at home. She began tailoring small pieces like cushion covers, bags, and tablecloths to sell in the local markets.

“I used to tailor the products myself and sell them in the local markets. My work was quite disorganised back then,” she adds.

However, in 2005, a few women from the Toda community came to her asking for help in selling some shawls made by them. It was then that the idea of establishing Shalomooty occurred to Powel.

She recognised that the Toda community, despite their remarkable craftsmanship, faced challenges due to their location in small villages near Ooty. As a result, they had limited exposure to tourists and struggled to sell their products independently due to lack of technological resources and knowledge.

Driven by her commitment to empower the artisans and provide them with better income opportunities, Powel began Shalomooty.

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Meet the entrepreneur who is keeping a 1,300-year-old art form alive

Preserving the traditional art

The Toda embroidery, also known as “Pukhoor” locally, is an artwork of the Toda pastoral people of Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, and is practiced exclusively by women in the community. The embroidery is made by using red and black threads on a white or off-white cloth. Both sides of the embroidered fabric are usable. The motifs are believed to be inspired by mythology, colours of flora and fauna, nature, and more.

“The artisans are very stern about the designs as they do not like to repeat the motifs or the style,” Powel says.

Powel gets the orders for artisans and provides them with the raw materials as well. Most of the women working with her are above 65 years of age.

But Powel says sustaining the art form has been a challenge as the younger generation of the community wants to study and move away to cities for job opportunities.

As such, she opines that the art form may not last long. “There are hardly 1,300 people in that community left now, of which 700 are women. Since the younger ones are not much interested in the work, there are only some 200-300 people left,” she says.

Amalasin, a 36-year-old artisan, has been doing Toda embroidery since she was 15. She lives in a village called Mandu in Kotagiri and says she learnt the embroidery work from her mother. As of now, Amalasin and a 70-year-old grandmother are the only ones practicing this embroidery in her village.

While she used to supply for small vendorsearlier, she has been working with Shalom Ooty for the last three years.

"I mainly do embroidery on the borders of cloth and make shawls. For one bigger piece, I get Rs 500 and for one shawl I get around Rs 1,000," she says.

Powel believes that the only way to sustain the art form is by encouraging women outside the community to learn Toda embroidery. However, the community has been resistant to the idea so far.

“I am talking to the community members and have been trying to encourage them to take this step. I hope they will agree to it,” she says.

These women artisans earn anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 5,000 per week, depending on the quantity of work. They make a wide range of products like shawls, keychains, mufflers, purses, and more. The products start from as low as Rs 100 and goes up to Rs 25,000. These products are sold across many cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

They have two stores in Ooty. The products are also available at the Tribes India showrooms; Kamala stores, which are owned by the Craft Council of India; and at the Last Forest enterprise stores in Kotagiri and Coonoor. Additionally, the products are also available on their website.

“Back in the day, all I wanted was an extra income, but on the way, I found a bigger purpose. I wish to continue providing a steady income to these women artisans along with preserving the traditional Toda embroidery as long as I can,” she says.