Business, empowering women and reviving a lost art sound like three different things. But, Purnima Singh and Chinmay Banthia managed to combine these three and deliver it to the world as ‘Shubham Crafts’. Shubham essentially means ‘good fortune’ and Purnima believes that it is lacking among the rural women in Rajasthan.
Both of them were engineering graduates from NIT, Kurukshetra. Purnima worked at Petrofac Engineering Services for a span of three years while Chinmay had a stint with Mu-Sigma. Singh and her husband had corporate jobs in their hands that used to pay them quite well. But they followed their passion and left their jobs to establish ‘Shubham Crafts’. With the motto to empower, revive and contribute, SC started off with an initial investment of Rs 5 Lakh and currently looks forward to a Rs 1 crore turnover.
“I always have this habit of talking to house help, rickshaw drivers, vegetable and fruit-sellers, etc., and understand both their businesses and way of living. I wanted to do something to support the marginalised sections of the society. This was the agenda behind Shubham Crafts.” says Singh.
As the couple believe in contributing to the environment, they focus on products like natural grass baskets. They intent to revive the art of papier mache, which is essentially paper art dried with glue or flour and later used as ornaments or trays when hardened. First, they spotted few villages in Rajasthan and picked women who could be taught the art of papier mache. The women chosen were first given hands on training sessions and were later incorporated into the production team.
“Papier mache products are a piece of art which has been revived by these rural women. The artwork is hand-drawn, a reminder of the lost skill of rural folks of Jaipur,” she says.
But the Crafts venture had their fair share of troubles. The most bothersome trouble was gaining the trust of the local women and getting them to step out of their homes.
“Another big challenge was the fight for the basics. It took us three months to get an electricity connection after daily visits to the office of the assistant engineer of the electricity board. Also, when we searched for raw material, we realised that even waste was expensive. Everywhere there is a syndicate whose chain you cannot get into. But after a lot of effort, we were able to find suppliers,” Purnima adds on the other troubles they had to face.
In less than two years of their launch, Shubham Crafts managed to score some deals from various parts of the world like Europe, Canada, North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore.
But he most important achievement for Purnima has been transforming under confident rural women into confident and financially independent women. They also stuck with their guns in contributing to a healthy environment by using left out products.
“We have grown from a company with a turnover of Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 crore in a span of one financial year. We have been able to convert more than half a million tonnes of waste into useful products loved by buyers from all across Europe and USA” adds Purnima.
Recently the couple has added an intriguing new item to their list of products! One is carving out idols from disregarded stones and terracotta. Also, they have started creating grass baskets out of ‘Parali’, the rice husk which is burnt in and around Delhi and is believed to cause some major air pollution.
Check out their website, www.shubhamcrafts.com to take a look at their product range where you can also interact with the team!
