Sunder Rang – A Rural Initiative Empowering Women in Chandelao
Read on as Sindhu Murthy writes about a rural initiative in Rajasthan, India which is empowering women
When we were exploring the offbeat areas in rural Rajasthan in India, one thing we noticed in common in almost all villages was that most of the women were confined to household work. Rarely did we see them go out to earn in a patriarchal society deeply influenced by the ancient culture and traditions. However, the scene was quite contrary at Chandelao, a quaint little village located at 40 km to the east of Jodhpur. Sunder Rang, one of the Initiatives of Chandelao Vikas Sanstha (Chandelao Development Organization) in collaboration with Basecamp Foundation of Norway is empowering a lot of women in Chandelao to earn a livelihood by making traditional arts and crafts along with promoting traditional crafts local to Rajasthan.
Women at work at Sunder Rang in Chandelao
The situation was not the same in Chandelao in 2007 when the Sunder Rang came into existence. Being a highly structured society like any other village in Rajasthan, Chandelao had a clear demarcation of duties of the male and female members in the family. While the male members were sole breadwinners of the family, the female members were confined to domestic work and had no means to socialize or earn an independent income. It was not an easy task for the Chandelao Vikas Sanstha to get the ladies out of their homes for work. The best way to create income for the ladies was to encourage them to do what they knew best. Being a state of artisans, Rajasthan has a lot of traditional arts and crafts which are carried forward by generations. The Chandelao Vikas Sanstha together with local women created an arts and crafts center in the village of Chandelao. The partnership with Basecamp Foundation of Norway provided support to the organization through the promotion of Chandelao as a social tourism destination.
Tassels being made at Sunder Rang.
Today, over 30 women work at Sunder Rang, producing traditional Rajasthani textiles and handicrafts for both local and export markets. With an aim to support the local craft skills and develop high-quality products in unique Rajasthani designs, Sunder Rang has been successful in generating sustainable income and promote women entrepreneurship.
Products put on display in one of the traditional Rajasthani huts in Sunder rang
Sunder Rang runs on a fair trade basis where a fixed salary is paid out the ladies on daily basis. Each piece of art made at the center is tagged with the name of the person who made it. Besides the daily wages, a good portion of the profit obtained by selling the product is paid out to the person who made the article. In addition to helping the women generate income and provide for basic necessities, Sunder Rang has also been successful in nurturing bonds between women belonging to differents communities in the society thereby tackling the evil of caste system indirectly. By creating local jobs and providing a platform for developing local cultural knowledge and traditional skills, the project has already earned a good reputation in the village and in surrounding areas.
The traditional Rajasthani huts made of mud and thatch in Sundar Rang
The product line at Sunder Rang includes clothes, accessories, handicrafts and upholstery. The products are made keeping the traditional touch in mind and every pattern/design is unique to Rajasthan. The women create intricate patterns and designs with embroidery, sewing, weaving and bead work. The finished products are displayed in the mud huts made by locally sourced material which showcases the cultural and artistic diversity of true Rajasthan. Visit their online gallery to have a look at the products on sale.
Some of the products made at Sunder rang
The Chandelao Vikas Sansthan has a 3P formula- People, Planet and Profit for promoting sustainable development and responsible tourism.Besides Sunder Rang, the Chandelao Vikas Sansthan has a computer learning center for the village children offering computer education for free. While Sunder Rang and the computer education center are two visible projects that are being successfully run, the Organization also has been actively working in improving sanitation in the village by building toilets for the village households and doing campaigns to reduce plastic garbage. Renewable energy like solar power is used to run the computer learning center and the gray water from the Chandelao Garh is used to water the gardens.
The computer education center run by Chandelao Development Organization
Today, major customers for Sunder Rang are the guests who stay at Chandelao Garh. Though the sales go up during the peak tourist seasons when the hotel is full, the income goes down during nonpeak seasons. Since Chandelao is not a popular village, it goes unnoticed by many during their search for places to visit near Jodhpur which is another reason for the organization not getting much exposure. If you wish to experience the real essence of staying in rural Rajasthan and at the same time help a local initiative to promote sustainability, we urge you to pay a visit to Chandelao near Jodhpur and contribute to the initiatives of the Organization in whatever way possible. Please spread the word about the Chandelao Vikas Sanstha so that the news reaches many patrons who might as well help the organization grow.
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Such a noble initiative and very articulated Sindhu. Keep up the good work. Sustainable tourism is definitely the need of the hour.
Thankyou Bidisha. Can’t agree more about sustainable tourism. As travel writers, along with sharing info about all the amazing destinations we visit, it is also our responsibility to shed light on many such initiatives we come across during our travels 🙂
Wow, this is inspiring and people need to work together to boost tourism and improve the living of the locals.
Quite true Andi. Sustainable development is the need of the hour and we as travel writers can influence the initiative in a great way.
It is very nice that there is this initiative to empower the women and to improve their way of living.
Thanks Michael.
Such a good initiative! Love the story about Chandelao, it’s so important to post about local situations, thanks. And I just love those products, amazing craft! 🙂
Thanks, Danijela. True that the products are quite amazing and unique.
What a great initiative! 🙂
It’s great to see a post helping to promote a social development project. Whilst I have no plans to visit India anytime soon, I would encourage any tourists to visit Chandelao to aid this project. A great article, well written. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks much David. We appreciate the encouragement.
Wow, I rarely read an article that talks about women and this one is really great. I’m happy that women in Chandelao are now working for a living. It is a change that will surely be an inspiration to other women in their community. Thank you so much for sharing this one with us. It is unique and very interesting.
Thanks Lai for the supporting words.
What a great initiative! I would certainly consider staying in this village or at minimum visiting the crafts market. I have not yet been to India but Jodphur is on my list! And this makes for a wonderful and worthwhile detour.
Hi Christina. Jodhpur is an amazing destination and we are sure you would love it.
This is so good. I wish many such organizations came up in nooks and corners of India.
Women empowerment is the key to progress!
can’t agree more Indrani. We wish we get to see many such initiatives across India.
After reading this article I have marked Chandelao near Jodhpur in my brain and I am not going to forget it. I haven’t been to Rajasthan yet and I always wondered where in Rajasthan can I go to get the true rural Rajasthani feeling, now I know the place! Thank you very much for the article. I will also write a post on this village and the good work the organisation is doing in promoting gender equality.
Thanks Tania. Chandelao Garh would be an ideal place to get an essence of rural Rajasthan.
Such an inspiring, interesting and well-written post. I’d be really keen to do this or something similar when I return to India
Thanks, Tanya. We are glad this post inspired you.
What a noble impressive Initative for the women empowerment. I am so happy that I could read this post and got to know about Chandelao village. This initiative will not only raise the living standards but will be a light for the nearby villages too. Those huts are really nice. I have bookmarked this and will surely visit once I am around Jodhpur.
Thanks much Suruchi. The org can definitely do better with a little exposure we can create for it.
This is amazing! Hope that your article gets shared around so more people are aware!
I love to see those things! We need more of it and they make really cute stuff too. I’d love to get my hands on those pillows.
This article will surely help our project Sunder rang known better and this will bring more footfall to sunder rang and will help the women of Chandelao.thank you!
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What an amazing initiative to learn about! I love organizations that empower women by providing them a way to earn their own income. Keep up the good work!
Near Jodhpur? I must bvisit. What a beautiful initiative. We need many many more of these…
Sindhu – this is a really lovely initiative and I am so happy to see it being brought out here. For one it encourages women and more importantly, keeps the ancient art alive. We need more of such initiatives to be brought out. Well done!
What a lovely and commendable initiative. This is heartening to note. Such endeavours help in giving back to the local community and also preserving the old heritage and culture. Kudos for spreading the word.
Nice
This is a motivational for other people. Thank you for lovely Blog