HCL Foundation, Flipkart to empower rural women artisans

Lucknow

HCL Foundation has partnered with Flipkart to provide livelihood opportunities to rural women in Uttar Pradesh (UP) by reviving traditional crafts and skilling through training.

The partnership has been forged between HCL Foundation under its flagship HCL Samuday programme and Flipkart Samarth.

Under this initiative, HCL Samuday unveiled Samuday Crafts in Lucknow on May 28. The theme included a range of handmade products prepared by 500 rural women artisans from the Hardoi district in UP.

The event was launched in the presence of UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior ministers and state government officials.

An exclusive range of home décor products under the brand of Alankaar was also launched. All these products will be available on the Flipkart website https://bit.ly/3lBtUea.

The UP government is working in collaboration with the HCL Foundation in 11 blocks of Hardoi in six verticals of rural development, including health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation, infrastructure and livelihood.

“Through the livelihood intervention, over 22,000 rural women have been able to strengthen the financial condition of their families. HCL Foundation’s partnership with Flipkart will help rural women artisans to reach a much wider audience through their handicrafts,” Maurya noted.

Handicrafts provide an alternate source of income to rural women, who are skilled in making traditional products. The price range of these products starts from Rs 200 and goes up to Rs 3,500.

Since 2015, HCL Samuday claims to have supported 22,000 women with a range of livelihood opportunities.

“While close to 2,000 women artisans have benefited from additional income, we realized that the potential could be much higher if we are able to connect them directly to consumers. Our partnership with Flipkart Samarth is a step in this direction. We expect that the partnership will help artisans to make sales of around Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month directly,” HCL Foundation project director Alok Varma said.

Flipkart Samarth initiative was launched in 2019 to support underserved communities, artisans, weavers and craftsmen and provide them access to a national market using the power of e-commerce.

“Through this initiative, we have been able to support millions of livelihoods engaged with this programme across the country. Under this partnership with HCL Samuday, we are committed to extending the opportunities of the digital economy to these talented women artisans, support their financial independence and build visibility for their local crafts,” Flipkart Group Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar said.

Samuday Crafts enables rural artisans to produce and sell products in the categories of home décor, lifestyle and apparel. It offers an array of crafts like Taat embroidery, natural fibre-based crafts (Moonj, Kans, and Wheat Grass), hand embroidery (Chikankari), block-printing, and tie and dye.