Echoes of Bamboo: How Assam's Artisans Found Self-Reliance

Bamboo is part of Assamese life. It becomes baskets, mats, decorations and everyday tools, and its ability to take beautiful forms has always drawn people to it. For Sewa Bharati's Avinash Hazarika, it also became a way to give others a livelihood.

Panchajanya Cottage Industries

Mr. Hazarika trained as a maker of bamboo products and joined Sewa Bharati in 2009. Since then he has passed on his skill to thousands of people. Many became skilled artisans, started taking part in exhibitions and now support themselves. Their work already includes more than 20 products, with new ideas in the pipeline.

Under the Panchajanya Cottage Industries programme in Jorhat, Assam, trainers Ms. Nagen Latika and Ms. Romen Hazarika helped him. They crossed steep hills and dense forest to hold training in remote villages without electricity. Their workshops have helped self-employed artisans earn more than Rs 50 lakh, and more than 60 villages are now part of the group.

The artisans sell at local markets and at fairs such as the Saurashtra Mela, Apna Trade Fair, Bihu Mela and Assam Mela. That exposure has given them both income and a sense of dignity.

Pranab's story

Pranab Jyoti Changmayi, a young graduate, had looked everywhere for work and wanted to look after his ageing parents. When he heard of the bamboo workshop run by Sewa Bharati, he enrolled. He finished the training with patience, and since then his creativity has had no limit.

The bamboo of Assam, shaped by trained hands, is now creating work for hundreds of families.

This story is adapted from the Parivartan Yatra series on Sewagatha. Read the original: sewagatha.org.