BENGALURU: This has been a tough year for all, especially the artisans, whose livelihood depends upon people’s love and indulgence for the artefacts and the festive things they make for every occasion. August 3 is Raksha Bandhan, the festival of the sacred thread that sisters tie on their brother’s wrists as a promise for their security. On the occasion, a Bengaluru-based online platform for artisans, Habba.org, has come up with an initiative to help revive the artisans’ business.
The initiative involves sending rakhis made by them to Indian soldiers, from the countrymen as a token of thanks for their commitment to national security. ‘Jai Jawan. Jai Artisan’ is a call to citizens to support artisans by buying rakhis made by them and sending to our soldiers with a gratitude note. This is the first step to our larger initiative of reviving handmade artefacts and enabling artisans to get back on their feet,” said a spokesperson of Habba.org, which is an initiative of Rang De, a peer-to-peer lending platform regulated by the RBI to enable individuals to lend to farmers, artisans and small businesses at low interest rates. “The Army headquarters in New Delhi has helped us with the locations where the rakhis will be sent,” said Ramakrishna NK, founder, Habba.org and co- founder, Rang De.
“Habba means festival in Kannada. Our goal is to send 1 lakh rakhis to our soldiers and, in turn, enable 1,000 artisans to kickstart their livelihood. We are working with 10 credible grassroots organisations in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Maharashtra, which mainly work with rural artisans, and mostly women,” said the spokesperson.
Habba was started in 2015 with the objective of bridging the gap between customers and artisans. “The inspiration came from our interventions to provide working capital to artisans and weavers via Rang De. We realised that despite getting access to affordable working capital and markets, artisans were getting a raw deal. Their income had not increased, and they continued to live on subsistence level,” said the spokesperson.
Rakhis can be purchased on Habba.org website. “People can personalise their rakhi by sending their messages of gratitude to the soldiers. They will reach them as sent,” she added.