CHENNAI: The rooms and corridors of the CP Art Centre, playing host to the CP Ramaswamy Iyer Foundation’s annual Women’s Bazaar, was a sight of brisk commerce and warm camaraderie. Women flitted from table to table — all stacked with saris, kurtas, so many kinds of jewellery, food, handicrafts and more — making small talk, catching up with familiar faces, checking out each other’s work and aiding cross-promotion.
Shanthi Raghavan was one such participant. This is the third year at the Bazaar for her and her batch of home-made food products. “It was the CP Foundation that discovered me. They made it possible for my products to reach the customers. They advise me on ways to model my products as per demand. I get great business at the bazaar every year,” she beamed. This is the crux of what the Foundation has been achieving through this yearly affair — providing a platform for women from several strata of society to turn entrepreneurs and build a means to financial independence.
This year around, members from 50 women’s groups are participating in this exhibition. The Foundation has tied up with NGOs like the Naam Foundation, TamilNadu Association for the Blind, Banyan daikalam and Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam, among others and to ensure that this opportunity went out to as many people as possible. Naam Foundation’s Suhasini Maniratnam, who inaugurated the bazaar, talked about how an effort like this is still essential to offer women a level playing field. “The World Economic Forum has decided that it’s not poverty they have to look at, or Artificial Intelligence, but it is women’s education. While many women here have not had formal education, they have business acumen; I’m sure they will go places,” she opined.
This apart, the CP Art Foundation’s Environmental Education Centre has a roomful of crafts and products — made of bamboo and coconut shells — from the tribal communities of Nilgiris and Andamans.
“We provide them with the training. The bamboo products are from Andamans; the coconut shell crafts, Kota pottery and Kurumba paintings are from Nilgiris. There is great potential for these products in the market. We think it will open up an opportunity for these women. The Foundation works with tribes for livelihood programmes, teaching them crafts and marketing them as well. We play a role as a helping hand in getting their products to a larger audience,” explained P Sudhakar, joint-director of the Environmental Education Centre. The bazaar is open until March 9, 10 am to 7 pm, at CP Arts Centre, Alwarpet.