How One Woman Helped 22000 Women in Rajasthan Turn Embroidery Into Income & Independence

In a small village in Barmer, a group of women once gathered around a single second-hand sewing machine, each contributing Rs 100 to buy it. For most of them, it was the first time their skill with a needle felt like it could lead somewhere beyond their homes.

Among them was Ruma Devi, who had grown up watching women stitch intricate embroidery every day — for their families, for their homes, but rarely for an income.

That moment around the sewing machine would go on to shape a journey that has since connected thousands of rural women across Rajasthan to livelihoods rooted in the very craft they had always known.

When skill had no value

Ruma Devi grew up in Barmer, facing many of the same constraints that shaped the lives of girls around her. She lost her mother early and left school at a young age.

After marriage, she began to look more closely at the work women around her were already doing. Embroidery, mirror work and patchwork were part of everyday life. The skill was there, refined over generations. What was missing was recognition and fair income.

Finished pieces were often sold to middlemen for very low prices. Many women stitched only for household use, never seeing their work as something that could earn.

Ruma began with a simple idea. What if women came together, stitched collectively, and sold their products directly?

She convinced two women in her village to join her.

“Other than sewing, I knew nothing. I knew I had to work, I had to make a change in how I was living up until then, and the key to that was with me. I fell back on the one skill I had learnt from my dadi (grandmother),” she says.

Starting small and learning along the way

The early days were far from easy.

In a conservative rural setting, stepping out to work brought resistance at home. According to accounts of her early life, these efforts led to serious conflict within her family.

But Ruma chose to continue.

“Braving all these hurdles, the three of us began our sewing work. While we were able to do the initial work and get a good finish, we needed a sewing machine to complete the product. This was when we formed a group with ten women, all of whom contributed Rs 100 each towards buying a second-hand sewing machine,” she recalls.

Once production began, a new challenge appeared — selling what they made.

“Until then, it was always the men who stepped up to market products. We had no expertise or knowledge in the matter, so we had to learn every small aspect — from how to make a bill to whom to approach and how to package our products,” she says.

Each step, from pricing to packaging, had to be learnt from scratch.

From village craft to wider markets

A turning point came when Ruma connected with Gramin Vikas Evam Chetna Sansthan (GVCS), an organisation working with rural communities.

Through this platform, she began organising women into larger groups and linking them with buyers. Traditional embroidery techniques, once limited to household use, were adapted into products such as garments, bags and home textiles.

As more women joined, the work expanded across villages.

What began with a handful of artisans grew into a network of over 22,000 women across 75 villages producing handcrafted pieces rooted in Rajasthani traditions.

For many, it marked their first independent income.

How earning changed life at home

For many women, earning meant contributing to household expenses for the first time. It meant paying for children’s education, travelling to exhibitions, speaking to buyers, and being included in decisions at home. It also changed how they looked at their own labour.

The embroidery had always taken skill. Now it also carried recognition.

A woman who was once only seen as helping with household work could now call herself an artisan, an earner, someone whose hands brought in money. That kind of shift does not always arrive loudly. Sometimes it shows up in smaller ways first, in the confidence to leave the house for work, in being listened to a little more, in believing your skill has value. That is often where bigger change begins.

Ruma Devi’s work has since brought her national recognition, including the Nari Shakti Puraskar, and she has spoken about her journey on larger platforms, including at Harvard. 

Yet, when she speaks about success, her focus remains closer to home.

She often points to the women who now earn, travel and take part in decisions within their households — a shift that began with skills they had always carried with them.

In many villages across Rajasthan, embroidery still follows the rhythm of daily life. The difference today is that, for thousands of women, it also brings income, independence and a stronger voice in shaping their own futures.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com