P.K. Women Society in Manipur, North East India

Recently I was contacted by Raina, founder and director of P.K.Women Society in Manipur, about joining the Green the Gap Collective (sharing marketing opportunities with other crafts groups in India) and was fascinated by her work with rural women weavers in the North East. I would really love to take up her offer to go and visit the weaving project, but unfortunately Manipur is a restricted area and not recommended for foreign visitors by the UK FCO, so I decided to share a glimpse of her story on my blog instead. 

The following information is from P.K. Women Society's own marketing sheet:

P.K. Women Society (PKWS) is a voluntary Non Governmental Organization Registered under section 7(1) (2) of the Manipur Societies Registration Act 1989 (Act 1 of 1990) bearing Regd. No. 404(a) SR/SPT/1995. Since its inception in 1995 the society has been actively involved in carrying out awareness programs in and around Senapati District in Manipur and has a catatlyst for the upliftment for women and children in the region.

Operational Area

Its operational area is the whole of Senapati District, Manipur. The district came into existence on 14th November 1969 and was earlier known as Manipur North. It is mainly a hill region with an altitude of 1061 to 1788 metres above sea level approximately and has an area of 3271sq.km with 48 per sq.km population density. The total population as per 2002 census is 2, 55,421. The district has four sub-divisions namely Mao-Maram, Sadar Hill, Sadar Hill West, Paomata.  The inhabitants of the district are mainly the Maram, Mao, Poumai, Thangal, Kuki, Tangkhul, Zeliangrong, Maring, Chiru, Vaiphei, Koireng and the general communities like the Nepalese Malwaris, Beharis and the mainland business communities in the district of Senapati. Every community has a unique colourful traditional dresses, customs and norms.

Aims and Objectives:

The main aims of the Society is

- To promote the rich culture of tribal traditional products.

- To empower and protect women’s rights.

- To improve the economic condition of the people particularly the Women folk in the society.

- To establish training and production centre for traditional customs/items.

- To motivate women for utilizing local resources such as cotton, bamboos, woods, etc.

- To create employment opportunities.

- To provide adequate health facitaties

- To provide education facilities.

- To provide orphanage home for girls who are in a difficult situation

Intervention plan:

The society was established with objects to empower and capacitate financially the women, particularly single mothers (separatist), school drop-outs and women who are victims of different forms of violence in the society. These women/girls are taught in the established Training and Production centre for weaving traditional clothes, embroideries and production of traditional and contemporary food items which are supplied to the local markets and give a place for the girls to grow

It is aimed that, through empowering women financially, they could also involve in the decision making in the society and thus promote gender equality.

Designation:

I am Raina P. the Secretary of P.K Women Society.

We supply our product as per the demands of the customers. Our products are mainly original handloom and looms woven using traditional designs.

1. The Fabric we use are mainly wools, cottons and silk.

2. We use varieties of colors.

3. Traditions dresses depend on each tribe.

4. Yarns we usually made for shawls LW=80 by BW=22 inches

5. Male and female wear in customs/dresses with different colors.

 Raina is looking for new places to sell the woven products.