Changing the lives of women weavers

Changing the lives of women weavers
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Highlights

He invented the Laxmi ASU machine to ease the suffering that his mother and countless other women go through while waving sarees. Chintakindi used to watch his mother toil at making the patterns (ASU) for each saree.

Jaypore.com, the online portal that showcases the best designs from artisans and craftsmen from all over India, wishes to make a genuine impact in the lives of womenand is partnering with Padma Shri award winning innovator, Mallesham, in his crowd funding campaign on Fueladream.com Mallesham Chintakindi, a school drop-out hails from a family of Pochampally saree weavers.

He invented the Laxmi ASU machine to ease the suffering that his mother and countless other women go through while waving sarees. Chintakindi used to watch his mother toil at making the patterns (ASU) for each saree. She used to make 18000 hand movements and set over 25 kilometres of thread every single day to make two sarees. It caused her immense pain; the work was repetitive and unyielding.

The machine that he has invented automates the process of pattern making for the saree (called the ASU process). Earlier, young girls and women would end up working eight to nine hours winding silk thread leaving them with no time for school. With this machine, this brutal process gets automated and is literally giving the women weavers a new lease of life.

He has received widespread acclaim for this machine, some of which includethe Padma Shri by the Government of India. Small weavers could only afford to pay 10% of the actual cost of the machine. Frustrated by this reality, he turned to crowdfunding to help reach weaver families. Encouraged by the overwhelming success of his first campaign, he is running a second one to make sure this machine reaches even more families.

90% of the cost will be crowdfunded &Jaypore.com is supporting us in this campaign. Jaypore.com is dedicated to impacting the lives of women and girls across the country. They saw this campaign and were so impressed by the impact it has had, that this Women’s Day they have committed Rs 1.75 lakhto the campaign.

Shilpa Sharma, Co-founder of Jaypore says, “We live in an age where opportunity while abundant isn’t accessible to everyone. Women’s empowerment is high up on Jaypore’s to-do list. The fact that creating such beautiful patterns for sarees robs the women of the Pochampally weaving community of a chance to make their own way in the world left an indelible mark on us.”

Ranganath Thota, founder - CEO of FuelADream says, “We are thrilled that a brand like Jaypore.com is partnering with innovators like Mallesham to alleviate the problems that these women face. Crowd funding is allowing corporates to make a significant social impact and this is a great example of that.”

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