Handicraft items at the Patna centre and (below) Vaijanti Devi works on a decoration piece for the exhibition. Pictures by Jai Prakash

Patna, June 9: Adversity teaches one the art of survival. Vaijanti Devi of Patauna village of Patna used art to survive through the most difficult phase of her life.

Coming from a poverty-ridden family and troubled by her in-laws, Vaijanti, a mother of four children, was forced to step out of the four walls and earn some money to support her family.

Today she stands tall. Her handicraft is sold at national-level exhibitions. She attributes the turnaround of her life’s script to Ambpali, a Patna-based non-profit organisation, of which she has become a member.

A national-level exhibition of Ambpali was organised at Palampur in Himachal Pradesh in the first week of May. The next exhibition is scheduled in August in New Delhi.

There are many like Vaijanti whose lives have been transformed by the Ambpali, Hastakargha Avom Hastshilp Vikas Swavlambi Sahyog Samiti. Now she and many others earn Rs 3,000 per month and are a fulltime employee with the organisation.

“It feels great when I see products that I have made being loved by the people and they buy them to decorate their houses. I have been making such products for a long time now, but they have never been given as much value,” Vaijanti said, smiling.

Archana Singh, the chairperson of Ambpali, Hastakargha Avom Hastshilp Vikas Swavlambi Sahyog Samiti, told The Telegraph: “I was always interested in social work and wanted to do something for the underprivileged women. So many of them are so talented but not in absence of proper opportunity, they are wasted.”

She said: “We work towards motivating these poor women and add value to their products. Our motto is to empower them.”

The organisation was registered in 1999 and since then handicraft made by women are being taken to different cities like Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Lucknow among others.

Over 500 women from neighbouring districts of Patna — Rohtas, Bhojpur, Nawada, Saran, Vaishali — work at 15 different centres in these districts. “Most of the women work on a part-time basis and very few want to join as fulltime employees, who work on a salary of Rs 3,000,” Archana said.

The products made by the employees include Madhubani paintings, patch work bed sheets, katha sujni embroidery on table covers, tikuli art, paper mashie products and food items like padad, achar, honey, sattu mixture, crispy fries.

“These food products add value to the product and this way even the farmers earn more than what they do by selling their produce,” she said.

These products prepared by these women are displayed at various exhibitions in Patna, Delhi Haat, national handicraft expos, trade fairs and many small expos held all over India.

Archana pointed out that women working with Ambpali have won various state-level awards and a woman was also awarded by the textile minister in Delhi.

“We have plans of taking our products abroad. We want to give the art of Bihar an international platform but I am not sure when that can happen,” Archana added.