Guwahati, June 30: Zuboni Humtsoe, a young Naga girl who began an all-women textile start-up in Dimapur town in 2011, is now trying to employ more ladies by training them to make Naga dolls.
Women are being provided hands-on training irrespective of their educational qualifications and then being provided employment at Zuboni's start-up, Preciousmelove, and its doll-making unit Nungshiba Handicrafts.
The first 45-day basic doll-making training programme, which started in May, concluded recently and all five successful trainees, including two physically-challenged girls, got jobs.
"We want to provide the best quality training to those who struggle to explore their creative talents in Nagaland, where there is a dearth of such skill development training facilities and jobs. During the training, we provided them skills on how to make Naga dolls keeping in mind the market demands," said Zuboni, who was presented with the Nari Shakti Award by the Union ministry of women and child development in February this year.
The five trainees were felicitated at a ceremony, attended by model Ketholeno Kense, held at the office of Nungshiba Handicrafts in Dimapur yesterday. The organisation is also working closely with the Deaf Biblical Ministry, Dimapur, to empower and employ more differently-abled persons.
In a state that has just has very few industries, Zuboni, a political science graduate from Kalindi College under Delhi University, has defied the odds with Preciousmelove, which sells clothes and handicrafts online. In 2015, Nungshiba Handicrafts started training local women on making Naga dolls with waste fabric generated by Preciousmelove. Employees are paid salaries between Rs 4,000 to Rs 8,500 per month.
"Japanese dolls, which I have loved since childhood, motivated me to create a brand of dolls that portray the unique culture of various communities. The dolls are prepared from waste fabrics from our textile units and our designers add more value to make them attractive," Zuboni said.
The start-up's core team comprises 10 women, five of whom are doll-makers. Preciousmelove started making profits from 2013-2014.
"The waste fabrics are sorted and the clothes are designed and put into production. The dolls are carefully stuffed with local cotton sourced from local markets and flowers and different tribal patterns are sewn onto the dolls. The dolls depict the culture and lifestyles of various tribes of the Northeast," Zuboni said.
Nagaland's women resource development department is supporting the doll-making course. The second training programme will have 12 candidates, including two specially-abled women, and begin from Monday.
Preciousmelove has delivered their products to places like New Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Puducherry, Hyderabad and cities in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, besides other northeastern states.
