Sewa Trade Facilitation centre Launch 'Summer Collection"

Today SEWA Trade facilitation Centre announced the formal launch of the summer-Collection at Hansiba Store by Bollywood actress Ms Ratna pathak Shah {wife of Mr Naseerudin Shah.On this occasions SEWA's Artisans said ,Women of Gujarat unparallel lineage of skills and the nature of the craft made avilable at Hansiba makes it a unique brand with an exclusive range of offerings.Their artisans have worked with exclusive threads and fabrics to come up with a vibrant collection of apparels,accessories,saris and a collection for the kids using traditional embroidery techniques like Ahir,Pakko,Rabari in its design.

The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) has been promoting an integrated approach to livelihood security of women in the informal sector for the past three decades. It has been actively working towards women’s empowerment. SEWA comprises of over 11,000 grassroots’ producer groups, 200 cooperatives and 11 federations in seven states of India. SEWA’s model of self-reliance is based on organizing women to gain full employment and self reliance.In response to the demand for creating sustainable livelihood strategies for the poorest of the poor women producers, The SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre (STFC) was established in May 2003 as the commercial arm of SEWA by more than 15000 women artisans in the textiles and handicrafts sector. The vision of STFC was to ensure that craftswomen in the informal sector have socio-economic security and full employment, by building a grassroots’ business enterprise of the artisans. STFC achieves this by sustained, profitable, and efficient coordination of the design, production, and marketing of their products and services in mainstream national and global markets.
STFC has transformed the grassroots craft activity into a full fledge commercial enterprise. Erstwhile the artisan women though skilled in hand embroidery had to forcibly migrate in search of work, or undertake earth digging work. The trade of their old valuable embroidered trouso would typically occur during distressed time. This would occur with traders and middlemen since the artisans had access to a very limited market. Moreover they only had their traditional skills but still required products which they could sell in the market. Lack of market information hindered artisans from building a strong relationship with the buyers. With the inception of STFC, integrated supply chain mechanism was created and the production became organized.Currently STFC has 3500 artisan shareholders in 80 villages across 3 Districts in Gujarat.
The product range produced by shareholders of STFC and marketed by STFC includes
• Apparels,Home furnishings Accessories,Stationary & Gifts