Srikari

The state of Assam is renowned for its Handloom and Hadicrafts.It is home to several types of silks.The craftsmanship portrays legends,handed down through centuries of its indigeneous people.
An availability of silk like ‘Eri and Paat’ gives an opportunity to the Handloom workers to create something unique to this region.
Since childhood,i have been fascinated with fabrics and the whole world of designs it can create. It has been my dream to work with our indigeneous people bringing the best out of them and empowering them along the way and thus ‘Srikari’ was born in year 2014.
The project involved a lot of research and discussions.To start with my area of work as of now is Eri silk of Assam.Incorporating a lot of differently woven pure Eri thread bags for various purposes have been designed.As the project gathers momentum,Srikari plans to venture into varieties of products.
The rural people though privileged with the ancient knowledges do not possess the skill for detailed weaving.A lot of time is spent in communicating my ideas to them and every bag created in the collection has a story of my imagination and their hard toil.The journey so far though frustrating at times,has been nonetheless immensely satisfying.My Vision is ‘I Grow and She Grows’ it is the only about simply trading but more of growth and development at the personal level of my weavers team.They are those women who are giving shape to my dream and theirs adds Pinki Hazarika.

Her Entrepreneurial Journey

Pinki’s understanding of modern designs and the innovative use of traditional crafts has created a new classicism. Today the unit is renowned for its distinctive use of colors, quality of fabrics, intricate looks and a gloriously rich aesthetic product quality.
When I started it was a passion a dream with very less fund of Rs.5000 /- but with lots of enthusiasm with no idea of how to take it forward in a professional way. The basic idea was to promote handloom overall and Eri in particular promoting women weavers. She slowly has been able to expand in a great way and started participating in Trade Fairs and Exhibitions of national repute and earned a lot of appreciation for her products by people and buyers which gives a real satisfaction. She has the vision to engage more women for livelihood by making a bigger unit in future.
Today Srikari have been able to cross milestones and striving for excellence and continuous growth with expansion in business growth with planning to employ even more people from the region and train them in the age-old traditional art of weaving among the women and also taking care of their well being, adds Pinki Hazarika.