Green Entrepreneurs

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Nasreen Khan is a Master Trainer and master crafts person. Her confident smile leaves a lasting without a fail on everyone. Her story is one of resilience and commitment. Her smile a beacon of hope. She started learning the art of chikan embroidery from her Mother who was a Master Cutter with SEWA Lucknow. Nasreen’s skill in fine embroidery made her grow as a trainer in her own right with SEWA Lucknow. Today at 42 she has many stories to tell.

Over the years she has trained a large number of people turning around their lives towards a better future with one stitch at at a time. The most remarkable and heart touching success story has been up-skilling the artisans of “Haddiganj” in Barabanki, a poverty stricken neighbouring district of the state capital of Uttar Pradesh Lucknow. 

The mahadalit population of the area used to work with bones of dead animals and lived a life deprived of social status. Thanks to her patience, feisty personality, resourcefulness and commitment, today the backward, marginalized people of Haddiganj can live with pride. Today they are recognized artisans and crafts persons with better livelihoods as they work the magical GI Chikan embroidery on cloth transforming ancient motifs on newly cut garments.

EU funded Going Green, Switch Asia project has been transforming 12 500 lives in six textile clusters of India, namely Lucknow and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh & Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota and Churu in Rajasthan. The implementing partners in India are Traidcraft Exchange UK and AIACA. Going Green set out to build sustainable businesses of textile artisans and improve their working conditions through efficient eco-friendly processes, and increased access to resources resulting in a higher for ‘green’ products. 

Nasreen is one of the many people who became part of this collective movement in the last four years. She formed a SHG of five women at Punjab National Bank and started her own MSME. She employs 300 women today and produces garment pieces for SEWA Lucknow a fair trade organisation working with 3000 women artisans in 10 blocks in and around Lucknow.

Under the project sought convergence with the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) and District Urban Development Authority(DUDA) and accessed a Rs. 10 Lac loan for her Self Help Group, DEV. Five such loans have been received by the Going Green Switch Asia collectives in Lucknow. The loan was made available at a subsidised rate of 7% interest under the convergence program.  Nasreen and other members are using this sum as working capital for becoming entrepreneurs in their own right. 

Nasreen has been successful to provide 400 women part time home-based work and plans to increase her reach even further in the future. Nasreen’s husband works in a clothing factory as a Master Cutter. Nasreen is the proud mother of two sons one aged 11 and the other aged 8. Nasreen has also worked with SEWA Lucknow for over 20 years now. She has been able to build a house for her small family recently and feels content. She is looking forward to pay up her third loan now and make bigger plans for the future.