Empowering the Kalandar women, one stitch at a time
Women from the Kalandar community are stitching a new future and redefining their destiny. Uncover their transformative journey of empowerment through the Wildlife SOS Sewing Training Centres.
As the afternoon haze settles over the town of Chaksu, Rajasthan, the elders retreat to rest while children settle into cosy corners to complete their homework. Amidst this, Mehraz Bano steps out to reach the fan-cooled Wildlife SOS Sewing Training Centre. She belongs to the Kalandar community, a group associated with the practice of getting bears to dance as entertainment.
Despite being banned in 1972, the act of making sloth bears perform on the streets has continued. With no alternative avenues to earn, the Kalandars relied on the inherited practice of poaching and taming bears to support their families. While this put a tight occupational chain around the Kalandar men, the community’s women bore the double burden of living within a rigidly patriarchal system. They had no autonomy and financial stability was a distant dream.
Child marriage plagued the community and girls as young as 11 were married off to relieve the family’s financial burden. These often resulted in complications from early pregnancies and even loss of lives. The thought of education, let alone of a girl child, was far-fetched for the Kalandar community.
Isolated from any means to explore avenues of education or employment, the Kalandar women were the most invisible victims of the ‘dancing’ bear practice.
Mehraz Bano, 34, from the Chaksu Sewing Training Centre, shares, “My community didn’t allow women to work even though my family struggled from shortage of money.”
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The first steps
The foundation of Wildlife SOS lies in the ‘Dancing’ Bear Project, which began in 1996 to provide rehabilitation to ‘dancing’ sloth bears that had been torn away from the wild to perform on the streets. To ensure that this practice is put to an end, equal attention was paid to the welfare of the community to explore alternative livelihoods.
Wildlife SOS initiated the Tribal Rehabilitation Programme in 2002, and it aimed to extend the aspect of conservation by uplifting the Kalandar families, ensuring a more equitable life, particularly for women and young girls.
The programme underscored the need to dispel deeply rooted gender norms that confined women to the home. But the road was not easy. Accustomed to their lives with the bears, the families viewed new possibilities with suspicion, and the men were reluctant to let the women step outside their homes.
Rakhee Sharma, Wildlife SOS’s Project Manager for Community Initiatives & Alternate Livelihoods, recalls one of the men retaliating: “First, you take our bears, and now you want to take our women too? Why don’t you just give back our bears!”
One of the programme’s key components to steer women towards financial independence has been the establishment of Sewing Training Centres. As the women were restricted from crossing their village borders, the centres were set up within the spaces the Kalandars resided in. Following persistent dialogue, it was in Tonk, Rajasthan, where a determined group of women began their transformative journey at the first sewing centre.
Redefining the norm
Each woman stepped into the centre with a vigour to take ownership of her future, dismantling years of generational restraint. The year-long training, supported by a stipend and flexible hours, allowed women to attend classes after daily chores or in the quieter afternoon hours.
Ensuring that the programme was accessible for the women, a perfect blend of dignity and enterprise unfolded, allowing them to make the most of the opportunity. Today, women craft items like jute bags, toilet pouches, elephant toys, and kaftans, which are available at the Agra Bear Rescue Facility (ABRF) and Elephant Conservation and Care Centre (ECCC) in Uttar Pradesh.
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Wildlife SOS’s vision transcends economic stability. It strives to empower women, enabling them to become strong pillars for their families and their community.
Rubeena Bano, who has been working in the Tonk Sewing Centre for the last 10 years, says, “After I started working at the sewing centre, I have not had the need to borrow money from anyone. My husband and I were able to buy land and build a house too! Now the women that live around me want to transform their lives as well.”
She added that her decision has inspired many women of the village to work and even push for their children’s education.
As part of the Kalandar Rehabilitation Programme, Muskan Bano received support from Wildlife SOS to complete her education till grade 12. Thereafter, she decided to become a trainee at the Sewing Training Centre in Tonk.
She recalls how her father, the sole breadwinner for their family of five, struggled to pay her school fees. “Having completed four years here, I have become the second earning member of the house, something I had never imagined. It gives me confidence knowing we no longer face the same financial struggles,” she says.
The Sewing Training Centres have become a sanctuary for meaningful friendships to blossom among women who were once not even allowed to laugh loudly. Whether it is through sharing lunches or burdens, these women are each other’s confidantes, fostering a deeper sense of community and trust.
As of today, more than 3,000 Kalandar women have been successfully trained through this milestone project. Each woman that walks into the centre weaves a story of resilience and hope for the future. What was once unimaginable for them is now, achievable.
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The lead image shows women from the Kalandar community at the Sewing Training Centre set up by Wildlife SOS.
Shreya Sharon Mangratee is a writer with a strong passion for conservation and livelihood development. She has written extensively on these subjects and has worked with various organisations in the field. Shreya is dedicated to storytelling and exploring indigenous human communities through the lens of conservation, highlighting the intersection of environmental preservation and sustainable livelihoods.
