Women, if desires, can be a major catalyst in society. Meet Hasina Kharbhih through Jahnabi Mitra’s lenses…
Towards the end of the 1970s, The Wall Street Journal devoted an eight-part, front-page series to the ‘The Working Woman’- that is, the flood of the woman into the paid-labor- as the greatest change in American life since the Industrial Revolution. However, the real work revolution wouldn’t have been possible throughout until all the productive work – including child-rearing and other jobs done in the home- and men are integrated into so-called women’s work as well as vice-versa.
According to the International Labour Organisation (2013), 32 percent of women seemed to be employed or searching for jobs. Given the fact that women also make up a whopping 69 percent of the ‘discouraged labor force’, plus having an official female unemployment statistics that are substantially higher than men’s.
Faced with the determination to find a little independence for women and for them to be better paid and find a life of dignity and self-respect, Hasina Kharbhih designed the Impulse NGO Network, a social organization working on the issue of human trafficking.
Ms.Hasina Kharbhih created the nationally and internationally acknowledged Impulse Model (formerly known as The Meghalaya Model) is an internationally acknowledged, holistic method to address human trafficking. On the basis of the Model, key stakeholders from the public and private sectors work in collaboration to combat human trafficking and strengthen each other’s work by incorporating some fundamental components. Impulse Model has led to INGON receiving accolades such as the Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project category under its Global Development Awards and Medals Competition in 2012 from the Japanese Social Development Fund for the Government of Japan which has also supported the organization to scale its work in Myanmar since 2013.
The Impulse Model, a brainchild of Kharbhih was born out of 25 years of struggling to fight the evils of human trafficking. She speaks, “I realized you cannot stop human trafficking unless women at the grassroots become economically self-sufficient”. What started out an as little experiment to export prototypical bamboo, textile and silk articles produced by local artisans through her brother’s fruit and spice export company – Sen Kharbhih- has now reached eight states of northeast India. The model has been piloted for national replication by the Government of India, and also adopted in Myanmar, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
Over the years, she has engaged with the local communities through skill-building, product development, and raw material distribution. She noticed that women in several parts of Northeast have been involved in small scale handicraft production- often confined to the backyards of their house. However, their marketability is limited to local haatsand yearn very minimal earnings. She believed that if these handicraft products are marketed well in the national and global markets, it had the potential to bring in a radical change. Thus, it came into her EMPOWER model.
The EMPOWER brand started out in 2010, under Impulse Social Enterprise (ISE), by marketing handloom products made by artisans across the eight states of the northeast. Today, ISE has managed to gain a turnover of 7 lakhs per annum and is cross to breaking even. Most of EMPOWER products available through retail outlets at Guwahati airport, Jangfai, and Shillong. ISE in collaboration with various leading fashion brands has founded the North East Project (NEP)- a socially-focused design collective movement, which aims to generate awareness for the fight against human trafficking by creating and selling such bespoke products. NEP has tied up fashion labels like Safomasi, Bhane,1701, Fizzy Goblet and Nor Black Nor White.
Kharbhih believes that the ‘Make in India’ initiative needs to expand across the northeast region as a part of Act East Policy. According to her Make in India needs to target the artisans at the grassroots level projects and not just target the big ones. She speaks, “Like EMPOWER, Make in India should focus on traditional skill sets of the region like weaving…What we need is a strong market linkage which can help the economic growth of the people.”
A major part of this business is done through the following corporate networks and e-commerce portals
Official Website- www.impulsempower.com
Ishippo.comhttps://www.ishippo.com/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ishippo-buy- sell-handcrafted- products#/
Zopethnic.com- https://www.zopethnic.com/
Enortheastsore-http://www.thenortheaststore.com/
Kharbhih’s work ideologies and brainchild has gained national and international recognition, winning her awards like- (2012) Asian Activists Award from Human Right Now, Japan; (2012) CNN-IBN India Positive Award,(2013) Winner India’s CNBC Awaaz – Masterpreneur Season 1 Reality Show, (2013) IVLP Gold Star Alumni, US State Department to mention a few.
HasinaKharbhih has worked for more than a decade to change the idea of ‘job’ as a need for autonomy and personal fulfillment rather than with seeing it through the perspective of ‘need’. She has empowered a woman to find their own voice and courage…
