Background:

Macrame is a crafting technique that uses knots to create various textiles. Since this art form has regained popularity in recent years, crafters and artists are coming up with innovative ways to take macrame beyond the basic plant hangers and wall hangings. The primary knots of macramé are the square (or reef knot) and forms of "hitching": various combinations of half hitches. It was long crafted by sailors, especially in elaborate or ornamental knotting forms, to cover anything from knife handles to bottles to jumars to Bags etc. Cavandoli macramé is one variety that is used to form geometric and free-form patterns like weaving. The Cavandoli style is done mainly in a single knot, the double half-hitch knot. Reverse half hitches are sometimes used to maintain balance when working left and right halves of a balanced piece.

Gaps Identified:

Supply of raw material, Time consuming, low volume production, less mechanization & limited market.

Interventions of ORMAS:

Women members of Producer Groups under ORMAS are playing an important role in breaking the Poverty barrier by earning some livelihood to support her family. One of them is Saraswati Maharana, President of Krishna Macrame Producer Group member under Meerabai GPLF of Kasipada GP in Sadar block of Balasore district, has taken the initiative of making Macrame craft products and has successfully supported her family in this pandemic situation. She belongs to a low-income family, and she is the sole earner in the family. His husband is also supporting her in her work & marketing of their products. In this critical situation, her Macrame activity has risen as a saviour for the family. she has a small and happy family, which consists of her husband and two of her children. In 2018, she joined the Krishna Macrame PG and started learning the stitching work. After some time, she started making Macrame products for the PG. She has now become a trainer and has motivated & trained several women to earn some additional income for her family, also she has started involving other people in her work as and when required. She is happy that now she can generate some additional livelihood and support her family in these challenging times. She is now easily able to generate Rs. 7,000-9,000/month on her own.

Krishna Macrame Producer Group was started as an intervention of ORMAS for the promotion of macrame products. The Dy. CEO, ORMAS, Balasore visited the village and saw their work and found it to be a potential product which can be a good livelihood option for the rural women and can be marketed easily. Thus, the formation of Krishna Macrame PG took place in November 2018 as an intervention of ORMAS. ORMAS supported the PG with handholding support, financial support in terms of IB/CB, Additional Equipment Cost, Backward and forward linkage of their products by strengthening the Supply Chain, Value Chain, Design Development, Value addition, local and state level tie-ups, Exhibition participation etc.

Outcome & Present Status:

Their income is Constantly rising, in 2018-19 itself they did a sale of Rs. ,60,000 in 2019-20 the sales figure stood at Rs. 14,45,000. This year i.e, 2021-22 they have sold a sum of Rs. 9,45,000 till December despite getting affected due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

Now a days PG is on the path to achieve Self-Sustainability. They have recently done several tie-ups with local and nearby vendors as well as started to promote their products on online marketplace such as Amazon, Indiamart etc.

Details of Activity: