New Beginning For Shamim Begam

The city of Gwalior is famous for its handicrafts particularly its carpets. Weaving intricate geometric patterns with colourful threads is a skill developed over time. It requires attention to detail and an eye for colour coordination. When Shamim Begum first saw her sister-in-law working on a carpet, the craft struck her as being a useful way to earn a living at home and so she spent time learning the various techniques. More than ten years down the line, she is a seasoned hand at making carpets of different sizes.

“It takes more than a month to craft a kaleen (carpet), working a minimum of 5-6 hours per day but I get only Rs.4000 for the finished product.” Shamim Begum is not the only one who is left at the mercy of middlemen in Gwalior’s carpet-making industry. Other weavers we spoke to also voiced the same concerns.

Shamim explains how the system works. The middlemen provide the designs that need to be worked on but hand it over to the weaver only on payment of a security deposit. They also provide the raw materials for each job. Once the carpet is ready, it is sold in the market for more than five times what the weaver is paid.

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About Shamim Begam before Rang De Loan

Once a wise man said, "a family can develop only with the loving woman as its centre". Shamim Begam is one among them. She is 47-year-old married woman who lives with her husband and daughter in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. Her husband Hasan Khan is owning an auto parts shop and her daughter is studying in a college.

To assist her husband in financing the family, she wants to do some work in her leisure time. She plans to start an automobile spare shop from home as a medium of the income. With help of the loan amount, she will purchase the spare parts from the wholesale market and sell it for the retail price to her customers. 

Your donation is going to be the capital of her new business.

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