Sadhna

Sadhna, the income generation unit of Seva Mandir, was started in 1988, with the aim of providing alternate methods of income generation to women in the rural, tribal and urban slum belts of Udaipur. As these groups were not largely agriculture based and depended mainly on other sources of income, handicraft was chosen to be introduced to them. The skills taught to these women consisted of Appliqué and Tanka embroidery. After 17 years of being part of Seva Mandir, Sadhna was registered as an independent Trust on 10.12.2004. This step was taken, keeping in mind the steady expansion of Sadhna into a self- sufficient, small- scale unit for production of handcrafted products.

Sadhna aims at providing employment to more and more women, and hence every year new members are added though induction programs. A training program for three months is organized for the new member and they are trained under an instructor from the organization, who most of the times are other experienced artisan member belonging to existing groups. After the training, these members join mainstream production. Sadhna has 625 members today. The selection of these new groups is need based and especially for women who require an income generation activity to support their living.

Sadhna also believes in an over all enhancement of its members’ skills and hence has a keen interest in taking up skill up gradation and design development workshops for its members through out the year. During these workshops it disseminates information on better designs, colours, patterns and quality of products to its members to show them how a good quality product is important to penetrate the market and establish a brand identity.

Over the years Sadhna has grown into a vibrant self-sustaining unit. Sadhna has played a major role in creating awareness amongst its women members regarding social issues that are a part of their day-to-day existence. Today there has been a noticeable change in the lives of these artisans, who once were not even exposed to their own villages today are confident enough to make their own decisions in the family as well as at various other policy levels in their villages and are the bread winners in the family. Economic empowerment to them has meant a lot in terms of generating marked differences in their levels of survival and their wakefulness towards education, healthcare, economic status and family life. 

Certifications:

• Craftmark
• Mamber of Fair-Trade

Awards:

• Certificate for exemplary work- from SASHA 2006-07
• Seal of Excellence 2007-08, Awarded by UNESCO
• Seal of Excellence 2008-09, Awarded by UNESCO
• National status award

Sadhna is a member of Fair Trade Federation and Craft Mark