Kumbaya

Kumbaya empowers women and people of disability with the art of stitching. Located deep in the tribal drylands of Bagli Tehsil, Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh for the last thirty years, Kumbaya has been standing up for the right to women's economic empowerment, seeking to transform and strengthen women's lives through the power of design. Kumbaya is also deeply committed to people of disability, women and men who are unable to contribute manual labour in an agricultural area thus leading to their marginalization and abandonment.

Kumbaya was started in 1994 by 12 Adivasi women and Nivedita Banerji in the village Neemkheda. Nurtured by Samaj Pragati Sahayog, it is the first women focused livelihood initiative of the organisation. The unique significance of Kumbaya is that it is based in one of the poorest, most backward, predominantly agrarian rural regions of India, where there were no traditional marketable crafts or any history of manufacturing.

Kumbaya continuously works on skill development and has taught stitching to over 3000 women from 100 villages in the area till date. Every year Kumbaya's master trainers travel to remote villages and train over 100 women across the organisation's women federations. Many of these women have been able to use this skill from home to earn money as tailors in the local market, some have even found jobs in the garment industry in Indore. Most of these women had never stitched a garment before.

Apart from the producers who work with the enterprise, hundreds of those trained stitch from home. At a humble estimate, even if one third of the women trained by Kumbaya are using their skills to make custom made garments for the local area, earning even a meagre sum Rs. 2000 per month, additional incomes of over Rs. 2.4 crores are created in a year- a substantial amount in the economies of this particular region.

This regular skill building effort, in and of itself, has the potential to create a significant difference in the lives of women and people with disabilities on their walk towards independent forms of livelihoods. Kumbaya focuses on teaching stitching on the sewing machine and has shown that the simple sewing machine is one of the most affordable and transferable technologies available for rural women. Whether it is for women working from home or in an organized unit, it ensures production and an immediate rate of return from very low investment. The sewing machine can deliver an unlimited product range and output, the flexibility of functions making it viable for starting ventures in rural areas. With a simple change of needle and thread it can work on chiffon and silk to leather, canvas, and from garments to bags and quilts. Products made on the sewing machine have an eternal market - they are in demand all the time.

As an extension of this effort, the Kumbaya Primary Level Stitching Programme has just begun in the industrial city of Dhar district- Pithampur to train multiple batches of women in collaboration with Eicher Group Foundation.

Nothing is considered as waste at Kumbaya. From the beginning, since 1994, Kumbaya has believed in carefully creating a system of circularity. We have always sourced fabric responsibly, re-used dead stock, discarded by industrial fabric units, and bought hand woven and other artisanal cotton fabric made by skilled master-craftspeople across the country. We specialize in crafting beautiful patchwork with every bit of waste leftover from our own production, take back and revive unsold stock by stitching it into something else; and try to create sustainable fabric and clothing using waste material from other allied industries as well.

Today over 100 women from marginalized communities are shareholders who own and work in Kumbaya Producer Company Limited, where employment is guaranteed for 300 days a year. Kumbaya Producer Company Limited is promoted by Samaj Pragati Sahayog.

Kumbaya Producer Company Ltd has been selected by the Jury's decision as winner in the Award Category "Best Women Entrepreneurs- Leading Sustainability and Social Impact" of CITI Textile Sustainability Awards 2024.

Kumbaya styles can be found at retail stores across the country — Ambara Ulsoor and Serenity in Bangalore, MESH in Delhi, Studio Chim in Goa, Craft Circle in Versova Mumbai, Giving Creations in Thane Mumbai, and Jhappi The NGO Store in Mumbai and Goa. Kumbaya Producer Company Limited is export compliant and works with several designers from different countries as manufacturing partner: