EP33 - The Life of a Kaamdani Artisan

Main Bhi Muslim

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-52:11

EP33 - The Life of a Kaamdani Artisan

Conversation with Shabana Bano on keeping the craft alive and supporting a community

May 01, 2025

Transcript

This MBM conversation is with Shabana Bano, a Lucknow-based kaamdani artisan. Kaamdani or Mukaish as its popularly known, is intricate metal-work embroidery which requires skill, talent, time and patience to stitch patterns and designs onto fabric. For more than 15 years, Shabana ji has been making her living through this craft, has trained and supported countless women and currently has a team of 50 women artisans who work with her.

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In this episode, Shabana ji shares her experience learning and expanding her craft to make a living and help other working-class women pick it up too. She highlights the challenges that women participating in this kind of informal sector face, not just domestically but also socially, and how this craft has enabled an intimate self-help group, in the absence of any institutional support, dignified working rates and employee benefits. She speaks of the glaring income inequalities that exist between such artisans who earn as little as INR 150 per day (less than USD2) and certain apparel store owners and designers who price such products in thousands if not more.

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Shabana ji has also managed to encourage and support more women to not only take up this work but also recruit other women to learn and earn just like her. She hopes that this craft and its people receive their rightful wages and dignity to lead their lives with more resources and support. This conversation was mostly recorded in Urdu and the English transcript of it is available on MBM’s website.