Crafting life out of Bamboo: Success Story of Bamboo Villa

‘Bamboo Villa’ is an initiative of Kudumbashree women, was started during 2013 at Chokad near Kalikavu of Malappuram District of Kerala. Blessed with abundant availability of raw materials and demands from both domestic as well as international buyers, artisans in bamboo craft have now been able to generate a viable income for their livelihood. A sustainable development initiative based on bamboo, the women, members of Kudumbashree Neighborhood Group, brought such ideas which changed their miserable lives.

At present they are making unique success stories in Kerala on areas like enhancing the natural resource base, upgrading local resource processing skills, introducing appropriate technologies, producing value-added products from local resources and marketing environment-friendly products and goods in various markets. The vigorous bamboo craft tradition of people living near forest areas of Kerala gets the most creative expression through the craftsmanship of the various craftsmen.

Evolution of Bamboo Villa

Smt. Bindhu, a member of Pournami Neighbourhood Group of Kudumbashree brought an idea of starting the Micro Enterprise Unit as her brother was a craftsman. Smt. Aneesha and Smt. Manju who were house wives also thought of doing something which could generate some income for their livelihood. Hence, in 2013, they started a small unit of Bamboo crafts. Shri.Baiju and Shri. Shaji are the other members of the group who help them in their works. As Bindhu used to make handicrafts items from her childhood, she learned the bamboo crafts making professionally from the Bamboo Co-operative Society which was located in Pokkottumpadam near to her home.

After learning it with the help of her brother she started the production of the same sitting at her home itself. Then she increased the production by encouraging other women in her NHG to learn the art of bamboo craft and they also become self-reliant.  As the demand for their products increased they produced more items in their own homes and slowly managed to have a rented space near Nilambur- Kalikavu main road. And later in 2013 they started the Bamboo Villa, a store for production and store the Bamboo crafts items.

They get the raw bamboo from the Bamboo Corporation, Perinthalmanna in Malappuram District who has the permission from government to supply the raw bamboo to the common people. Various products such as bamboo lamp shade, bamboo Pooja baskets, bamboo picnic baskets, bamboo flower vase, bamboo laundry baskets, bamboo jug, bamboo mug, bamboo chocolate baskets, bamboo mats, and 200 different models of Bamboo handicrafts like toys and dolls and other show case items are crafted there out of the bamboo. They dip the raw Bamboo in caustic soda for two days and make it dry on sunlight for making it flexible. When it gets dried they collect it back to their working shed and chisel it into small pieces according to the length and width of the item produced and then they make different items from it.

They get an average income of Rs. 10,000 each per month. It differs in the tourist season as they move to different exhibitions and the demand from the handicrafts business men increased. They often get orders from Goa and Gujarat. In Kerala, their main markets are Wayanad, Idukki, Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts, the main tourist destinations of Kerala. 

The hard work of the group and the support they are getting from Kudumbashree are marked as the key reasons for their success. Finding the right markets for selling the products was also considered as a reason behind. As their products have variation in demand from place to place, the market trends also may affect their business hence marketing skills also play an important role in the success of Bamboo Villa. The main challenge they face in the early stages was the capital accumulation and the quality of the products. Slowly they overcome those troubles and then faced the scarcity of raw materials and paucity of exact market.

Kudumbashree Exhibitions and trade fairs gave them the support to overcome this trouble. Like all other business the severe flood which hit Kerala in 2018 affected their business also. They faced all these challenges bravely and is looking forward with confidence. They had attended the Saras Mela organized by Kudumbashree Mission, in Edappal of Malappuram District and Pattambi of Palakkad Districts during 2017 and 2018, which gave them a big sale and income. 

The women, from 2013 itself had faced difficulty in marketing their products. Their products sale was limited to the exhibitions only. This time a bamboo products business man Mr. Jayaraj from Chennai happened to visit them for his business needs and by seeing the quality of their products he offered good markets for their products and later their products reached many markets. This increased the demand of their products and the production also went high. This was the turning point in their business.

Now, they are planning to expand their products markets to the places where their products hadn’t reached until now. They also hope that the society may understand the importance of natural items and thereby the use of plastic and other such items may be replaced by bamboo products. According to them, for every woman, there arises a lot of opportunities to become self-reliant, if they willing to explore the opportunities. Once if we come out with a passion to achieve something in our life, no challenges can stop us from the success.

The women from Bamboo Villa says that we cannot thrive our income without hard work. Success normally comes to those people who devote to their work. Prosperity in life will never come to us when we remain sitting idle. By extending opportunities to many women like the entrepreneurs of Bamboo Villa, Kudumbashree Mission is giving wings to the dreams of many.