In 1983, a frail but energetic young man Shankar Chakraborty from Asurali village in Kolaghat, secretary of a local men’s club, took the initiative to organize training, in cutting and tailoring for some of the women in and around his village. There were 18 of them, some had been deserted by their families, some widowed and others unmarried young women trying to find a way to supplement their meager family incomes. The club members hoped that having been trained in tailoring, the women would eventually be able to start up small initiatives of their own. What they didn’t account for was that these women had never travelled out of their village and had very little idea of how to run a business. They simply did not have enough skills and so after a year, they were back to square one.

During this time Shankar often visited Calcutta in search of funds and programs for their various needs. He discovered Socio-Legal aid Research and Training Centre, (SLARTC) an organization dedicated to bringing legal awareness to people at a grassroots level – especially women. SLARTC introduced him to Self Help Handicrafts Society, a successful women’s business enterprise, who were working closely with Sasha. A meeting was held in Kolaghat with 18 women who had expressed their interest in income-generating activities. It was quite clear that they were unable to do things on their own and would need to work together.

In Calcutta, Sasha was organizing a skill up-gradation workshop for some of the Textile Artisan’s Association groups. The workshop was to be held at Self Help Handicrafts Society and two participants from Kolaghat were asked to join. This was the first time they had travelled to Calcutta on their own and were to spend more than a week away from home. During the workshop they interacted with several other groups like themselves trying to find a solution to their many problems. They also picked up skills to produce more marketable products and tried to grapple with the intricacies of costing and pricing. Visits to Sasha shop and other shops gave them some idea of the markets they might want to sell to. Visits were also organized to the wholesale markets to look at possible sources of raw materials.

Back in their village, the women under the stewardship of Deepali tried to plan the next course of action. As they had no capital, so they started collecting money and repaired their old machine that was donated by the club. They also purchased some thread, needles and machine oil. The Self Help women had given them a whole bundle of cut pieces of different fabrics. This they decided to use to make small items for a Sasha exhibition. It was June 1984 and the first production of oven gloves, potholders, aprons and bags were being readied. The order for Sasha exhibition was completed and delivered in November. And they made their first income after all these months of hard work. The items sold well and Sasha shop placed an additional order too. This gave an enormous boost to their self-esteem.

During the first financial year 1984-85 their turnover was less than Rs.10,000. This entire income was pooled back into their rolling capital. It was also the time to formalize the effort into a legal entity. The members of the men’s club and the women’s group together formed a non-for-profit organization, Kolaghat Socio Economic Welfare Society. The Society was registered in March 1985 with a total membership of twenty-five. In the next two years the turn over of the tailoring unit more than doubled with regular orders from Sasha. The number of women too had gone up. Besides tailoring, the women were also doing some high quality embroidery, after having participated in a skill enhancement workshop by Artisans Association.