Sabala which has strong grass-roots presence and deep insight into women’s concerns was set up by a team of like minded people drawn from various walks of life all having a common objective of women empowerement and has been contributing in inspiring initiatives for the empowerment of women.. one of the key objectives of the programme is to empower women in all phases of life through skills training thus building self-confidence.

All this under the able stewardship of of Mallamma Yalwar, who was initiated into the concept of Women empowerment from her university days. Haling from a rural background, it was easy for Mallama Yalawar to relate to the various problems faced by rural women.

Sabala provides opportunities for the women to learn skills and translate these skills into productive activities that generate income. It has been involved in the revival of the traditional Lambani and Kasuti crafts. And in bringing structural changes through community organization and awareness.

ACTIVITIES:

Organising Artisans into groups and federating them

Skill Trainings

Capacity Building

Marketing Support

Co-operative banking for women

Land to Landless

Legal awareness and Support

 

Banjara, a original Tribal Art is Pride of Nation. This Art is coming from generation to generation from Mother to Daughter. But due to Globalization and Civilization in 19th Century, there is change in Living of Society and all Traditional living changed. This resulted in change of Traditional Costumes along with Traditional Handicraft among these Traditional Handicrafts Banjara Hand Embroidery is one of them. Now a days, this Banjara Hand Embroidery is declared as languishing Art. The references are found in Rigveda, Yejurveda, Atharvaveda and Ancient Literature about this Art. Sabala is making an effort to preserve this Cultural and Historical Heritage.

Mirror Work is the unique feature of Banjara Handicraft. Banjaras who were nomads used Mirrors on their clothes to protect themselves from the wild Animals. When the wild Animals saw themselves into mirrors, they ran away. As they lived in the Forests, Readymade Clothes were not available to them. So they used the old Clothes and did Patchwork to make new clothes. They have about 80 Stitches. They basically made Ghagra Cholis, Quilts, Batwas for themselves. But Sabala has made an effort to use their Skills to make products to suit the present Life Style of the people.

Textile Embroidery Products :

Cushion Covers

Bags

Wall Hangings

Bead Spreads

Tops and Kurtas

Jewellery

Natural Fibre Products

Gift Items


The craft centre at Sabala is fascinating, to see the process of fixing on colour combinations, picking the right threads and beads, to see needle and thread at work, the pace at which their hands move till they are packed away for the showrooms. It’s an experience to see them at work. You can even pick a newly stitched bag, or thread the beads of your choice for jewellery you can take back then and there.

 

Various other  initiatives have been taken from time to time   . The creation of women Self Help Groups have enabled them to hold regular weekly meetings, save and repay regularly, and use trained bookkeepers for proper bookkeeping. All SHG members abide by the principles of saying no to child marriages, child labor, domestic violence and wasteful expenditures.

Weekly meetings are conducted to provide a platform for sharing and discussing broad social, legal, political and economic issues that affect their lives. Issues range from entitlements to land, , women's own rights in the case of domestic violence etc.

While this is a continuous and evolving process, these poor women’s groups have made a number of gains in a variety of  spheres such as

Food Security

Health Insurance for the Poor

Social exploitation and child labor practices have also drastically reduced as a result of several initiatives by SABALA

 

Sabala has set up a bank exclusively for Women in Bijapur. Chaitanya Mahila Co-Operativ Bank was established in 1995 with women empowerement as its primary focus.

The bank has made rapid progress and has over 7000 active members and 25000 Customers today. A working capital of Rs. 20 crores and about Rs 1.85 crores of its own funds help bank to fund women for their various activities.