Exactly eight metres.

That’s how much these string makers can make in an hour. This product is a hand made product, made by the poorest of the poor, women from a co-operative in Karnakata state in rural south India. These women earn - depending on how fast they earn - 10 to 15 cents an hour (that’s 3.00 to 4.50 Rupees) or 25 to 35 rupees a day, scarcely enough for two litres of milk.

Two litres of milk a DAY. One glass an HOUR. That’s how long a piece of string is.

This hand-made textile comes from the industrial waste of the processing of coconut fibre. It is hand-rolled without the use of any machines. It is the only employment these women have. Those with husbands might have more family income; those without - burned brides expelled from the matrimonial home, widows, the unmarried - have no other income.

The co-operative agency is under the supervision of development agencies of the Government of India and the Government of Karnakata State. Beautiful Silks is the first Australian organisation to be involved in the formal funding of the co-operative.

Beautiful Silks invites you to purchase an eight-metre piece of string, and pay for it what you take home in an hour (for most workers, between $12 and 18; full-time self employed professionals, your hourly charge-out rate: pensioners, unemployed, $10). We will donate the money to the co-operative, which is collecting money for the building of a new resource centre for its members. In building this, the women will be educated and trained, and their income can grow towards a living wage.

Beautiful Silks, with the help of its clients, has joined with like-minded organisations to provide these women with a living wage. Current wage: around A$1 a day. Target wage: A$5 per day.

Do good- feel real - buy from Beautiful Silks.

Links:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2105/stories/20040312006102000.htm

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Evaluation/PPER/Karnataka-Urban-Infrastructure-DevelopmentProject/Karnataka-Urban-Infrastructure-DevelopmentProject.pdf

This photo was taken in rural Mandya, about 30 km from Mysore in Karnakata State, South India, at the Vikasana Institute of Rural Development - a working women's rural co-operative sponsored by Beautiful Silks.