Breaking the Shackles of Oppression with a Colourful Caravan of Hope

A story of a young girl, who fought against all odds to empower herself to lead an independent and secure life. More on how a local craft can empower communities to provide for themselves and lead better lives. Ada is proud to support young talents like Afreen to lead a quality life.

Married at a tender age of 16 years, Afreen’s life was never easy. Born in a family of 8 people, she was the eldest amongst her 5 siblings. She never went to school as it was an unaffordable luxury for her. She was pushed into early marriage and was soon back at her parents’ home.

Against all odds, Afreen decided to find a way to become independent. She wanted to make her own life on her terms. She took up Chikankari with the intention of supporting herself. She learnt all the traditional stitches with full dedication from the other older ladies in her locality, and started working with them as a cluster for her livelihood.

Now after 7 years, Afreen is not just leading a good life but she has started promoting girls like her by providing them free training of this precious art form and offering them work opportunities as well. 

Chikankari played a pivotal role in giving right shape to the inspirational story of Afreen. Chikankari is not just about designing clothes, now it’s more like improving lives.

This is not just a single story. One can find thousands of girls like Afreen who have taken up Chikankari to stand on their own feet. Everyone has its own story. Every story is unique, but one thing remains the same that is the contribution of the Chikan industry in giving an up-thrust to the lives of these women. Isn’t it wonderful? How the Chikankari industry is enlightening the life of women by creating a positive change in the social and economic conditions of these women artisans.

In this era of high technology, where our choices are changing with the dot-com speed, it’s amazing to know that some people are still working with full zeal and at their own pace to save the grandeur and regalia of this traditional art form of Lucknow. Currently, a good number of organizations are working to spread hope and opportunities for these artisans.

Ada Designer Chikan Studio is one such organization that is working passionately to give a new dimension to this centuries old style of embroidery in the arena of global fashion. The concept behind the establishment of Ada Chikan was all about creating stories of change and transformation in the lives of the deprived segment of the society, especially the women of the families, by making them trained artisans. They serve their contribution in women empowerment by giving employment to the women artisans and help them in leading a dignified life.

But their responsibility doesn’t end here. Ada has also taken the initiative to connect the work of these artisans to the global market through their website www.adachikan.com

( Read more about this on this link : e-store )

Every year, a number of Chikan exhibitions are organized on the national and international level to showcase the outstanding hand embroidered Chikan outfits in order to promote the artisans and the legendary art of Chikankari.

“If you are working with artisans, as a designer, your job is not complete until you enhance the life of artisan” ADA strives to live upto those words

Rajeev Sethi
Indian Designer who is also a Padma Bhushan awardee