A school dropout who made it to Harvard: The story of artisan Ruma Devi

What do you think of when you think of fashion? Elaborately and intricately crafted designs that are showcased on the ramp? Or celebrities flaunting stunning outfits on the red carpet? Fashion is also an art, and while the designs are envisioned by couturiers, it is the artisans who bring them to life with their craftsmanship. They are the invisible force behind all that glitters on the ramp and red carpet.

A few years ago, a couple of designers visited Barmer, Rajasthan, for a fashion show. Inspired by the dazzle of fashion and confidence of the training in craftsmanship she’d received from her grandmother, Ruma Devi, a Barmer resident, expressed her desire to participate in the show. “You are supposed to stitch,” she was told. “Fashion designing and participating in a fashion show aren’t your forte.” The rebuff may have been hurtful at the time, but it was this precise moment that launched a zeal — to make a name for herself and many other craftsmen who often remain voiceless and faceless in the larger project that is fashion.

As she visits the Khaleej Times offices in Dubai, Ruma looks back at her journey with fondness and recalls how she turned every obstacle into an opportunity. Ruma was a child when she lost her mother, and being brought up in a household where it was difficult to make ends meet did not always allow her to dream big. She was in Class VIII when she dropped out of school upon her family’s insistence and got intensely involved in household chores. This also meant travelling 10 km every day to fetch water. By the time she turned 17, she had already been married.

Sometimes, it is precisely in the moments when it seems our destinies cannot be changed that resilience takes root. In Ruma’s case, it happened to revolve around her passion to showcase her special embroidery. She formed a group of women and managed to collect Rs100 (Dh5 approximately) in order to buy raw materials to make handbags with her special hand embroidery. This was it… the moment that would define the course of Ruma’s life.

Her intricate craftsmanship was duly noted by the local organisation Gramin Vikas Evam Chetna Sansthan and she went on to become the president of the non-governmental organisation in 2010. As part of these initiatives, Ruma would participate in many exhibitions where her work and that of many other women would get noticed. She did her first exhibition in Rafi Marg, Delhi, in 2010 and her first fashion show in Rajasthan Heritage Week 2016. She is now working towards promoting the craft of tribal artisans and minorities all over India. Today, she supports 30,000 women in 150 villages through her work. For many of these women, it has been an incredibly empowering moment as they find themselves having a creative and economic agency of their works. “I had always envisioned to empower women in rural India by making them financially independent and providing basic education,” says Ruma, who received 2018 Nari Shakti Puraskar, a prestigious annual award given by Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development to women and institutions that work towards female empowerment.