As part of our Social Impact Study in Bikaner, we conducted a focus group discussion at the Rangsutra centre in 2-AD C Village in Pugal, Bikaner. Twenty-eight women gathered for the discussion and were ready to share their views with us and have an open discussion. They came from their homes across the village—some who'd been with the organization for years, others who'd only recently joined. The room held a mix of ages and experiences, but as the conversation unfolded, something became clear: these women had a lot to say, and they weren't holding back!


Women Artisans from Rangsutra’s Pugal Center in Bikaner

"We Thought 'Share' Meant Sher (Lion)"

The laughter started almost immediately when we brought up the topic on how Rangsutra first explained the concept of becoming shareholders to the artisans. 

"We never knew the meaning of shares or shareholders before this. The first time we heard the word share, we thought it meant the word sher—which is lion in Hindi!"

This showed how foreign the world of business was to these artisans. Financial terminology, ownership structures, company shares—none of this existed in their everyday vocabulary. And yet, today, these same women are shareholders in the organization they work for.

Life before Rangsutra

When asked about life before Rangsutra arrived in Pugal, the mood shifted. The work existed, they been doing kashida (embroidery) for years, making carpets and cushion covers. But it was scattered, informal, and unpredictable.

"Before Rangsutra came into our village, we were mostly not working anywhere. We would make carpets and cushion covers and do Kashida on fabric."

There was no structure, no guarantee of payment, no sense of what tomorrow might bring. They worked when there was work, and waited when there wasn't.

Trust didn't come easily either. When Rangsutra first started holding meetings in the village, many women stayed away.

"Initially, we wouldn't go for meetings because we thought we would have to migrate to the city if we had to work with this company."

The fear was real—that accepting this opportunity meant leaving home, leaving family, uprooting everything familiar. But slowly, as word spread that the work would come to them rather than them going to the work, the reluctance began to fade.

"Now, the center is where we meet, chat, work and spend our time together."

Learning More Than Stitches

The artisans knew kashida before, but joining Rangsutra opened up a different kind of education. They weren't just doing embroidery anymore—they were understanding it.

"At Rangsutra we further honed our skills and learned more about things like design, tracing, measurements, sizing, etc."

Design. Measurements. Sizing. These might sound like small additions, but they represent a fundamental shift. The artisans weren't just workers following instructions; they were becoming literate in the language of their craft, understanding how their piece fitted into the larger whole and co-creating with designers of the company.

Rangsutra’s Center at 2 AD-C village, Pugal  in Bikaner


Financial Prudency & Independency

For people living in rural parts of India, nothing illustrates financial transformation better than the simple fact of opening a bank account.

"After joining Rangsutra, we have all created bank accounts and we get our salary in our accounts."

"With Rangsutra, we always get our payment on time."

For women who'd never had their names on a bank account, who'd been paid in cash for piecework with no record and no regularity, this was revolutionary. Monthly salary payments. On time. Every time.

That reliability changed everything. Suddenly they could plan. They could save. They could make decisions about purchases that required more than whatever cash happened to be in hand.

"Before Rangsutra, our income was irregular and very limited. But now, we have enough to be able to save and also buy things like cooler, clothes, fridge, etc."

When asked what they'd done with their recent salaries, the answers painted a picture of women balancing immediate needs with longer-term dreams.

Some were thinking ahead: "Saved 50% of salary and deposited into bank."

But perhaps the most striking response came from an artisan who'd been with Rangsutra for years:

"Most of my income has gone into educating my children. I have spent around 1.5 lakh in sending my son for his masters. This was due to the money I was able to save up from my years of working at Rangsutra."

Women artisans at the 2 AD-C village, Pugal  in Bikaner

The Power Shift

The economic changes were obvious and measurable. But something else had shifted too—something harder to quantify but just as real.

"At home, our families never took our opinions. But that has changed and they ask us for our opinion after we started earning."

These women had always had opinions, of course. They'd always had thoughts about household decisions, family matters, and the future. But those opinions hadn't been sought, hadn't been valued.

Earning regular income changed that. The salary coming into the household each month gave them agency and authority. It made people listen.

The Centre as Community

Throughout the discussion, the artisans kept circling back to one thing: the centre itself. Not just as a workplace, but as a space that belonged to them.

"I like that I can come to this center and work together with my friends."

The older artisans and the younger ones. The experienced and the newly trained. The long-time village residents and the recent arrivals. They all showed up here, not just to work, but to be together. To share skills and stories, to joke around, to support each other through difficult days. The way they spoke about the centre reflected a strong sense of sisterhood.

The centre, for these artisans,  represents a shared space where they can exist not just as wives, mothers or daughters-in-law, but as artisans, colleagues and friends.


Sisterhood at the 2 AD-C Rangsutra Center in  Pugal, Bikaner

What's Changed

As the afternoon drew to a close and the women began gathering their things, preparing to head home to evening responsibilities, the transformation they'd collectively described became visible. These weren't the artisans working in isolation with irregular cash payments and no voice at home.

They were shareholders. Bank account holders. Skilled workers who understood the market.
Women whose families asked for their opinions. Mothers funding their children's master's degrees. Friends with a place to gather.

They'd moved from thinking "share" meant "lion" to understanding exactly what their shares in the company represented: ownership, voice, stake, belonging.

And they'd done it together—stitch by stitch, salary by salary, conversation by conversation at a centre that had become their second home.