Opinion | Kashmir’s Women Entrepreneurs; How Kashmiri Women Are Stitching a New Economic Story

If you take a walk through the busy commercial centre of Srinagar City during a weekday in the morning , you will see evidence of women owning their own businesses throughout the commercial centre. For example, you could come across a woman who is in her twenties negotiating over the telephone with suppliers, several female artisans package orders to their final destinations (without doubt outside of the Valley), and a professional in her twenties updating her on-line storefront from inside the back office of a modestly sized office building. Therefore, you could easily see that the face of business as we know it today in Srinagar City has changed, and more and more women are participating in business today than ever before. Women who own businesses in particular in Jammu & Kashmir are now an emerging and economically significant force in the economy of Jammu & Kashmir, including the city of Srinagar. Women who own their businesses are found in all commercial sectors of the economy; for example, food processing, handicrafts, technology, education and healthcare services are creating and running their businesses in and around the valley with a passionate desire to create their success, and the ability to withstand adversity and to achieve a brighter tomorrow for themselves and the community at large.

The journey of creating businesses and launching new products as a woman in Kashmir has always faced a lot of different barriers that made it hard for women to start businesses. The last few generations of women have faced numerous barriers between them and business ownership because of social conservatism, few resources available to women, lack of financial independence and/or property rights, and instability because of violence. For very long, when women were working within the economy, they were not typically doing so in culturally acceptable ways; for example, many Kashmiri women do contribute to family businesses, but this is very commonly done so without any recognised contribution on her behalf.

A great deal of things have changed in the last decade. The increased access to higher education has produced a large population of highly educated and ambitious young women in Kashmir. In addition to the increased access to education, there are also a number of government-sponsored programs available to women to help get them started in their respective businesses; these programs often provide funding that women need when they do not already have capital or connections to businesses that receive funding. Many of the markets that were previously inaccessible to women in Kashmir are now available due to increased access to the internet. Additionally, the process of women becoming entrepreneurs has become more culturally accepted and socially supported, but it is still developing. Women are involved in many different areas of work like food production, beauty and personal care, tech, education/tutoring, travel/hotel, and perhaps the most obvious is handicrafts and clothing design/production. Not only do women have a presence in these fields but quite a few also engage in creative, export-driven, and job producing business practices.

The Women’s Clothing Industry

The clothing and fashion industry in the Kashmir region is one of the sectors in which Kashmiri women are making their mark and has significant symbolic and emotional value. The textile heritage of Kashmir is amongst the finest in the world with Pashmina, Kani weaves, Sozni embroidery, Phiran (hand-stitched) and Tilla (intricately worked) as examples. These textiles are not just products but represent the identity and cultural history of Kashmir as well as the skills of (mostly) women passed down through generations.

For most of the commercial history of Kashmir the textiles have been traded by men but were crafted by women who created the economic value in these textiles. A growing number of Kashmiri women are now beginning to reclaim the entire clothing industry by designing the clothes, sourcing materials, managing export and creating the brand, resulting in the emergence of a number of new Kashmiri women-owned clothing companies that are equally grounded in culture and have the same high-level business acumen.

Digital Platforms and the New Marketplace

Women entrepreneurs have embraced social media platforms to drive sales to their apparel businesses in Srinagar. Many of these entrepreneurs use Instagram as not only an online store, but also as a tool for sharing their stories and reaching buyers in Mumbai, Delhi, the Gulf countries, Europe, and North America without needing to have a physical location. Entrepreneurs consistently create short videos documenting the process of creating their clothing (such as the dye process of yarns, the movement of a weaver’s hands, and the fine details of an embroiderer’s needle) to transform the creation of their products into engaging content that builds trust and loyalty with their customers. For many women entrepreneurs who don’t have the financial resources to invest in traditional brick-and-mortar retail locations, the creation of a digital space to promote their products has been revolutionary. Designers, who work from home, are filling hundreds of orders each month from customers in different states and countries. Women who had previously been unable to profit from their skills in creating items now are running small independent businesses and employing other women in their communities. In this situation, smartphones serve as both marketplaces and amplifiers.

There are still many barriers to overcome. Access to formal credit remains a significant barrier with many women citing challenges they experience when trying to secure loans without the support of a male co-signer or adequate collateral. Shipment of goods continues to be a chronic problem due to geography and logistics cost, especially in the winter months. In addition, although social attitudes are changing, women entrepreneurs will still have to deal with scepticism from suppliers, customers, and others, including their families, in regard to their ability and authority as business owners.

However, institutions have started to take note and respond. The Women’s Entrepreneurship Platform, J&K Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), and some district entities have developed mentorship, training, and incubation programs targeted at women in creative industries. Increasingly, national trade fairs are reserving booth space for women designers based in the valley. There is also a developing community of women entrepreneurs in Srinagar who are creating peer support, shared learning, and collective advocacy, which was non-existent 10 years ago.

Shaguftawani709@gmail.com