If a person has the zeal to do something, then he can achieve a lot on his own without any help. There must be passion in him. The story of some such courage and passion is that of Ruma Devi. Ruma Devi, a resident of Barmer, is not very educated, but on the basis of her skills, she has traveled abroad. Ruma Devi, who started with crewel work, has worked with big designers. She has been honored with “Nari Shakti Puraskar 2018”, India’s biggest award for women.
Ruma Devi
Childhood life
Ruma Devi’s childhood life was full of struggle. She was born in 1989 in the Kumawat family. She was born in the small village Rawatsar in Barmer of Rajasthan. At the age of four, the shadow of his mother rose from above him. The family members taught like this till the eighth grade. At the same time, Ruma Devi had learned the work of embroidery from her grandmother. She had become very expert in this work, but she did not know that this work would one day make her famous all over the world.
Like most girls, she was married off after leaving school. Then, she was about 17 years old. Even in her in-laws’ house, her life was full of struggle. There was always a financial crunch in the in-laws’ house. And due to not having the proper financial condition, the pregnancy could not be treated properly. Due to which her first child died leaving his mother after just two days. Ruma Devi was shocked by this. Then she decided to do something on his own.
Ruma Devi’s success begins
In childhood, she had learned the work of embroidery from her grandmother, from that Ruma started work. For this, Ruma first formed a self-help group called Deep-Deval in 2006. For this, Ruma Devi hired 10 women of her village in self-help work of Rs 100. However, neither the in-laws of Ruma nor the in-laws of other women were agreeable to this work. Somehow they started this work. This brought some income to her family. Then, after that, she saved and bought an old sewing machine. Her work increased after the arrival of the sewing machine. Then, she started sewing small bags or cushion covers for the local traders there.
In order to take their work further, Ruma and other women joined an NGO Rural Development, and Chetna Sansthan in Barmer in 2008. There she started working for this organization. And from here the success of Ruma Devi started. That institute helped him a lot. Also, that institute provided raw materials to the artisans in the institution and started sending the products made from them to different areas of the country. They started sending that embroidered product directly to the exhibition to be held in various metro cities of the country. Here Ruma Devi and other women got success as well as got a lot of money.
Ruma Devi Become the president of Sansthan
In 2010, Ruma Devi started working as the President of Rural Development and Chetna Sansthan. More than 22 thousand women were working in this institute. As president, Ruma Devi greatly benefited 22 thousand women. She established his center in village to village of Barmer district and got the following works done.
- Community Mobilization
- Skill Development Training
- Design Development Training
- Tailoring Training
- Financial Literacy
- Participation in Craft Exhibitions in India and abroad
- Formation of Self Helps Groups
- To provide benefits of government schemes to artisans by preparing artisan identity cards
- Connecting groups with marketing activities
- To promote art through fashion shows.
In addition, in 2010 itself, she organized her first performance at Rafi Marg in Delhi, which was very successful.
Ruma’s great work
Ruma has also done fashion shows at many places in the country. Her first fashion show was in Rajasthan Heritage Week 2016. In this way, Ruma Devi is giving recognition to the art of her Rajasthan not only in the country but also abroad. Today Ruma Devi is known as a social activist and fashion designer.
On the basis of this skill, Ruma Devi joined as a speaker in the conference held at Harvard University, USA last year. In the two-day India Conference held in America, Ruma Devi arrived with her Rajasthani costume. She greeted there in Marwari. All this shows her love for the culture of the country. She shared her life struggles there and give a lecture on women empowerment and effective leadership. She also spoke about self-employment opportunities for women in India. There Ruma Devi also explained the nuances of the art of embroidery to the students of Harvard University.
Ruma Devi is a great example of women’s empowerment. If a woman has talent, she can touch every height of success. She is ideal for every woman who is unable to do her work in her home or in-laws under the pressure of family members. They should learn from the story of Ruma Devi that she can do a lot on her own. Ruma Devi has also made India proud in a country like America on the strength of her talent. If even half of India’s population has the courage of women like Ruma Devi, then our country can make everything possible in the world. She is a legend of India.
The achievement that Ruma Devi achieved.
- Received the honor by the Women on Wings Netherlands 2016.
- Shilpa Abhimanyu Award for promotion of handicrafts by the Government of Sri Lanka.
- She also honored in Germany and Singapore fair for promotion of handcrafted products of 2017.
- Awarded for exemplary work in handicrafts sector 2018 by the Handicrafts Export Promotion Council, Ministry of Textiles, India.
- Nari Shakti Puraskar (2018) by the President
- Honored by the prestigious “India Today Magazine” as the face of its cover page for the 2018 anniversary edition.
- She aslo shared stage with Amitabh Bachchan and Sonakshi Sinha in Kon Banega Crorepati show (20 September 2019).
- Awarded as the 51 Most Influential Innovators 2019 by the World CSR Congress.
- Invited by Harvard University, Boston, U.S. as a panelist at its 17th All India Conference (15-16 February 2020).
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