Beautiful Eco Friendly Designer Jewellery from Natural Resources

A five day workshop is being conducted by a vivacious and charming lady from Assam, Neera Sarmah at the Forest Research Institute till 22nd June to teach jewellery making and bamboo handicrafts. The workshop gives the trainees skills that empower them to earn a decent livelihood for themselves with zero investment. This is so because the raw materials needed to make these beautiful jewellery and handicrafts are provided free of cost by Mother Earth.

The whole idea started when Neera observed a practical problem in her environment. The poor tribals in Assam who had no farmland would cut trees to sell as firewood to make a living. This angered and pained the nature loving Neera no end. But instead of just talking about the problem, this gutsy lady tried to find a solution. This nature lover took proactive action and started educating the tribals on the uses of bamboo. The beauty about bamboo is that it can grow in three years. Neera taught the tribals how to convert bamboo and other locally and abundantly available natural resources into beautiful and useful products that could fetch money. Her focus has always been to use locally and easily available material and reach the remotest of places and empower the rural and tribal population of India. She has travelled all over India in pursuit of her mission.

At the workshop we observed first hand waste material being converted into the most beautiful masterpieces. Seeds of various shapes and sizes lay strewn around. These were all from local trees found abundantly all over the state. Under the deft guidance of Neera and her helping hand, the trainees soon converted the seeds into beautiful jewellery. Many had travelled from far flung places in Uttaranchal to train at the workshop. Neera’s goal is to provide the economically deprived with an alternative means of livelihood with the dual objective of poverty alleviation and women empowerment.