Deepanshu Mishra

“We women enjoy doing it (embroidery) a lot. It helps us utilize our free time and brings money. We often go shopping with the money we earn from doing chikankari,” says Ashma, sitting on an old loosely-strung jute cot in the courtyard of her house as she expertly guides a needle through the chiffon kurta she is working on embroidering a peacock.

Ashma, 34, is one of the many chikan karigars of Lucknow, women who are conserving their craft and also augmenting family incomes. She lives with her husband and children in the Sonava village of Bakshi Ka Talab block of Lucknow. She makes about Rs 3,000 per month.

Chikan is a type of embroidery done with cotton thread on fabric — mostly soft like muslin, chiffon or cotton — in light or pastel shades. Also known as chikankari, it is the traditional embroidery of Lucknow. Encouraged by the nawabs who loved wearing diaphanous muslin, generally white, embroidered with intricate chikankari to beat the oppressive heat and humidity of the region.

Now, the embroidery is made in various vibrant colours and is in huge demand among the fashion-conscious around the world. Like Ashma, there are many women artisans for whom this traditional embroidery is a passport to self-empowerment.

“Now, we can buy groceries from the money we earn. Sometimes, I buy new dresses for my kids with my own money,” says 25-year-old Naaziya.

For these women, who generally belong to conservative families in old Lucknow, the best part of being chikan karigars is that they can earn without leaving home.

Lucknow is known as the hub of chikan clothes. Chowk market in old Lucknow has numerous retailers and wholesalers of chikankari kurtas, sarees, dupattas and other apparel. They give bulk orders to people in villages for stitching, embroidery, washing and dyeing the clothes. Over 80% of the work of the chikan industry is done in the villages and 90% of the workers are women.

“Shopkeepers give me the clothes which I get stitched from a tailoring unit and take them to the women for embroidery. After the chikankari is done, we collect the clothes back from them after paying them,” says Raheesh Ali, who brings orders from the city.

He has been in the business for 20 years and makes about Rs 12,000 per month. “I pay the women according to their work. They are given Rs 100 for light embroidery and double that for heavier pieces,” he says through pan-stained teeth.

Women from almost every house in the area are involved in this work. They understand the value of self-employment and are happy to share the responsibilities of running the homes with their men.

“Sometimes, when men of the house run out of money, we have ours to offer them. Unlike earlier days, we do not depend on them to fulfil even our smallest desires. If this is not a wind of change, what is?” asks Naziya, as she finishes yet another kurta.