THE TEN PRINCIPLES OF FAIR TRADE

Name – Vinita Thapa
Marital Status – Unmarried
Vinita Thapa is a young girl from the far flung hills of Darjeeling in West Bengal. She is single and has studied up to the 8th grade in her native village. She arrived in Delhi hoping to find a good job, but was distressed at the treatment she received due to her young age and also faced racism at certain points. With no special skills and work experience, no one was willing to give her an opportunity to prove her worth in the society. Life was a bundle of disappointments for her. Living life was becoming a burden when she came to Usha Exim asking for a job.

Usha Exim introduced her to Fair Trade by providing her training at its production facility and now she is preparing components for stitching bags. She earns enough to take care of her family and is very pleased with the cordial relationship, clean environment and equal treatment meted out to workers.

Name – Mohd. Mumtaz
Marital Status – Married
Mohd. Mumtaz is a native of Bihar. His preliminary education is at a Madrasa (Muslim school of education). He went to a school after that but as he was quite old as compared to other students of the same standard, he felt ashamed and left studies and went to Kolkata. There he started working as a helper. He is married and has three children one daughter and two sons.

He joined Usha in 2007. He was not trained in bag making. He learnt all bag related features at Usha and was trained under different Masters. His creativity and learning capability made him to excel in the field such that he is heading his own group now.

Name – Veena
Marital Status – Married
Veena is a 35 years old leather artisan from Uttrakhand. She has six sisters and a brother. Father, now retired, was in a private job. She studied till IX standard. She wanted to pursue her study but being from a poor family and having six sisters, she was forced to get married approx. at the age 16 or 17. She has two children, one boy in class XI and Girl in IV standard. She was a house maker for quite some time. Three years before her husband got bed ridden because of some disease, she was left with no option but to work, to run her family and to continue the education of her children.

She had no working experience and was not educated enough. She felt miserable and thought maybe she could have studied. Now she does not want her children to have the same fate so she wants both of them to be well educated and she does not want her daughter to get married till she stands on her feet.

She took few jobs here and there but she faced payment problems or sometimes atmosphere was not good. Above all she had no experience. Somehow she joined the group who is working with Usha. Here she was trained to make different parts of the bag. Slowly and steadily she learnt different processes of bag making. Now she is great at almost everything.

She is happy now. She gets her payment on time. She even gets advance payment if she needs it. Her voice is heard and we are there to understand her vows.

Upon asking what do you think about your future goal. She says,”My future is my children and my goal is now that my children should be well educated and both of them should get good jobs.”

Name – Qurban Ali
Marital Status – Married
Qurban Ali is the Master Artisan at Village Karonda in District Gautam Budh Nagar of Uttar Pradesh. He leads a small family workshop consisting of six women and three men team of producer group. The Jewelry Manufacturing Group lead by Qurban Ali has been functioning since last 5 years. The artisans confirmed that Fair Trade has revolutionized their lives with living wages paid on time, clean work environments and more resources to send their younger ones to education. Their only plea is to increase volumes of work orders so that their group can expand exponentially so that their neighbours could also benefit from the fruit of Fair Trade.