Pune: Eighteen transgender artisans are turning their craft into livelihood and offering a different outlook on life at the 19th Yellow Ribbon NGO fair in Pune. At their stall, palm-leaf baskets have been reimagined in wire, strips, and woven forms, while shards of coloured glass are cut, shaped, and pieced together into mosaics. Family rejection, discrimination, and difficulty finding housing and the barriers to finding formal employment have shaped their lives, but haven’t defined them.The artisans are part of PeriFerry Foundation all over India and at this fair organised between Oct 1 and 5 at Creaticity, Yerawada, they are displaying bags, baskets, coasters, keychains, mosaic artworks and decorative frames made by them.At PeriFerry’s Pune workshop, in-house teams of experienced artisans and workers teach and help newer members learn the techniques. Among them are two transgender women who have taken on leadership roles, with one overseeing the artisan team and another who is an artisan and in charge of quality control.“One of the craft traditions is kudai, a form of basketry associated with Tamil Nadu. Traditionally, women made these baskets by weaving and shaping palm leaves into containers used for everyday purposes. As materials and consumer preferences changed, the craft evolved, with contemporary makers experimenting with wire and other materials while retaining the basic woven structure and forms,” said Neelam Jain, founder of the NGO.Artisans use the traditional idea as a starting point for bags and baskets that have a more contemporary finish.“The other major craft is mosaic. Small pieces of glass are cut and shaped before being assembled into patterns, images and decorative works. The practice draws on traditions found across Europe and the Middle East, where mosaic has been used for centuries in architecture and art. At the workshop, the painstaking process can take a day or more for more intricate pieces,” said Jain.Artisans are paid a monthly salary rather than being dependent on individual sales. “We don’t think livelihood should depend on whether something sells that month,” Jain said. Accommodation and basic food are also provided, an important consideration for workers who can struggle to find housing.“The people who join us are those who genuinely need a job, whether because they are not accepted by their families or because of the other challenges transgender people face. We identify where they need support and train them in-house,” said Jain.For the 18 transgender artisans this is not just a skill or steady income but perhaps most importantly, a measure of independence.
