Tehri’s daughter Abhilasha Bahuguna’s fame in Ladakh

GUNANAND JAKHMOLA

Abhilasha Bahuguna of Sabli village in Tehri has become the identity of Ladakh. Abhilasha has given a new world class identity to Pashmina in Ladakh. Abhilasha founded Loom of Ladakh. She honed the skills of the rural women of frontier Ladakh and directly linked them to fashion. The pashmina wool for which those villagers used to get only a few hundred rupees, in return for that, due to the efforts of Abhilasha, a shawl of these villagers is sold for ten thousand only.

Abhilasha had come to Dehradun recently. During this, I and my fellow journalist Awadhesh Nautiyal interviewed him. Abhilasha, a student of Brightland School, Dehradun, did her Economics Honors from Chandigarh and then did her post graduation in Economics from Netherlands. In 2011, patriotism pulled her back to India. After this she did PhD from Tata Institute of Social Science.

She says that she was fascinated by the mountains since childhood. So did a basic course in mountaineering from NIM ( National Institute for Mountaineering). But could not become a climber. She wanted to do something for the mountains. She got this opportunity in Ladakh. Her husband Mr. Prasanna is the deputy collector there. One day when she was visiting Chumur village in the frontier village, the women there showed her handmade woolen products. She had a problem with the market.

Just from here, Abhilasha’s plan for the upliftment of rural women took hold. In 2017, she founded Looms of Ladakh and started skilling rural women.

When commissioned officers and businessmen saw their efforts as a threat to themselves, these women faced many difficulties. But the women were determined. Desire gave strength to these women.

In 2019, by organizing a fashion show of Pashmina products in Times Square in New York, the women of Ladakh and its products got world-class fame.

According to Abhilasha, she wants rural women to be empowered. For this they were trained in skill development and weaving techniques.

Today 400 women from 20 villages have joined their cooperative. She is also launching the Perek brand which will provide clothes in woollens as well as cotton.

She says that she wants to do branding of the products here on the lines of Amul. Their efforts are paying off and Pashmina is getting market and new identity.

She wants that women in the border villages of Niti-Mana and Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand should be linked to self-employment in the same way. She is ready to help the women of Uttarakhand in this project.

Abhilasha has a big vision for the women of Ladakh.

I wish, if Uttarakhand had found a hardworking woman on the lines of Abhilasha, then the picture and fate of the rural women would have improved.
By Gunanand Jakhmola