1000 candles already sold – Rotary Mewar orders 500 candles worth Rs. 1.50 lakhs Rajasthan’s tribal belt has always been known for their culture and traditional art and this has been the reason for Hindustan Zinc to adopt a route of mutual craft exchange through making of perfumed candles by tribal women of Zawar, about 45 km from Udaipur, Rajasthan. The candle making workshop has been organized by Hindustan Zinc under their rural and tribal empowerment Project “Sakhi.

From slicing of raw wax into small pieces, boiling them at a desired temperature using induction stove, using colours and perfumes as per the shape and size of the candles and finally placing the wick(candle thread) and putting the hot wax into mould, everything has been done by these tribal women. These tribal women came up with the idea of putting Turmeric and curry leaves for the natural colours in the candles. They are learning and side-by-side making the final marketable candles. The project had it initially hic-ups as gathering these women, who live at distance, without proper transportation facility, was a challenge. “It was initially difficult to gather about 18 tribal women, who showed interest and participated in the candle making workshop, as their houses were located at a distance with problem of transportation”, said Shikha Bomb who is conducting Candle Making Workshop. To help these women commute to the Sakhi Training Centre at Zawar, Hindustan Zinc arranged for vehicles for their pic-up and drop, that solved their problem, said Shikha.

The candles made by these rural and tribal women is receiving a good response. 1000 candles have already been booked with pre-orders and is expected to getting better close to Diwali. “We initially made about 500 candles and they have already been booked. Now these women have already received confirmed order worth Rs. 1.50 lakhs from Rotary Mewar for purchasing 500 candles”, informed Pavan Kaushik, Head of Corporate Communication and Project “Sakhi”. Many members of Sakhi are already approaching to buy these candles in small and big quantity, he added. Hansraj Choudhary, Chairman Rotary Mewar Service Trust, who was the first one to place the order of 500 candles says, “ Rotary has always been supporting such initiatives and our members were quite excited to buy candles made under the “Sakhi” project of Hindustan Zinc.” Sakhi Pushpa, Santosh, Madhu, Anita, Gayatri, Sugna and many more, who are the beneficiaries of this project, are happy to learn this art. Sugna says “we are all enjoying and learning candle making and this is something new and exciting. We would be making candles for our homes also. The project also has provision of honorarium for all of us and this is a double bonanza. It is earning through learning.” The company has a strong focus towards empowerment of rural and tribal women in Rajasthan particularly in the districts where it has its business operations. Hindustan Zinc is developing various clusters like spice making, fashion garments, home-furnishing, uniform making, paper-craft, mats making, papad making and articles with jute under its project “Sakhi”. The projects are designed in such a way that the marketing and selling part of these products is confirmed. These products are either used within the company or confirmed orders are received from community, informed Pavan Kaushik.