Substitution effect: Handmade jewellery offers entrepreneurial opportunity for women
Supplementing their families’ incomes, many help raise their standard of living.
FAISALABAD:
With gold prices soaring, demand for precious metal jewellery has declined precipitously and opened up an entrepreneurial opportunity for enterprising women in Central Punjab: handmade jewellery.
Muneer Ahmed, an expert at handmade jewellery, is training dozens of women in making ornaments, helping them earn a living in a profession where they can do the bulk of their work from home.
With the prices of precious metals and stones soaring – and more middle class women working outside their homes – the demand for affordable jewellery has risen. Much of that demand has been filled by professional jewellers selling artificial jewellery, but some of it – particularly the lower end of the demand – is being met by handmade jewellery.
“We are selling this jewellery in different cities all across Pakistan,” said Ahmed.
Most of the buyers are from the lower middle class, or female students. Mahnaz Khan, a college student in Faisalabad, said that she finds handmade jewellery the most affordable.
Ahmed’s business model is relatively simple: he provides a one-month training course for free and provides his students, the vast majority of whom are young women, with the materials they would need to get started. Then he buys their product from them and sells it on for a profit.
The women use simple and cheap materials, which they then mould into different shapes using hand-cutters and wooden sticks. Artificial gemstones and beads are then inserted into the material.
Ahmed told The Express Tribune that the average price of a necklace made by his students was between Rs200 and Rs500. Many of the women who make the jewellery say they make up to three necklaces a day.
Most women, he says, enjoy the convenience of being able to work from home and earn a living. As a result, he says, they charge less money than most male workers.
Mumtaz, a jewellery maker in Faisalabad, narrates how she got into the business. “I liked to wear jewellery that matches the colours of my clothes but I could not afford to buy so much jewellery. So I decided to learn this art and make some money.”
Taniya Mahmood, another handmade worker from the rural areas around Faisalabad said that she can earn an average of about Rs6,000 per month.
Some women can even earn more than their working-class husbands through this trade. Fahmida Noor, for instance, says that her husband works at a factory where he makes Rs7,200 a month, the minimum wage. She and her two daughters, however, have started making jewellery together, producing an average of about five sets a day and earning their family about Rs10,000 per month.
Her entrepreneurial drive, and that of her daughters, has helped the family raise its living standards. “We can purchase clothes, shoes and can afford other amenities of life,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2011.
With gold prices soaring, demand for precious metal jewellery has declined precipitously and opened up an entrepreneurial opportunity for enterprising women in Central Punjab: handmade jewellery.
Muneer Ahmed, an expert at handmade jewellery, is training dozens of women in making ornaments, helping them earn a living in a profession where they can do the bulk of their work from home.
With the prices of precious metals and stones soaring – and more middle class women working outside their homes – the demand for affordable jewellery has risen. Much of that demand has been filled by professional jewellers selling artificial jewellery, but some of it – particularly the lower end of the demand – is being met by handmade jewellery.
“We are selling this jewellery in different cities all across Pakistan,” said Ahmed.
Most of the buyers are from the lower middle class, or female students. Mahnaz Khan, a college student in Faisalabad, said that she finds handmade jewellery the most affordable.
Ahmed’s business model is relatively simple: he provides a one-month training course for free and provides his students, the vast majority of whom are young women, with the materials they would need to get started. Then he buys their product from them and sells it on for a profit.
The women use simple and cheap materials, which they then mould into different shapes using hand-cutters and wooden sticks. Artificial gemstones and beads are then inserted into the material.
Ahmed told The Express Tribune that the average price of a necklace made by his students was between Rs200 and Rs500. Many of the women who make the jewellery say they make up to three necklaces a day.
Most women, he says, enjoy the convenience of being able to work from home and earn a living. As a result, he says, they charge less money than most male workers.
Mumtaz, a jewellery maker in Faisalabad, narrates how she got into the business. “I liked to wear jewellery that matches the colours of my clothes but I could not afford to buy so much jewellery. So I decided to learn this art and make some money.”
Taniya Mahmood, another handmade worker from the rural areas around Faisalabad said that she can earn an average of about Rs6,000 per month.
Some women can even earn more than their working-class husbands through this trade. Fahmida Noor, for instance, says that her husband works at a factory where he makes Rs7,200 a month, the minimum wage. She and her two daughters, however, have started making jewellery together, producing an average of about five sets a day and earning their family about Rs10,000 per month.
Her entrepreneurial drive, and that of her daughters, has helped the family raise its living standards. “We can purchase clothes, shoes and can afford other amenities of life,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2011.