Producers

Tie-Dye Expert, Manushi

“She hopes one day to become a Dye Master!”

Kabita Gurung is now 31 years old and has been working at Manushi since its founding in 1991, when she was only 16 years old.  She comes from a family with 2 younger sisters and one younger brother from the Eastern part of Nepal.  At age 6, she was moved to Kathmandu to live with her aging grandmother and help with the housework.  She attended school until Grande 10 and learned to read and write. 

In 1991, Manushi offered a 15-day training on basic tie-dye skills, and 12 people attended including Kabita Gurung.  Following this, she started to work full-time for Manushi mainly tying fabric but slowly she learned to stitch and make patterns.  At the beginning they had many problems with quality of colors which often would fade or run on the fabric.  They got help from a master from India who would do the dying using synthetic colors.  For the past 10 years, Manushi has been using also natural dyes which was requested by its main buyers in Japan.  Kabita has learned to dye fabric using natural colors and is now in charge of 20 workers in her unit.  She trains and supervises their work to ensure high quality tie-dyed fabric is produced. 

They now use synthetic colors mainly for buyers in Europe who want bright colors, and use the natural dyes for their Japanese, Korean and Italian customers.  When she started, Kabita used to make 600 NRs per month but now she has a net income of 5 300 NRs. On top of this, 10% of her wages is put in a provident fund, and Manushi also contributes the same amount.  She also benefits from a festival allowance equal to one month ½ of her salary, plus health insurance and transportation allowance. She feels lucky to have full-time work and good benefits with Manushi and hopes one day to become a Dye Master.