Artisans Around Us: Md Khurshid Ansari

“You got to pack anything, whenever you make a sale and that is an opportunity”: Khurshid Ansari

Md. Khurshid Ansari is a craftsman of Jute & Cotton working as a trainer in a production unit at Rishra close to Hooghly, in West Bengal. His organization is a part of the Bharatiya Mahila Sangathan since thirty years. Nine years into this organization as a craftsman, Mr. Khurshid has gained a great deal of recognition worldwide. Mr. Khurshid is not only a great artisan himself but also contributes to the society as a trainer at the Aditya Birla Institute. He has received many awards for his contribution to the society including Aditya Birla Jan Seva Trust for two years.

His organization deals with jute & cotton bags, canvas & Tisco bags. They make workplace  lunch boxes (which is their best-selling product). Apart from this they supply gunny bags to Supermarkets/malls. In the initial days, he struggled a lot to form his team, which comprises mostly women. However after months of training, the team is well settled and delivering well. The supply chain for the products  involve procuring the jute and cotton directly from the mills  through an agent. The raw materials are  bought as per the frequency of orders and it is converted into finished good in an impressive line-up of the  twenty-five (25) machines for  Jute  products  and  twelve (12) machines for Cotton products. 

He definitely wants his products to go global through online channel, however due to very high packaging and shipping cost, he is unable to do so. This is limiting the sale of the products just to exhibitions and small shops/retail outlets. As asked by our team regarding how the Jute and Cotton bags will be reach globally, he quoted “you got to pack anything whenever you make a sale and that is an opportunity that strikes us”. As there's slowly a ban of synthetic resin packaging, the demand of jute and cotton bags has seen an increase. He has seen that the craze for such eco-friendly products is increasing both in  Asia and Europe. Traveling within the country with these merchandise to various exhibitions, Melas, International Trade Fairs, noted exhibitions in cities. He has gained heaps of expertise regarding client preferences and also understanding the dynamical demands. Apart from these, he has tied up with a chain of providers in Odisha, which has a good uptake on Jute products (as it’s a Temple State and jute is considered to be a lucky material as per Mr. Khurshid).

Through this story he wants to reach out to individuals who support buying eco-friendly products /merchandises and also make us aware of the impact he and his organization is creating in generating livelihoods in his locality.

(Interviewed by Neha Dash, KSOM 2nd year Student during her internship with EnigmaticIndia. Photos have been provided by Mr Khurshid)