Like any other southern district, people in Samtse are facing a shortage of tailors. With the border gates closed, the Bhutanese tailors have been failing to meet the demand for the service. Residents of Chengmari town in Norbugang Gewog, who once depended on tailors from across the borders were affected the most. However, with the formation of the Women’s Tailoring Group in Chengmari, things are expected to improve.
Earlier, the majority of Chengmari residents would simply visit the border town areas for all kinds of services related to tailoring. After the border gates were closed, residents had to rely on a handful of tailoring shops within the country.
But most Bhutanese tailoring shops either remain closed or are burdened with an increasing number of customers. The tailoring services have become poor and unreliable over the last few years.
These problems are however expected to resolve. The Norbugang Gewog administration with support from the district administration recently trained a few interested women and helped them establish a Women’s Tailoring Group in Chengmari.
“Earlier, we had to rely heavily on the Indian market for any small matters related to stitching. Whether it is a small tear on tego or gho, we had to go to border town as we don’t have many tailoring shops here. Now, with the establishment of our group, this will not only benefit the residents but help women like us too,” said Zomba Lhamo, a member of the women’s tailoring group.
“It became very difficult to avail the tailoring services in times of COVID. We have been relying heavily on the services from the tailoring shops in India. Now, with gates closed and limited shops here in our town, we are finding it very difficult to sew our children’s school dresses,” said Karma Lhamo, a member of the women’s tailoring group.
“Before, there were only one or two tailoring shops here. And due to the increasing number of orders, we had a tough time availing the tailoring services easily. It used to take a lot of time just for a minor stitch. That is why have shown our interest, got trained, and started this group,” said Yamuna Ghalley, another member.
Besides empowering women and promoting women’s entrepreneurship, the initiative is also expected to help instil the values of self-reliance amongst the people.
“It is not important whether we can do it or not, but what is more important is whether we have tried our best to do it. Likewise, I feel we can also do such work. For now, we only know to sew Gho and Kira. But we want to learn more and expand our bits of knowledge if we are provided with more of such opportunities,” added karma Lhamo.
“With the help of the district, we have been able to get ourselves trained and we have been working. What I have learned is that we can also do such work as Indians. I hope to learn a lot and pursue my career in tailoring henceforth,” said Yamuna Ghalley.
Currently, the women’s group consisting of four members is busy making school dresses for over a hundred students of various schools in the gewog.
Given the limited number of tailoring shops in Samtse, the dzongkhag administration helped the rural women undergo a two-month-long tailoring training in Phuentshogling last year.
Likewise, tailoring machines and equipment were all supported by the Dzongkhag administration.
Passang Dorji, Samtse
Edited by Sangay Chezom
