Luxury heritage jewellery brand Sangeeta Boochra & Silver Centrre aids artisans in tough times

In an effort to help the second-largest workforce sector in India, the Master Craftsmen and Artisans, facilities have been allocated by brand Sangeeta Boochra & Silver Centrre to allow them to work from home during this difficult time due to the coronavirus outbreak. Covering a total of 25,000 Artisans across India, the company aims to provide them with hope and a bright future. This innovative programme was started by the brand & iconic company Sangeeta Boochra and Silver Centrre in 1998. Till today, it is the only initiative of its kind taken up by any jewellery company in India.

Sangeeta Boochra is a Veteran Designer of the nation and a Rajasthani Business Magnate. She produces more than 10,000 designs of precious metal jewellery studded with precious, semi-precious gemstones, handmade paintings and pearls every year. Silver Centrre was founded by ‘The Silver King of India’, Seth Kistoor Chand Boochra in 1897 as a Bullion Trading Company. It was only in 1960 when his visionary son Seth Lalit Kumar Boochra saw an opportunity and converted it into a Jewellery Manufacturing Company. The brand & company has 45 stores, 3 factories and design studios. Neeta Boochra – Director, Sangeeta Boochra – Director and Designer, Abhineet Boochra – Director, Divya Boochra – Director & Creative Head and Riteek Boochra – Chief Brand Officer. The brand has been loved by many royal families of the world, industrialists, politicians and celebrities.

From Her Highness Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II of England, Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, Royal Family of Patiala, Nizam of Hyderabad, Royal Family of Rajkot, Royal Family of Kota, Wadiyar Dynasty of Mysore, Royal Family of Baroda – the Gaekwad Dynasty, John F. Kennedy, President of United States to Hollywood celebrities Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Sofia Vergara, Monica Bellucci, Salma Hayek, Audrey Hepburn and Bollywood celebrities like Deepika Padukone, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Vidya Balan and Alia Bhatt, all have adorned the brands collections. It would be impossible to ARGUE that “Sangeeta Boochra“ is the most famous designer of Jewellery. Her strength is her ability to read the times and the moods that changed them – and usually do so before anyone else did. Director of the brand Abhineet Boochra states that during this difficult time due to Covid-19, the brand is helping the second most important sector, the Artisans and Master Craftsmen of India, by providing them work in their villages through the companies long-standing network of 400 clusters across all states and union territories in the country. This way, they are helping 25,000 artisans on the national level in the jewellery industry.
In 1998, Sangeeta Boochra along with her father-in-law Seth Lalit Kumar Boochra jointly started a programme known as the ‘Community Development Programme’ which turned out to be a boon for these Artisans and Master Craftsmen during this pandemic. “We are providing daily wage, work from home, medical help & aid, food and all other necessary requirements that are useful for their livelihoods. The brand’s ethics are so deep-rooted that we value the life of each and every employee and artisan of the company,” informed Abhineet Boochra. The company has made sure that no Artisan under their programme would sleep hungry or face any loss of work. We have even deployed additional teams to take care of this situation adhering to all government guidelines. “Our advantage is that we have built a network inside these villages and clusters of India over a period of 22 years and now the connectivity amongst our Artisans is very strong and we can easily facilitate services in remote locations as our nature of business calls for it,” said Abhineet Boochra.

The brand manufactures beautiful handcrafted jewellery which is inspired by the traditions and culture of India, hence these Artisans are the real strength of India and of the company as they are the ones who make it successful. “We are also preserving the dying form of the jewellery making art by helping these artisans so as to sustain this craft so that our forthcoming generations are able to see these beautiful pieces of art. Otherwise, in the future, these might only ever be seen in museums,” stated Abhineet Boochra.

Below are the details of our Community Development Programme which we have been continuously working on since 1998. 1. Unskilled Rural Poor are made jewellery artisans through community mobilization and skill training. 2. Training and livelihood sources are at their doorstep, fair wages, no exploitation, no child labour, no pollution and no harm to the society. 3. Social Development Support: Artisans and their communities are facilitated for better health, life skill education, sanitation and other social imperatives. Financing the marriage of at least 1 daughter of an Artisan. 4. Connecting artisans to world markets by taking them to all shows and exporting their products to different countries of the world. 5. We partner with Government, Civil Societies, NGO’s etc. 6. Employing Artisans who live in the most remote parts of India with little to no access to transport. The greatest challenge in their lives is commuting to work and back, often resulting in families that live far apart. One of the key differentiators of our model is an artisan’s ability to not only work from home, but have business travel to them. 7. A grassroots network that requires specialized logistical support is set up through which raw materials are dropped off at an artisan’s home from where they work on the product. To ensure customers receive high-quality products, quality supervisors inspect the production to help ensure a consistent output while tracking progress. These supervisors also ensure artisan service to ensure they are not interrupted by the shortage of raw bullion. When completed, the product is picked up at the Artisans’ doorstep and sent to the next stage of the jewellery making progress. 8. These networks stretch across 400 villages in India through an intense grassroots network to connect 25,000 artisans. 9. Sangeeta Boochra/Silver Centrre’s Artisans’ thus have the ability to work from home. 10. More women can work towards financial independence as they don’t have to navigate commute, especially in remote villages. 11. Artisans decide their own work hours – being able to work around their family’s schedules. 12. Artisans will lose no workdays in receiving and transporting material. 13. Traditional Indian communities do not give women the opportunity to work outside the home and thus Sangeeta Boochra/Silver Centrre’s model provides an easy solution to this.

Courtesy: outlookindia.com