These Gujarat women's monthly earnings are more than their family's annual income
, TNN|
Updated: Jan 07, 2018, 12.12 PM IST
Five km off the NH-27 from Santalpur in Patan lies the village of Bakutra. In the arid village, bordering the Little Rann of Kutch, is Gauriben Brahman's house, which draws visitors from across the world who want to experience life in rural Gujarat.
Listed on bed-and-breakfast aggregator Airbnb, Gauriben's thatched-roof house has three rooms with cots covered with hand-embroidered sheets. The Indian-style bathroom has a toilet roll hanging from rope. There is no running water, but women come running with a bucketful when needed.
While Gauriben's family earns Rs 45,000 a year harvesting two crops, she earned Rs 55,000 in December alone. That was the highest; on average, she has been making Rs 30,000 a month since she listed her house on Airbnb in June. With business rising, Gauriben says she is confident her three sons will not have to go looking for petty jobs. She convinced her sister to sign up who also made Rs 45,000 last month.
Their entrepreneurial success is part of the 'Hum Sab Ek Hain' experiment initiated by Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa) with Airbnb in 2017.
'Rajasthan, Assam, J&K among next targets'
The initiative started with nine listings on the bed-and-breakfast aggregator Airbnb, and has grown to 50 houses in Gujarat's Patan, Mehsana, Chhota Udepur, Surendranagar and Aravalli.
"It was an attempt to explore new earning options for rural women," said Reema Nanavati, head of Sewa. "While expansion is on the cards in Gujarat, we are set to take the collaboration to Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Sikkim, and Nagaland in line with our pan-India agreement with Airbnb."
In Mehsana, Mayaben, 40, is ecstatic that she earned Rs 80,000 last month. "Business is pouring in and I rented a neighbour's house to host groups," said Maya, who struggled to pay her two children's school fees till early last year, "The initiative has changed our lives."
Gauriben is an earnest host, welcoming guests with the traditional vermilion-rice tika. "Over the months, I have picked up a few necessary words in English," she said, "My daughters-in-law and I have learnt to make shak (subzi) with less oil and chilli." Some tourists were keen to learn to pat rotlas, others wanted embroidery lessons. Guests are also offered a taste of 'nightlife' as they are encouraged to shake a leg to traditional raas-garba tunes.
Tejas Raval, Sewa's IT manager, said that initially tech-savvy women were appointed hosts in each of the homes till the homeowners learnt to take bookings and answer queries. "We have also developed a training module to empower women to manage the platform themselves," Raval said.
The guests bear with certain inconveniences happily. "We wished to experience the real India," said Arjen, who is travelling across India with his wife, "A homestay in a village where we were served home-cooked food in a setting of limited luxury opened our minds to the lives of millions of Indians."
William came to Bakutra with a group of engineers from Australia. They built a chimney using an aluminium tub and PVC pipe to suck out fumes from Gauriben's kitchen. "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would learn so much about India through your hospitality," William has written in his message to Gauriben.
Listed on bed-and-breakfast aggregator Airbnb, Gauriben's thatched-roof house has three rooms with cots covered with hand-embroidered sheets. The Indian-style bathroom has a toilet roll hanging from rope. There is no running water, but women come running with a bucketful when needed.
While Gauriben's family earns Rs 45,000 a year harvesting two crops, she earned Rs 55,000 in December alone. That was the highest; on average, she has been making Rs 30,000 a month since she listed her house on Airbnb in June. With business rising, Gauriben says she is confident her three sons will not have to go looking for petty jobs. She convinced her sister to sign up who also made Rs 45,000 last month.
Their entrepreneurial success is part of the 'Hum Sab Ek Hain' experiment initiated by Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa) with Airbnb in 2017.
'Rajasthan, Assam, J&K among next targets'
The initiative started with nine listings on the bed-and-breakfast aggregator Airbnb, and has grown to 50 houses in Gujarat's Patan, Mehsana, Chhota Udepur, Surendranagar and Aravalli.
"It was an attempt to explore new earning options for rural women," said Reema Nanavati, head of Sewa. "While expansion is on the cards in Gujarat, we are set to take the collaboration to Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Sikkim, and Nagaland in line with our pan-India agreement with Airbnb."
In Mehsana, Mayaben, 40, is ecstatic that she earned Rs 80,000 last month. "Business is pouring in and I rented a neighbour's house to host groups," said Maya, who struggled to pay her two children's school fees till early last year, "The initiative has changed our lives."
Gauriben is an earnest host, welcoming guests with the traditional vermilion-rice tika. "Over the months, I have picked up a few necessary words in English," she said, "My daughters-in-law and I have learnt to make shak (subzi) with less oil and chilli." Some tourists were keen to learn to pat rotlas, others wanted embroidery lessons. Guests are also offered a taste of 'nightlife' as they are encouraged to shake a leg to traditional raas-garba tunes.
Tejas Raval, Sewa's IT manager, said that initially tech-savvy women were appointed hosts in each of the homes till the homeowners learnt to take bookings and answer queries. "We have also developed a training module to empower women to manage the platform themselves," Raval said.
The guests bear with certain inconveniences happily. "We wished to experience the real India," said Arjen, who is travelling across India with his wife, "A homestay in a village where we were served home-cooked food in a setting of limited luxury opened our minds to the lives of millions of Indians."
William came to Bakutra with a group of engineers from Australia. They built a chimney using an aluminium tub and PVC pipe to suck out fumes from Gauriben's kitchen. "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would learn so much about India through your hospitality," William has written in his message to Gauriben.
(This article was originally published in The Times of India)
