KOLKATA- On Feb.3, Ankur Kala celebrated its silver jubilee at Bishop's College. The spacious, beautiful lawn was artistically decorated with bandhni and batik work, which was very colourful and unique. Variousposters on different issues were well displayed. These posters were based on issues like enviroment, education, values and ethies in today's society and women's empowement. One of the posters said that Honesty is the best Policy-Ankur Kala never compromised during the lats 25 years and we have succeed! A caltural programme was organised by the women of Ankur Kala along with their networking groups to celebrate the occasion.
The opening devotional song and dance was led by Mrs. Geeta Rodrigues. The founder of Ankur Kala, Mrs. Annie Joseph spoke in English and in Bengali. She shared about her early struggles in wanting to empower single and destitute women through various skills, education and marketing. Mrs. Joseph said that clear vision, integrity and hard work made it possible for Ankur Kala to grow from strength to strength. She emphasised that spirituality played a very important role in Ankur Kala where the women were encouraged to love and to serve others apart from learning and earning for oneself. This was followed by various songs and empowerment dance led by Sohini Chakraborty's group SANVED.
The mentally challenged boys and girls of Asha Niketan performed an excellent drama based on Targore's Jutn Abishkar. A few Ankur Kala women shared their experiencs of what Ankur Kala meant to them. Ansari Begum who came from a very conservative Muslim family spoke about how after the training at Ankur Kala she is now the supervisor in a Boutique in Jadavpur where they manufacture exquisite batik products. Prithi Roy from Lakshmikantapur - an ordinary village girl, spoke about how she become empowered after meeting other women from Ankur Kala. After her vegetable dye and machine embroidery training she is now training the younger girls who have been rescued from trafficking in her village.
Shibani Bagh in her talk mentioned that she help the new trainees in batik at Ankur Kala and also explained about the objective of Ankur Kala to the numerous visitors who visit Ankur Kala. Anjana Roy,proudly spoke about her experieces of how she had joined the canteen department in the early years and after her training in marketing and accounts she is now handling the accounts in Ankur Kala, helping to make the bills, vouchers, weekly budget and is also one of the resource persons in the basic busuness management syllabus which Ankur Kala continues to give to various grass root organizations all over West Bengal. This was followed by the theme song of Ankur Kala, which emphasized the need to empower women. Mr.Joydeb Sen composed the lyrics.
The programme ended with refreshments for almost 800 friends and well-wishers who had gathered; among them were friends and well wishers from Europe and USA. The atmosphere was that of a happy and spirit-filled carnival!