Jewelry Training and the Role of Women in India

Melissa Tyson is helping us set up the Destiny Jewelry program training program, but as an expecting mother she can't travel to India. So one of the first things we needed to do to set up our new jewelry program was to find a good trainer. Since the new program is in India, it would seem to make sense that we should try to find someone in India. After all, why pay someone's expenses to fly back and forth from the US, someone who most likely does not speech the local language, and who does not know the local markets and resources? It would make a lot more sense to find a trainer in India right?

In a perfect world, that would be the best solution. Nonetheless, we are about to send over a trainer from the US. I hope someday we can find a good trainer in India, but finding the right person in India is not going to be easy. In India, skilled trades like metal smithing, are considered men's work, and the skills are passed down through families and most of these men have no interest in training a bunch of women. Sometimes, trades are limited to people of a specific caste.

India is making a lot of progress improving the role and rights of women in society. We all know or see many skilled women doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals that come from India, and India has had women in the highest levels of government.  The Constitution of India guarantees equality to all Indian women, no discrimination by the State , equality of opportunity , and equal pay for equal work (We don’t even have all those protections in the US!).

However, most of that progress made by Indian women seems to in the middle and upper class, and it has just plain not trickled down to the poor and working class parts of Indian society.

As a Westerner raised in the 70's by a radical feminist mother, it seems pretty odd to me to that something like being a jeweler would be restricted only to men. But when you look through the eyes of India, it is easier to understand. Having a trade like jewelry, block printing, carpentry, etc., guarantees that even in the poorest areas, you have something that can help you survive. In poor India, the survival of your daughters depends on the family they marry into, and if you have a trade you are more likely to find your daughter a better family. For your sons, by teaching them the trade you are literally teaching them how to survive.

When your trade is your means of survival - why would you want to go around teaching it to others outside your family?

The core of what we do, involves teaching the survivors the higher level trades. This puts us right in the middle of India's own path towards modernizing the role of women in society. So instead of trying to find a trainer in India who is willing to teach women, and who has the sensitivity and social work skill to work with survivors of sex-trafficking, we are taking the easier path and sending over Western women trainers for now.

So I would like to introduce you to our lead trainer for the Destiny Jewelry program, Dianna Badalament. She studied the classical techniques of metalworking at Jewelry Arts Institute in New York City and Revere Academy of the Jewelry Arts in San Francisco, worked at the Kristin Hanson Studio in Brooklyn, NY where she was a studio assistant and instructor, and now has her own collection.

Dianna has been working closely with the Melissa Tyson, who as I explained in a previous post, has created this jewelry program for us. We have to sort out some logistics and get her a visa, but as soon as that is done she will be heading to Calcutta to get the training started!