On September 28, in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in Kolkata, sarees woven in the villages of Murshidabad took their place at Femina & Grazia Fashion Runway East 2026. Among those watching was Adriza Manigram, known to everyone as Sweety.
She is a rural women entrepreneur (RWE) from Mirzapur, part of the community that produces the district’s GI-tagged Garad sarees. For her, the evening was about more than pride. It showed that the cloth her community has woven for generations could belong in a room usually reserved for established labels and celebrated designers.
“For us, the Fashion Show is a beginning, not the goal,” says Nahid Jubair Barbhuiya, Deputy Director at the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF). The sentence sums up the story and the ambition behind it.
A Journey That Almost Didn’t Happen
The path to that runway started in Ahmedabad. “It began with a social media marketing training organised by Creative Dignity in Ahmedabad,” Barbhuiya explains. DEF sent Priyanka Pramanik, a SoochnaPreneur Business Mitra (SBM) from West Bengal, along with artisans from Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Priyanka was pregnant at the time and couldn’t travel, so her husband, Subrata Manigram, went in her place.
“That trip turned out to matter,” Barbhuiya says. “It opened a line of contact with UNESCO, and that connection later brought the weavers of Murshidabad an invitation to take part in the FEMINA Fashion Show.”
A workshop in Gujarat ended up shaping the future of a weaving cluster in Bengal. Adriza Manigram is an active RWE in Priyanka’s cluster, and when the invitation came, the women had someone ready to carry their work forward.
The Cloth Behind the Moment
To understand why the runway mattered, you have to understand the craft. The Garad saree is among Bengal’s most recognisable weaving traditions, with its distinctive white body and red borders. Korial silk sarees are prized for their traditional designs and fine craftsmanship. Both are products of hours at the loom and techniques passed down through families.
Heritage, however, does not automatically pay the bills. Artisans in the cluster have long contended with changing consumer tastes, stiff competition, limited market access and the difficulty of reaching customers directly. Their cloth was celebrated, but it often stayed close to home.
On the Kolkata runway, the work of women from Mirzapur, Jiaganj, Gaganpur and Piyarapur entered a wider conversation about craft and contemporary fashion. Priyanka brought together products from artisans across the cluster, so that the audience saw the community’s collective skill rather than one maker’s work.
Building Skills, Not Just Visibility
The runway is the visible part of a longer effort. The women are part of the Udyamini programme, implemented by DEF, which is one of the partners.
The four-year initiative supports rural women entrepreneurs across five value chains (digital literacy, handloom, livestock, agriculture and allied industries, and tea) in 19 districts of West Bengal and Assam.
Through Udyamini, “the DEF team has been building the skills of SoochnaPreneur Business Mitra (SBMs) and RWEs, and the difference is visible,” says Barbhuiya.
He describes that difference plainly. “The weavers now promote their products online, speak directly with new buyers, and reach markets that once felt out of reach. Their customer base has grown, and so have their chances of earning more.”
The change goes beyond marketing. “RWEs are also taking charge of the everyday business side: keeping basic accounts online, marketing digitally, and accepting digital payments,” he adds. This is the less glamorous side of entrepreneurship, but it is what turns a craft into a business.
Priyanka has been the link between the cluster and these tools. She has trained artisans in digital literacy and online marketing and helped them promote and sell through online platforms. She is a local woman who understands both the loom and the smartphone, and the cluster’s confidence has grown with her.
Why It Matters
The idea behind it is simple. A saree woven in Mirzapur no longer has to wait for a buyer to find the village. A weaver with a phone, a little training and a good photograph can show her work to a customer in another city, answer that customer’s questions, and be paid on the spot.
The Kolkata evening showed that this shift is already underway, and that with the right skills, networks and tools, traditional rural crafts can find a place in contemporary markets.
From Moment to Momentum
DEF is clear about what comes next. Visibility is welcome, but the goal is a livelihood.
“We want to build a lasting, sustainable market for these women entrepreneurs, one built on regular orders, strong branding, digital commerce and direct links with buyers,” Barbhuiya says.
The work has already begun. DEF has set up a small pop-up centre at the Priyanka Pramanik (SBM) Centre, where Adriza Manigram and other RWEs from Mirzapur gather. “They share ideas and work together on promoting their products,” Barbhuiya says. In a village setting, it is part workshop, part showroom and part meeting place, where the women who weave the cloth also learn to sell it.
Beyond the pop-up, the foundation has already connected the entrepreneurs with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Digikargha and other digital marketplaces. “DEF is committed to creating more exhibition opportunities for them at the state and national levels,” Barbhuiya adds. Each of these opens another route to customers, so that the women are not dependent on any single event or buyer.
A Craft With a Future
The Kolkata runway worked because it was one visible step among many. Behind the lights were years of patient groundwork: a training workshop, a chance connection, a mentor in the village and a programme that treats digital skills as the means to a stronger business.
A fashion runway can introduce a craft to a new audience, and digital platforms can help keep that audience’s attention. The longer-term promise lies in turning that attention into regular customers, stronger enterprises and steadier incomes.
For Adriza Manigram, watching sarees from her own community in the spotlight in Kolkata was a glimpse of that future. For the women of Murshidabad, it was a reminder that tradition does not have to stay where it began.
With the right support, the skills of these weavers can travel much further, one saree, one entrepreneur and one new market at a time.
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