Her Journey from Country Liquor to Handicraft

Eddiana ShyllaFebruary 26, 2021

“There was no other work that I can do better.” Meet Kong Fully Niang, an award-winning and inspirational woman entrepreneur of bamboo-based and cane-based Jaintia Handicraft.

The above was her answer when asking about why she picked handicraft. This 43-year-old mother of five has had a long journey to where she is today.

From a humble beginning, Kong Fully started as a licenced country liquor maker in a small locality Umshangiar in Jowai, a place known for its local liquor. After she got married, she decided that making liquor was not the right thing for her and that she should move on to something more satisfactory. She moved to a village nearby, called Shangpung, and started with domestic housework but, she found that it was not very pleasant as the pay did not match the long hours she spent, keeping her family in mind.

Kong Fully passed on to knitting and sold her knitted materials, but the problem was that it was a tedious and time-consuming process, which took a lot of her effort and less payoff. She then proceeded to weave as it sparked an interest in bamboo handicrafts. She reached out to local handicraft artisans and gain knowledge on the process through phone calls. Soon after, she started to practice weaving bamboo and cane handicrafts with passion and dedication.

In 2014, the Government of India launched the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) in which the local M.P. chose Shangpung village as a model village, which gave Kong Fully a boost in her career as a handicraft artisan. Through this yojana, she received training and also became a master through the District Commerce Industry Centre (DCIC).

From then on, Kong Fully’s hard work came through and she started her unit in 2015. By this time, she had developed a certain skill of weaving the bamboo and cane material in a certain way where one cannot find the start or the finish of the weaved item. This was her niche and she started to gain a lot of demand for her work. She then trained people, travelled outside Meghalaya and catered to the high demand.

Presently, Kong Fully Niang has about 200 employees and is a very well respected woman entrepreneur in Jaintia Hills. One of the milestones in her career was receiving an award ‘State Awardee for Handicraft Artisans 2018-19’ by Deputy Commissioner, West Jaintia Hills District, Ma Garod LSN Dykes. She now gets to represent the state in government exhibition throughout the country.