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Bhubaneswar,09/07/2025(Odisha Samachar/ Rajat Mohapatra)-In Pabingia village, located in the aspirational district of Kandhamal, Odisha, 43-year-old Kusuma Kanhar from the Kandha tribe has built a sustainable livelihood by combining her traditional wooden toy-making skills with paddy and vegetable farming.
Kusuma Kanhar once struggled to make ends meet with limited land and no steady income. Supporting her family and securing her children’s future seemed difficult. However, she had a valuable skill, traditional wooden toy-making, a craft practiced for generations in her community. What initially served as a basic household activity gradually became a source of income, as she began producing simple, handcrafted toys depicting animals, rural life, and tribal culture.
With timely support from the SHG Revolving Fund and a SUBHADRA assistance grant, Kusuma scaled her humble enterprise. She combined her wooden toy business with paddy cultivation and vegetable farming, creating a diversified livelihood that proved both sustainable and profitable. Today, her collective earnings stand at an impressive ₹2.5 lakh annually.
To support and grow her enterprise, Kusuma has availed a total of ₹3 lakh in loans over three different cycles, which she invested wisely in production, raw materials, and expanding her farming base. Her commitment to reinvestment and prudent use of credit has helped her sustain consistent growth while managing household responsibilities.
But Kusuma’s impact goes far beyond her own household. Recognizing the value of shared growth, she brought six other women from her village into the fold, training them in the art of toy-making and building a micro-enterprise rooted in local culture. Together, they not only produce for local markets but also participate in exhibitions and fairs, where their creations are celebrated as symbols of tribal artistry and empowerment.
With the income from her work, Kusuma Kanhar has built a permanent house and ensured her children receive proper education, two are now enrolled in college, and the youngest is still in school. Her journey highlights how traditional skills, when supported with timely financial assistance and market opportunities, can lead to real economic progress. Much like the centuries-old wooden craftsmanship that goes into building the chariots of Rath Yatra, where Subhadra’s chariot glides forward on the strength of both tradition and teamwork, Kusuma’s success reflects how heritage skills, when guided by supportive initiatives like SUBHADRA, can set powerful wheels in motion.
Her achievements were nationally recognized on June 20, 2025, at Janata Maidan in Bhubaneswar, where she was felicitated by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi as one of five outstanding Lakhpati Didis. Standing tall among the crowd, Kusuma’s journey became a symbol, not just of Kandhamal’s cultural richness, but of the immense potential that lies within rural artisans when given the right push and recognition.
