Shruti Jaiswal grew up in the midst of a loving and close-knit joint family in the temple town of Varanasi. As one of the youngest, she was indulged by her parents, her brother and various uncles and aunts. However, unlike many young people, she was, from a young age, aware of the privileges she enjoyed because of the family she was born into. Others, she knew, were not so fortunate. Women from the lower socio-economic strata of Indian society, especially in relatively conservative places like Varanasi, had to work doubly hard to achieve anything for themselves.
Shruti was just out of school when a chance conversation with a few women who worked as domestic help in the area she grew up in, opened up a new direction in her life. “These women wanted to start a tailoring unit,” she recalls. “But unsupportive husbands and societal pressure to first mind their home left them with no choice but to put aside their dreams.” The conversation set her thinking and a plan took shape, eventually becoming her first venture, ClutchOn in 2009. Shruti was only 19 then.
ClutchOn gave underprivileged women, including the ones Shruti had spoken to, the opportunity to make and sell handmade bags. She had them trained in stitching, knitting and the basics of running a business to make their venture self-sustainable. Shruti herself planned to study further and moved out of Varanasi. ClutchOn no longer exists, but all the women who were a part of the venture today work with other tailoring units; one even runs her own business.