Sunita Nanda is a different kind of fashion designer. The fashion world may not be aware of her name but she had walked on the ramp at United Nations in New York last year. She used to go five-star hotels and attend high level seminars to share her experience as an international fashion designer.
But at the same time she also sells papad, pickles, handicrafts at the stalls of these five-star hotels. Her life in the tinsel town is not glamorous like a professional designer. But she is happy and contented. She does not even remember that top models like Indrani Das Gupta, Jessy Randhawa, Mehar Ali, Aryan Vaid, Sheetal Malhar, Carol Gracia had wore dresses stitched by her and women like her.
They learned fashion designing from one of the best fashion designers Abdul Halder, who used to design dresses for Michael Jackson.
These are old stories for her and over a two dozen women who also walked on the ramp in United Nations but when you start talking about these you will find a victorious spark on their faces.

Talking to fachcha.com at Delhi’s famous hotel Lalit (earlier known as hotel Inter-Continental) Sunita Nanda says that she is very happy now. She earns about rupees 2500/- to 3000/- per month now. Her husband is a photographer and he also earns 5000/- to 6000/- per month. Speaking about past life she says that she could hardly earn rupees 500/- to 600/- per month through scavenging at various homes. It was a demeaning and humiliating practice for her and her friends. She is among those who have been liberated from inhuman practice of manual scavenging last year. She and other women came here this month on during a function of Sulabh International.

Sharing her experience about the UN visit Usha Choumar, another woman liberated from scavenging at Alwar, says “It was a funny experience for us. Most of the women had dressed in short skirts and nobody appeared in sari. We were laughing on them and they were laughing on us.”

Sushila Chauhan, who also visited UN says that it is better to forget past life of scavenging rather than making it a memory. According to her now they are regularly getting work for designing of sari, and other dress materials. The work includes stitching, embroidery and others. But sari takes much time as it needs collective efforts. The rate for sari is ‘high’ too (about rupees 2000 to 3000). According to Sunita Nanda it takes about eight days to finalize a sari and it needs five to six persons to complete the task.

Was the showcasing of skill of fashion designing on ramp at UN just token? Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh International, says no. “All of us were busy in the Herculean task of making Alwar completely scavenging free. As it has completed now they will go back on the ramp again and you will find them in fashion week too”, says Pathak.
(Pix courtsy: Sulabh International)