Deepavali countdown: an address for mindful festive shopping in Chennai

Next-door neighbour to Valluvar Kottam, the Mathi Experience Store situated in the Anna Teresa Women’s Complex on Valluvarkottam High Road in Nungambakkam, carries swank. It is something of a “fishbowl shop”, its glass walls literally showcasing the products stacked on the shelves to someone lingering outside and yet to step into the outlet.

And it is also a showcase for things unseen: women whose work is creating livelihoods and whose skills are finding markets, otherwise elusive. The store brings to the fore the creative skills of women from all the districts of Tamil Nadu, women who lack a privileged background but have the will to rise above that situation.

It is a marketplace with a cause, bringing visibility to the products made by women self-help groups (SHGs) from the districts. Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women (a state-owned organisation established to promote self-reliance among women through “employment generation and economic independence") started Mathi Experience Store under what is called the Mahalir Thittam.