Sindhudurg accounts for 3.8 percent of the total mangrove vegetation in Maharashtra. This, and the rich biodiversity of the region, make it a wonderful spot for tourism.

Observing this potential, Rashmi Sawant started Culture Aangan in 2013 as a platform that will enable tourists to be a part of experiential travel while empowering village women with earning opportunities.

That same year, she drew up a plan for mangrove eco-tourism and pitched it to the officials from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Titled ‘Mandavi Mangrove Eco Tourism’, the plan highlighted how women of Sindhudurg could arrange boating trips to the creek, set up homestays, and make homemade pickles and squashes to increase their income.

This was the beginning of the ‘Swamini’ self-help group, which comprises nine women and one man in the Sindhudurg district.

The group earns around Rs 2 lakh a year by charging every tourist a fare of Rs 200 for the boating trip. They conduct a total of seven boating trips a day during season time.

The self-help group model has been extremely successful and Sawant has helped hundreds of women take on leadership and get financial independence.

This is one of the many success stories of Culture Aangan, through which she attempts to create travel experiences and trips that will help the villages of India become self-reliant.

Sawant has also encouraged the women of Sindhudurg to turn their homes into homestays. Along with this, she even began reviving crafts.

The Pinguli village in Sindhudurg used to be a vibrant space where marionettes danced to tunes and dialogues narrated by their puppeteer. But, with time, these crafts began to lose popularity.

Sawant set up the puppet museum ‘Thakkar Adivasi Lok Kala Museum’ and got artists and designers on board to do a skill upgrade and design intervention workshop. “The intent was to train the puppeteers in organising the shows and creating small products with their artistic skills,” she says.

Under the banner ‘Hirkani’, Sawant also mobilised 160 SHGs, through which 300 women were encouraged to produce squashes, pickles, etc.

She then extended the scope of her work to Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand. “I have a vision to help 5,000 women in the next few years. Because every woman empowered is a family empowered,” Sawant says.