What does it take to build an enterprise from a village that is ten kilometres away from the nearest motorable road?

For Pradeep, this meant working with what already exists around him: a craft his community has practised for generations, the knowledge of local artisans, and a belief that distance from markets does not have to mean distance from opportunity. 

Pradeep is a 26-year-old first-generation entrepreneur from Metali, a remote village in the India-Nepal border region of Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. Serene and beautiful, the village is reached by a 10-kilometre hike from Jouljibi through forested terrain, but this makes access to markets, education, healthcare and livelihood opportunities particularly difficult.

In a place where leaving in search of work is the more obvious pathway for young people, Pradeep chose differently. He decided to build a life closer to home - not only to support his own family, but with the conviction that viable livelihoods can also be created for others in his community.

Reviving ringaal and through it - a community

Through Himkala Handicrafts, Pradeep is working to revive the traditional craft of ringaal weaving. Ringaal, a native Himalayan bamboo species, has been used for generations in his community to make baskets and everyday utility products.

For families in Metali, ringaal weaving is not a new skill but inherited knowledge passed down through generations. But like many traditional crafts, it has struggled to remain commercially viable in modern markets.

Pradeep understands that if ringaal weaving continues only as a traditional practice disconnected from markets, it may slowly disappear. But if artisans can be upskilled, products redesigned for modern consumers and market access built, the same craft can become a source of dignified local livelihoods.

During Margshala’s Swarozgar Fellowship, Pradeep developed the Himkala Handicrafts brand, experimented with newer designs, and started thinking more deliberately about customers, markets, growth and building his network. Most importantly, he recognised the potential of Himkala being a larger, collaborative collective of artisans.

Pradeep is currently working with twelve weavers to strengthen their skills, improve product quality and bring greater design relevance to their work. He’s trying to bring training and skilling opportunities closer to his village and nearby communities, as travelling outside is often difficult. He has also continued building his own technical understanding of ringaal through formal training through RSETI. As Himkala grows, he wants to shift from managing everything himself towards building the relationships, markets and systems that can help the enterprise reach further.

RSETI or Rural Self Employment Training Institutes are dedicated district-level institutes established by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) which provide skill training and entrepreneurship development to rural unemployed youth.

A larger vision for Himkala

Pradeep wants Himkala to become a platform that connects artisans with trainers, designers, institutions and markets. However, with no road connectivity to the village, moving raw material, finished products and market orders in and out is far from simple. Growth here means solving not only for products and sales but also for the realities of a difficult mountain supply chain.

Yet, Pradeep continues to think bigger. When asked how far he wants to take the enterprise, he said:

“Pehle 3 product segment se shuru kara, fir 4-5 ho gaye to laga ye ho sakta hai. Ab jitna zyada ho sakta hai utna karo. Kyun sirf 10 pe rukna?” 

[I started with 3 product segments. When they became 4 or 5, I started to believe this really was possible. Now, I will do as much as I can - why even stop at 10?]

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Today, it’s not only about how Himkala can grow, but about what that growth could make possible for the people around him. His dream is to transform Metali from a village marked by isolation and out-migration into a place where local people earn with dignity, young people see entrepreneurship as a real possibility and traditional knowledge becomes a foundation for future livelihoods.

In the long run, he also hopes to explore circular product lines, including ways to use ringaal husk and production waste to create eco-friendly disposable products.

Pradeep’s journey is still evolving. The challenges of geography, markets, production and scale remain very real, but perhaps that is precisely what makes his story important.Rural entrepreneurship does not often begin with new technology, large capital or entirely new ideas. Sometimes it begins by looking again at what a community already knows, and asking what it would take to build on that knowledge and create new possibilities around it. 

Those who know Pradeep describe him as cheerful, energetic and deeply sincere. He is a natural storyteller, a mindful observer and someone willing to experiment, fail, learn and begin again. In many ways, his journey reflects the spirit of rural entrepreneurship at its best: resourceful, grounded and stubbornly hopeful.