eMithilaHaat, a fledgling social enterprise, is on a mission to get Mithilanchal’s heritage the right due through its exclusive online store and onground efforts

The social enterprise has been just seven months in operation, but the impact is being felt far and wide— down to the impoverished artisans of Darbhanga and Mithilanchal in Bihar. Here technology and modernity have been yoked together in the most unlikely yet the holiest of matrimony with an ancient craft and tradition. The credit for the novel venture goes to a young techie—Ankit Jha.

Jha is candid about his choices in life and has no regrets about giving up a career that could have taken him to the heights of what a normal Indian dreams of—success, money and a cushy life. That he chose to float a social enterprise with rather limited chances of success, rather than go for a business plan that offered quick scaling and returns, show that Jha is made of a different mettle. So what prompted you to launch your exclusive e-market place for Mithila paintings—a techie bitten by the entrepreneurial bug becomes an art-e-preneur? We shoot at him curiously. The story that unfolds is a real tearjerker. Jha was moved by the plight of his aunt Sulekha (name changed), a reputed Mithila artist who was forced to give up her beloved painting due to financial constraints. Jha was at that time working at an IT firm in Bangalore and routinely spoke at lunch time to his cousin based in his hometown Darbhanga, to catch up on the local news. “I was taken aback to hear what he told me about aunty. We had grown up watching her work on her Mithila paintings sitting on a mat in the inner courtyard of her house.”

The disheartening news brought back a flood of sweet memories attached to Sulekha aunty. As a child, it was Jha’s favourite pastime, sitting with his brothers and sisters around her while she painted. Aunty gave the children sweets, snacks and sherbat and the kids just loved the afternoons spent sitting with her for hours questioning her on her work. “What is this? What is that? This does not look like a deer,” they would wonder childishly. All their queries Sulekha aunty answered with a laugh “Wait for three more days. Let me finish this and then I will ask which deer is more beautiful—a real one or the one I am painting.” The plight though was not of Sulekha’s alone. Jha learnt that almost all artisans in Mithilanchal were facing similar issues. “There confidence was low and they had begun abandoning their traditional occupation for more lucrative options— leaving something they loved truly. It was really painful to know all this.”

That lunch hour was pure agony for Jha. He returned to his cubicle to complete some pending work but found himself unable to push back memories of his happy childhood spent with Sulekha aunty. Unable to concentrate on work, he spent time mulling options on helping her. He knew his aunt would never accept financial help. Then, there were those other artists who were languishing too. It required a more strategic effort to ameliorate their lot. But Jha was determined to do something. For the next few days, he spent his time in exhaustive research. “I researched on Mithila art, talked to people in my village and was astonished with the kind of response this art had got.” It was the catalyst for Jha’s decision. “I had made up my mind to work for the artists and decided to resign.” His decision and sound business plan brought him a co-founder and investor in Gurmeet Singh Ahuja, who was working as Vice President-Strategy and Delivery and President-Human Resource in same company as Jha. Curious at Jha’s decision to suddenly quit, Ahuja confronted him and when he discovered that it was not for another lucrative offer but to set up his own social enterprise that Jha was quitting, impressed Ahuja offered a helping hand. “I was really bewildered when he offered me his partnership and investment. And this is how the foundation of eMithilaHaat was laid,” says Jha.

His third partner in the venture was not so easily convinced. Jha’s father, Jitendra Kishore Jha, currently COO of eMithilaHaat, is a teacher in the government high school, Siwan. Initially, he was furious with his son’s decision to resign. But when Jha showed him the roadmap of eMithilaHaat, Kishore was so convinced that he not only became an investor in the online venture, but an active operations and product procurement hand. Now he tours the villages meeting and convincing artists to partner with eMithilaHaat. The idea is noble; the spirit, genuine and the efforts hard. But what exactly is the business model and is the concept really sustainable? An exclusive e-tailing website for genuine Mithila paintings sounds good, but is there a market for it, is the model scalable? Jha finds the question interesting. Explaining the business model he says, “We work with more than 50 renowned artists from Mithilanchal and buy their paintings at a price higher than what they earlier earned. These paintings are put online on our eMithilaHaat webstore.”

scalability issue, while Jha accedes, “I would say it’s a bit difficult compared to other enterprises, he adds, “But please note that it is only a bit difficult.” The foundation is totally dedicated and focussed to making eMithilaHaat “a huge social enterprise with a wide range of products. We have plans of bringing Mithila art on home décor items and apparels. You will soon see our store flooded with new range of T-shirts, sarees, kurtis, gift items, stationery, etc., with these awesome paintings on them,” Jha shares his plan. Talking of market for the Mithila products Jha says, “We have a huge market and our target is to place our products in every house, from dining tables to study tables of your kid to office table and walls and even on your body with superb apparels that too at affordable prices.” Jha is not afraid of the competition or imitators in the marketplace. “Of course, the market is crowded with other players. But majority of products listed on these platforms are not genuine. It’s really heartbreaking to find imitators who are abusing the style of painting by not following the guidelines,” he laments.

eMithilaHaat, on the other hand, works with the legends in the field who have been working on this art their whole life and have won many awards and accolades like Padma Shri, Bihar Ratna, Guru Shreshtha Shilpa, National awards. etc., says Jha, explaining the competitive edge of his outfit. “We bring the art works from the root…from the masters. All the art works listed on our webstore are handpicked by experts who carefully evaluate the signature style of the art.” Additionally, at eMithilaHaat, every artwork comes with a certificate of genuineness which gives the buyer 100 per cent money back guarantee in case the work found to be an imitation. “This sets us apart from other sellers in the marketplace and imitators,” smiles Jha. Jha is confident that with his particular model he can make a difference in the lives of the beleaguered artists. “In past few months we have noticed a huge change in their confidence level and mindset. They are now positive and work hard to make eMithilaHaat as well as themselves successful,” says Jha.

Mithilanchal artists have been famously exploited by middlemen who sell their work at exorbitant rates in cities and abroad while paying a pittance to them. “We pay them what the artwork is worth. In addition, we have plans of sharing our profit with the artists every six months. There is no string attached to this. This is purely because of emotional attachment with them.” For Jha his reward comes when “their eyes light up with hope. I have seen people giving up on this art when they are not able to sell it. We don’t want them to be in the same situation again,” he vows emphatically. “It is truly heavenly to see these lost souls happy because of your organisation. We are mesmerized to see them regain their confidence and strength and return back to the canvases they had abandoned putting their soul and heart into their art.”

Though currently the webstore sells only paintings and to a narrow set of target buyers who are art lovers and love luxury, it aims to widen its offerings to include products ranging from `100 to ` 10 lakh. “We will widen our audience base with the planned with launch of new products. You are going to see a lot of updates in eMithilaHaat in coming days,” Jha promises. Jha is conscious that it is crucial for eMithilaHaat to have an inflow of continuous revenue for scaling up fast to match competition. “We have a projection of three years in which we think we are going to make it really big,” he is confident. eMithilaHaat is already exploring avenues to fund its ambitions. “We are currently working with our initial investment and dividend earned on it so far. It’s time now for a fresh series of A funding. We are actively looking forward to take a leap from our seed-funding stage to Series A funding.” Offers are pouring in says Jha, but they are “looking forward to those investing institutions which can spare the time and mentorship that we require.”

Jha dreams of creating a utopian village for legends of Mithila art. “We would like to draw all eyes towards this awesome art and culture of Mithila. This will impact our business and the living standards of the artists and their families. Basic education and healthcare for this artist community is on top of our priority.” The organisation is already working towards it. The outfit also organizes events and competitions regularly to “make the artists feel their worth in our lives and business.” Vocational training to improve communication skills and teach artists soft skills is also held. Jha knows he is on the right track. “I speak their language, I talk like them, I eat like them, I think like them. I was one of them who got an opportunity to get an engineering degree and was destined to live a different life. But there would not have been such contentment and satisfaction in that.” The folk artists understood this and accepted Jha as the one who had returned home as their saviour. eMithilaHaat is on a crusade to save their ancient heritage from oblivion.