“It was in 1991, I did not have a single penny to repair my daughter’s school shoes. As a result I took the outsole of her old shoes and knitted the upper portion of the shoes using a woollen yarn. That was my first invention,” said Padma Shri shoemaker Moirangthem Muktamani Devi.
Muktamani who is in her 60s from Moirangthem Leikai of Kakching district was conferred the Padma Shri on the occasion 73rd Republic Day for her distinguished services in Trade and Industry. She is the proprietor of Mukta Shoes.
Unlike the normal shoes, her shoes are all handcrafted and are vegan shoes, which are leather free. The shoes are made using woollen and nylon yarn, gum and rubber. It took roughly two-three days to make the shoes individually.
Speaking exclusively to the Imphal Free Press, Muktamani said that the shoes which she knitted for her daughter got positive feedback from her teacher and requested to make a same for his daughter.
“With getting such positive feedback, an idea stuck in my mind to establish a business by making and selling shoes. Without any delay I started making various shoes by buying the raw material from Kakhulong market in Imphal,” narrated Muktamani.
“At first I used to copy the design of the shoes by visiting various shoe showrooms,” she confessed, adding, “After stepping deeply into the field of shoe making, I started designing the shoes myself.”
(PHOTO: IFP)
It did not take long for her products to get widespread demand as she had displayed her products in state level fair organised at Mapal Kangjeibung, Imphal in 1991 where numerous visitors thronged at her stall to get a glance of her shoes.
She continued to participate in various state-level and national-level fairs, where her shoes had started getting international exposure.
So far she has been giving shoemaking training to over 2,000 individuals and currently as an entrepreneur she has been giving job opportunities to around 30 individuals.
According to Muktamani, there is high demand for her shoes from outside the state, including foreign countries such as Australia, London, Japan, America abd South Korea among others.
She has even started selling her products through e-marketing platform “Giskaa” and many shoe outlets in the state have been selling her products.
When asked about conferring of the Padma Shri Award on her, Muktamani said, “It was a great surprise as I did not personally apply for the award. I remember some government official took my bio-data, however I was not told about applying for the award.”
“Conferring me the prestigious Padma Shri is like getting the fruit of my hard labour and dedication. My eyes were filled with tears of joy when I was informed about the award,” she added.
In her 30 years' career, she has won four national awards, one regional award and three state awards.
“The key to success is very simple, One needs dedication, persistence, hard labour, honesty and team-work,” said Muktamani.
She is presently planning to start making shoes using leather and wool. However, the financial issue of acquiring the machines is stopping her from it, she said, expressing her desire to conduct various workshops on shoe making to produce more entrepreneurs in Manipur.
The Mukta Shoes was registered in DIC of Manipur government in 1994 under wool and knitting embroidery in the category of small industry.
Manipur has topped the list of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) business registration among the small states and 50 per cent of the businesses are owned by women.
As per the Annual Report (2018-19) ministry of MSME, Manipur alone has 12,438 MSME businesses, the highest in the northeastern region during the period from 2015 to 2019.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had even declared that the rapid growth in the MSME has boosted the state GDP.
