10 NGOs Ensuring Sustainable Livelihood for Rural Artisans and Craftspeople

India is known for its diversity in culture, spread across its states. We find different types of handmade goods and artworks made by artisans and craftsmen in different parts of the country. 

From stone sculptures and jewel-encrusted fabrics to elegantly sewn embroideries and dexterously crafted metal curios, each one of these handcrafted pieces is deeply rooted to the region they originate from and are windows to its culture and geography. 

In a country that is as diverse and multifaceted as India, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you come across villages and hamlets, where generations of one family have dedicated themselves to mastering a craft, and have enticed people from across the world for the sheer brilliance of their handiwork.

However, since the past few years, there has been a drop in the demand for such products with interest of the new generation declining in handmade souvenirs. This is directly impacting the artisans whose livelihoods depend on handicrafts, especially in times of COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown 

To aid the livelihoods of artisans, many NGOs and nonprofits have been supporting artisan communities, providing platforms to sell handmade products, fetching them reasonable profits and ensuring a sustainable livelihood.

Courtesy: Craftizen Handicrafts.

Craftizen Handicrafts

Craftizen Handicrafts is a Bengaluru-based NGO that is focussed on the improvement of the livelihoods of the artisans. Founded in 2014 and primarily focussed on the B2B model, the organization connects artisan groups to different businesses that have a requirement for customized corporate merchandise. 

The NGO conducts three initiatives – Kalashala, Patrol Program, and Customized Merchandise, to enhance the lives of artisans. The Kalashala is a capacity building program with  a customized curriculum that aims to empower artisans to become skillful ambassadors of their craft and create a source of income and livelihood for themselves.

‘Patron’ programme is where they bring together corporate donors and NGOs working to help artisans and form a structured CSR plan. Finally, the Customized Merchandise initiative aims to access newer marketing channels. For this, they undertake customized projects to suit thematic requirements of clients. This includes large corporations, government departments, educational institutions and foundations.

The organization says, “Through our programs, we have skilled over 2000 beneficiaries trained from socio–economically underprivileged and disadvantaged sections of society in a wide and diverse range of craft skills including banjara and aari embroidery, tailoring, fabric painting; a range of upcycled products from waste such as used flowers, newspapers, flex banners, silk threads and fabric waste; hand block and screen printing, kantha stitch, jewelry from bena grass, natural seeds and beads.” 

Asha Handicrafts Association 

Founded in 1975, Asha Handicrafts is an organization committed to the preservation and promotion of Indian handicrafts across the globe. Asha Handicrafts offers hope to thousands of Indian artisans. 

Against an increasingly commercialized and machine-made world, it offers them the promise of a world where livelihoods are assured, traditional skills are valued and where handmade products receive the respect they deserve. The organization’s strategy has 3 pillars – Trade, Train and Transform. 

Trade: “We provide marketing support to Indian artisans and enable them to produce Indian handicrafts using their traditional artisan skills and market those unique products across a global network.” 

Train: “Through regular capacity building and training workshops, we constantly strive to upgrade the skills of our artisan communities.”

Transform: “The craftspeople skills, our marketing, and a patron’s support can transform lives, creating an alternative future for artisans filled with hope and fulfillment.” 

Today, this fair trade certified organization works with more than 800 artisans across India. 

Rangsutra Foundation

Rajasthan-based Rangsutra works towards ensuring sustainable livelihood for rural craftspeople by directly connecting them with customers. It was established by Rangsutra Crafts India Limited in 2017 to create and support sustainable livelihoods and improve the living conditions of artisan communities across the country. 

The organization says, “We do this through incubation of artisan enterprises, skill enhancement training, educational opportunities, and the nurturing of entrepreneurial and managerial talent. We work in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Manipur.” 

Further, the organization provides regular employment and livelihood to rural artisans and farmers who are engaged in traditional crafts. It bridges the gap between customer and artisan by marketing handmade products through exhibitions and online channels.

Courtesy: Jaipur Rugs Foundation

Jaipur Rugs Foundation 

This NGO empowers rural artisans by providing them opportunities to learn new skills and present their art to the general public while also preserving age-old arts and culture. 

It identifies leaders among artisans and provides leadership training to them enabling them to become part of the organization and get greater exposure. It imparts training to rural artisans through skill development sessions with professional designers. The artisans are able to interact with these professionals to include new skills in their handicrafts. 

The organization says, “We help artisans who want to migrate to cities in search of employment by helping them sharpen their skills so that they won’t need to migrate and earn a good living through handicrafts itself. We also train rural women with skills like knitting and weaving to enable them to sustain themselves in their villages.” 

Jaipur Rugs Foundation gives over 40,000 artisans a platform to showcase their skills and also markets their products. 

Shrujan

Established by Chanda Shroff in 1969, Shrujan aimed to lend a helping hand to women in a Kutch village during its fourth year of drought. The organization has grown to become a family of over three thousand five hundred craftswomen today. 

In 2010, Shrujan split into two separate organizations – Shrujan Creations which works with craftswomen to create and sell hand embroidered products, and Shrujan Trust which aims to take forward the effort to revive and preserve the crafts of Kutch. 

The income earned from embroidery has helped the craftswomen to secure a better future for themselves and their families. And they have become artists in their own right, gaining respect in their communities and winning awards. A Shrujan’s work in sustaining embroidery through the present and into the future is ongoing. 

The Shrujan artisan community includes women from 12 different communities across Kutch and Banaskantha, with expertise in different embroidery styles. Today over three thousand five hundred craftswomen, spread over a hundred and twenty remote villages across Kutch, are part of the Shrujan family.

Sapna India 

Sapna was created by a group of professionals who shared a dream to work on a people-centric model of development in areas of public health, education, women empowerment, community development and social welfare. Recently, they have begun working with rural women artisans in a new initiative to revive handcrafted, sustainable traditions in Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. 

Named Navya, this is a livelihood project for women artisans. Over the last few decades, the organization noticed that industrial production has displaced handcrafted products. Through the livelihood project, Navya, artisans and crafts persons are being encouraged to embrace their lost, creative, knowledge economies. 

“We provide design inputs through immersive innovative workshops and dialogues that motivate craft practitioners to co-create new designs. The Delhi and Alwar chapters of Navya have already taken off. SAPNA has identified rural crafts and weaving clusters in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It is expected that the project will be replicated in these states within a year.” 

The Artisan Foundation

The Artisan Foundation (TAF) was founded with the belief that there is a need to bring rural artisans into the mainstream market. Their focus is to preserve and promote traditional art & craft through sustainable livelihood initiatives.

The organization says, “Our journey started with traveling to remote rural villages in India to understand and learn the challenges of being a rural artisan. It’s ironic that the demand for both utilitarian and ancient traditions of handmade products in the domestic and international markets is very high, and at the same time the artisans who create such products live below the poverty line because of middlemen exploitation.”

They have created a platform that helps the artisan get trained & certified, and then get linked with input providers such as raw material suppliers, microfinance institutions and banks, and further connected with downstream players such as aggregators and retailers. 

The organization says, “We believe creating such a comprehensive craft value chain will not only have a direct social impact but also act as a trade-off between producing financial returns and sustainable growth for this community.” 

Courtesy: Dastkar.

Dastkar 

Dastkar is a private not-for-profit NGO established in 1981, working to support traditional Indian craftspeople, many of them women and village based, with the objective of helping craftspeople regain their place in the economic mainstream, in a country where the craft sector is second only to agriculture in providing employment.

The organization says, “We assist craftspeople through support service activities such as capacity building workshops, skills training, collaborative design innovation and product development; helping them transform traditional skills into products that have contemporary appeal, thereby providing craft communities with a source of permanent employment and sustained earning.” 

Dastkar provides marketing platforms to craftspeople, thereby empowering the crafts community to bypass exploitative middlemen and directly operate in the market. Dastkar bazaars and exhibitions bring together craftspeople, producer groups, environmental organizations, social activists & cultural performers with urban consumers, students and international buyers.

Courtesy: Sadhna.

Satya Foundation

Satya Foundation is inspired by the compassion and simple living of its founders – Satyabhama Kamath and Ganapathi Narayan Kamath. Decades ago they freed themselves from the familiar territory of their needs by opening their mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others. 

They realized that the wisdom of our ancestors is captured in our heritage and culture. Hence they decided to preserve the richness and diversity of our country for the generations to come. 

They say, “We need to revive and rejuvenate it before it gets exported to the west and comes back packaged in western wraps.” 

Through their Sanskriti initiative, the foundation offers a potpourri of activities and events like workshops and melas which showcase Indian history, architecture,art forms, dance forms, music, crafts, tradition and customs. 

The organization says, “It also gives exposure to our natural resources, flora, and fauna. Here children and adults get an opportunity to immerse in everything that is Indian and hands-on explore India and adopt the Indian way of life.” 

Sadhna

Established in 1988, Sadhna came into existence to provide alternative income sources to women in South Rajasthan. Crafts like Patchwork, Appliqué and Tanka embroidery were introduced to women, to create a strong artisan community of women.

This small initiative with 15 participants expanded over three decades into a family of over 700 trained women artisans in the Udaipur and Rajsamand Districts of Southern Rajasthan. The demand for work-from-home continues to be met by Sadhna’s top-notch artisan training system & professional management staff.