Fair Trade Forum - India

06/01/2024

27/04/2022

Calcutta Rescue’s fairtrade handicraft project was established to provide employment for these people, giving them the money they need to support themselves and their families and the dignity that comes with work.

India is famed for its handicrafts, and the project produces a wide-range of attractive products using a variety of traditional crafts and materials – from up-cycled silk saris to water hyacinth bags. Designers from Europe come to Kolkata to work with the team, training them in new skills and developing new products that are on trend.

The team, now more than 50-strong, produce beautiful clothes and gift items, made with creativity and care and finished to exacting standards. A single embroidered card, for instance, takes three hours to produce.

To buy the products of Calcutta Rescue you can click on the link :
https://calcuttarescue.org/handicrafts/

27/04/2022

Sadhna is a Women’s Handicraft Enterprise that achieved registration under the Mutual Benefit Trust Act after years of consistent effort. This artisan group was formed in 1988 in response to a devastating drought in Mewar as an income generation program of Seva Mandir, a leading NGO from Udaipur. 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. Patchwork, Appliqué and Tanka embroidery skills became the foundation for a strong women’s collective of rural, tribal and urban artisans. The demand for work-from-home continues to be met by Sadhna’s top-notch artisan training system & professional management staff. Sadhna artisans have been stitching some of the finest traditional hand-embroidered products for three decades. Every Sadhna product is handmade and fair trade certified.

MISSION
Sadhna is an enterprise committed to empowering women, both economically and socially as well as enhancing their self-esteem. Our goal is to make artisan members self-reliant, increase their control of and access to social resources, and improve their status within their families and society.

Support Sadhna, Support Artisans!

You can buy the products of Sadhna from-: https://sadhna.org/

Sadhna - A Women's Handicraft Enterprise

27/04/2022

Kubsa is a for-profit brand with a social mission of generating sustainable livelihoods
across value chains. We currently work with artisans in Guledgudda town, Bagalkot
district, north Karnataka. Our looms are set up in two centres in the town- Bannad
mani (House of colors in kannada) and 8 muggad mani (house with 8 looms).
We are always looking for new collaborations, to work with brands that share our
ideology. Our minimum order requirements are 4 SKU’s per product and our orders
require a lead time of 10-15 days keeping in accordance with sustainable production
systems.

Social Impact
Apart from weaving, artisans involved in dyeing, reed making, bobbin winding, warping, warp joining, drafting denting, dobby design setting, finishing are benefited through Kubsa’s work

Kubsa Started with a single weaving center and one loom. Over a period of one year we have grown to house six looms with three more at inception stage. From a small team of three weavers, we now support a team of fifty across various skillsets. Additionally, we provide support in the domains of training, reskilling, technical knowledge and infrastructure.

We believe in reinforcing agency through co-creation of products, comfortable and fair work opportunities, conserving traditional handloom techniques through authentic processes of making.

As per our vision we have reinstated ten weavers from power loom and are working towards our larger mission of contributing towards bettering livelihoods in a sustainable way, contributing to the overall economic development of the region.

Environmental Impact

We use high quality Mulberry silk and cotton yarn that are sourced locally to reduce Carbon footprint.

We use Azo free dyes and our natural dyes are extracted from locally grown fruits and flowers like pomegranate and Marigold.

Conscious consumption of resources is built in to the indigenous weaving techniques practiced in the cluster. All unused fabric samples are converted into blouses to reach our zero waste goal. Above all our artisans work from the comfort of their homes and are further provided comfortable and clean working conditions at our main weaving Centre.

26/04/2022

Fairkonnect is a Fair Trade certified, socially responsible, unique and innovative firm trying to elevate the Fair Trade business across globe.

Fairkonnect bridges the socially aware buyers to the artisans to ensure ethical trade through fair trade practices. The artisan and crafts sector all over the world is quite unorganised and do not get the prominence that it deserves. Fairkonnect elevates awareness about artisans and the part they play in the global economic growth through their services.

We work as a bridge between Fair Trade buyers and producer groups / artisans following the Fair Trade path. We are focused on streamlining the Fair Trade, popularising and making it more mainstream by connecting the buyers and artisan groups, thus contributing to take the Fair Trade movement further. With more and more people being aware of sustainable fashion and ethical trade practices, we are committed to also bring products that match high quality of sustainable, fair trade and ethical standards.

Fairkonnect works on business development and empowerment of artisans at the same time helping buyers identify the right artisan group to work with making the communications and transactions hassle free.

- Generate sustainable livelihood

- Access to natural, organic and sustainable textiles

- Channelise artisan produce to the market

- Market Identification

- Best Practice Sharing

- Design intervention

- Capacity Building

- Skill Development

- Supply Chain Management

- Blending modern design with traditional crafts

- Visibility to artisans in global market

- Ethical and fair products for global buyers

- Organising Fair Trade events

- Curate a line of Fair Trade, organic and sustainable product range

To know more about their products click on the link -: https://fairkonnect.com/ethic-attic

26/04/2022

AHARAM Weavers is a producer owned company situated in G. Kallupatti, a small village by the foothills of Kodaikanal in the state Tamil Nadu in South India.

They started their hand-weaving activities in 1987 through the social organisation Reaching The Unreached. In 2010 they formed a producer owned company, with the guidance and support of CCD (Covenant Centre for Development) in Madurai.

Being well established in the Fair Trade Movement, we export our handloom products to Fair Trade customers – either through local fairs and exhibitions, or directly to Fair Trade buyers in UK, Japan, Sweden, and Germany.

To know more about their products click on the link - : https://aharamweavers.wordpress.com/product-catalogue/

23/04/2022

Dharohar Foundation is a charitable trust founded in the year 2016 by Mr. Ranvir Sushila Sisodia, who is a passionate lover of Indian Art and Craft, with more than two decades of experience working with the craft community in Gujarat. Dharohar is mainly working in the Eastern part of Gujarat, sharing the head office in Vadodara, Addressing the issue of migration of Bheel and Rathwa community along with city slums, Dharohar took initiative to stop this migration and promote their craft skill to provide them sustainable livelihood through art and craft-based activities and market with Fair Trade banner.

VISION-:
To empower the unskilled and untapped women and men artisans of Gujarat through art and craft-based actives and alternative skill-based opportunities to generate livelihood, and to provide them with sustainable growth opportunities through environment consciousness and fair trade practices.

MISSION-:
Giving a platform to the rural-urban art and craft community by providing capacity building, training programs, and modules as well as providing them with the required support services, which help the artisans to generate better livelihood opportunities. We endeavor to make our brand ‘Dharohar’ a synonym for pro-tribal fair trade by expanding the Fair trade craft outlets of ‘Dharohar’ across India.

To see the products made by the artisans of Dharohar go to this link -:

https://dharoharfoundation.org/product

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21/04/2022

Barmer being the backward area of western Rajasthan, GVCS is working for the Holistic Development of this sector, mostly for the upliftment of women, Dalits and marginalised communities in the region. GVCS focus on Women's development activities which involve Health education, Livelihood, Skills, etc. We work for them to provide facilities to these beneficiaries at their home by conducting events and workshops for them. Income Generation programs are held to support these women to work for their livelihood.

To know more about their products and order them kindly go to this link-: https://rumadevi.com/

20/04/2022

Post a picture or video holding one of
our posters on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok,
Facebook or whatever platform you use.
Tag the brand you’re wearing and ask
them ?
One of the simplest ways we can push for industry change is by using
to brands and hold them accountable to the
people in their supply chain during . We know
from our research that they are paying close attention to the demands
of their customers - and that these simple pleas for can
effect major changes in even the biggest .

20/04/2022

Post a picture or video holding one of
our posters on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok,
Facebook or whatever platform you use.
Tag the brand you’re wearing and ask
them ?
One of the simplest ways we can push for industry change is by using
to brands and hold them accountable to the
people in their supply chain during . We know
from our research that they are paying close attention to the demands
of their customers - and that these simple pleas for can
effect major changes in even the biggest .

19/04/2022

Literacy India reaches out to the underprivileged across India, assisting them in gaining access to quality education and supporting their efforts to learn a range of vocational skills through the 4Es (Education, Employability, Empowerment, and Environment).

FTF-I's team member visited the organisation with the vision to understand about the product line they produce and also to talk to the artisans involved to know more about FTF-I's design thinking and product innovation training workshops that happened in the month of February under the European Union funded STREE project.

The visited turned out to be fruitful and we look forward to working together for the empowerment of women artisans under the STREE project.

Literacy India