Supporting India’s Artisan Communities
Threads of Tradition, Woven with Empowerment
Handicrafts are a way of experiencing a nation’s rich cultural heritage. For centuries, the artisan communities across India have kept these crafts alive despite their generational economic uncertainty and poor livelihood.
For us, they are the silent torchbearers of India’s pluralism, holding up the crafts that reflect this land’s diverse cultures, heritage, and history—of people and kingdoms.
As a guaranteed fair trade organization, Craft Resource Center (CRC) helps the artisans of India achieve financial freedom by providing them with end-to-end resources and bringing market visibility to their products. By securing consistent income and growth opportunities, we help them live a better life where they can focus on their craft without struggling to make ends meet.
benefitted
artisan communities
why CRC
WFTO Founding Member
We’re not only a WFTO-guaranteed fair trade organization, but also one of the founding members of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO). Being the pioneers of fair trade, we’re compliant with the 10 principles of WFTO. We work directly with the artisans, ensure them fair payments, and better working conditions, and help them with capacity building, gender empowerment, and so forth.
WFTO Member Site
Ethically-sourced Eco-friendly Raw Materials
By choosing eco-friendly raw materials we’re able to reduce our carbon footprint. All our leather-based bags are made from LWG-certified eco-leather, procured from a gold-rated tannery. It’s processed with no harmful chemicals, especially chromium. For this reason, our eco-leather is also called chrome-free leather. The cotton that goes into our fashion products is GOTS-certified cotton. Similarly, canvas, wool, juco, whatever the material, we prioritize authenticity in material quality and sustainable practices throughout procurement, production, and supply chain.
Empowering Artisans with Opportunities
We believe that education, income, and well-being are the instruments of empowerment. With this motto, we expand the horizon for artisan communities, introducing them to new designs, products, and global markets. We back their micro-enterprises with finances, production, logistics, and supply chain management and improve the quality of human resources.
Sustaining the Traditional Craft and Culture
Since our inception, our objective has been to revive India’s diverse wealth of crafts by injecting mentorship, finance, contemporaneity, and sustainability. This enables artisans to continue practicing their craft, revive traditional techniques, and pass on their skills and knowledge to the next generation, thereby preserving our valuable cultural traditions.
Key Moments in Our Artisanal Voyage
1978
Irani Sen begins working within Fair Trade on socio-economic development of the underprivileged through hand-made tools and medium.
1989
Bernard Muller, project manager of OS-3 (a Fair Trade organisation) and Dorothea Ruesch, a journalist, initiate a project to assist small producer groups in India with financial assistance from Swiss Development Co-operation, with Irani Sen as consultant.
1990
CTM, Italy and EZA, Austria, join the project with financial contributions. Swiss Development Co-operation supports the project by setting up an India co-ordination office. Decision taken to expand the project to Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
1990
CRC is born. Main objective is to assist small groups of artisans achieve self-sufficiency and empower them to market their products, as per the needs of the Fair Trade buyers. CRC is created as a service initiative for development of crafts and its producers than a marketing organization.
1991
Manoranjan Walia, after 29 years working in corporate India, steps in to advise and assist the export initiative.
1991
Project succeeds in developing small groups and a product range in silk and leather. First order received from OS-3, valued at CHF 6,600. Project still in its infancy is unable to execute the large export order.
1994
The Swiss project officially ended in 1994 but CRC carried forward its aims and objectives.
2010
Many small producer groups initiated into the Fair Trade movement are now independent organisations partnering with Fair Trade buyers. They deal with buyers directly, without any CRC intervention.
2020
CRC is a self-sustained operation. It has never needed grants or donations for its activities after the conclusion of the Swiss project. CRC believes in practicing what it preaches. It led small producers by example: self-sufficiency even as it embarked on its journey to empower small producers. Today, CRC is a Guaranteed Fair Trade Organisation which is sustainable, ethical, and fair.
