Umeed

Born and brought up in the city, most of us are unaware of life beyond our urban periphery. Nearly 12 million artisans and micro-entrepreneurs in India’s villages make handcrafted products to earn and support their families. Their livelihoods are under threat today. Distant and invisible to buyers and markets, they find themselves trapped in exploitative conditions as middlemen transact on their behalf and pay them inadequately. We plan to create a pool of practicing artisans who typically work individually and hence lack an organised identity, negotiating strength and resources to scale. This further compounds their inability to earn a fair and remunerative income from their unique skills. With farm-based jobs saturated, urban migration is their only unhappy recourse.

The need of the hour is to demonstrate that India’s village based handcraft enterprises can be recharged as engines of employment and a source of a life of security and dignity for many rural families.

Indian economy is growing, so is domestic demand and consumption of quality lifestyle products for home and personal consumption. As consumers in this economy, today we are in a stronger place to support handcrafted products and the livelihoods of our artisans. These are great products made with amazing wisdom and talent. They define our cultural identity, tell us who we are and can be a source of immense positive change.

Our aim with Umeed is to empower India’s many invisible artisans and rural micro entrepreneurs with skills, resources and capabilities that would enable them to engage transparently with urban markets on fair terms and earn a secure dignified living. To also provide Vocational and Skill Development Training for Infrastructure & Construction, Automotive and un-organised Support Sectors.

Our work is based on 2 fundamental premises:

1. Promoting traditional skill-based rural and peri-urban livelihoods will restore financial security to  India’s gifted and talented rural producers and contain urban migration

2. As urban consumers get direct access to contemporary handcrafted, natural products made by our rural producers, it will set off a create a culture of positive consumption in India – where our acts of purchase not just satisfy us but also make a difference.

We believe that for real impact it is necessary to work on the complete chain from building producer capability to creating market appetite. Hence we’re an exceptional organisation that covers the entire spectrum.

We represent the unique creativity of our pan-India network of artisans. We are currently working with artisans and cooperatives in India. Many of these artisans are women from some of the most deprived and disadvantaged communities, with very little opportunities for self-development and growth and in most cases, their work and their identity both remain uncounted or undercounted and unseen. We give them a stage to share their stories, an ability to grow and the opportunity to better their lives and their communities.

Our mission is important but so is our style. We are on the constant look out for the upcoming colour and style trends around the world. We try as much as possible to use a range of materials – and where we can source recycled materials, we do. With some of our products, we hope to reflect that beauty can come from waste. Our hope is to continue to expand our product range and our global artisan network.

Our products will be available through our retail website and through various online and brick & mortar retailers. We aim to work with non-profits in building fundraising campaigns using ethically-made products that align more closely with non-profit missions. We also work with corporations in creating sustainable products that can tie into their corporate social responsibility initiatives through the gifts they give their employees and clients.