Tata Trusts, Harvard University South Asia Institute announce grant to 6 organizations in India

The organizations who are awarded the grant are Kumaun Grameen Udyog from Uttarakhand, Freeset Fabrics from West Bengal, Chitrika and Craftizen Foundation from Hyderabad, and Women Weave Charitable Trust and Raah Foundation from Maharashtra. 

 

As part of this project, a capacity-building workshop for the handicrafts and handlooms sector was organized at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. 

 

The workshop was aimed at capacity-building through knowledge inputs, networking support, social innovation grant funding and mentoring.

 

Over 60 participants from 50 organizations across 15 States of India participated in this workshop. They were selected from among the 400-some-odd applications, based on a detailed selection process. 

 

The participating organizations were from diverse backgrounds in terms of their work and crafts forms, and ranged from small social entrepreneurs to medium and large-sized organizations. 

 

Based on a rigorous grant review process, six of these organizations will be provided with a social innovation grant of INR 1.5 million along with mentorship and advice for greater impact in their respective spheres of work.

 

Commenting on the current situation of India’s handicrafts sector, Shishir Dash, Senior Development Consultant, Tata Trusts, said, “The craft sector is economically important, with exports of more than INR 9000 crore and domestic consumption of INR 14500 crore during 2014-15. However budget allocation and investments for the development of the sector are negligible. A large quantum of CSR fund is available for development activities but less than 0.5% is spent in the craft sector."

 

"A proper mapping is required to understand the availability of resources for development of craft activities. Even if Government of India is providing support to craft sector, it should be need based and should sustain beyond the grant support. The development partners should explore possibilities of collaboration with Government for the greater interest of the sector,” Dash said.