What We Do

Support

To ensure that the craft skills are transferred from one generation to the next, CCI supports artisans’ children with stipends to help them get through schooling and learn their hereditary craft on weekends.

Projects to introduce tools and technology for stone artisans, wood finishes for wood carvers and introducing safe dyes to natural fibre artisans are ways CCI has supported crafts to help scale up and reach wider markets. CCI has reached and impacted 700 artisans under these programmes.

Stipend programme for artisans' children

Kamala craft retail outlets — 2,000+ artisans

Promote

Marketing of the crafts to make craft a sustainable livelihood is an area of focus for CCI. CCI’s 100-stall crafts bazaars have brought to the forefront many artisans who lacked a platform to connect with the public. The Craftpreneur Exhibition encourages designers and artisan-turned-entrepreneurs to sell to up-market consumers, showing the public how design helps enhance traditional craft.

For over ten years, CCI has helped artisans participate in the International Folk Art Mart Santa Fe, USA. This has helped launch many of these artisans into international markets on their own.

The CCI family of artisans now extends to over 4000 artisans in every state of the country. Focused national exhibitions on specific crafts, for example basketry and pottery brought together artisans from across the country encouraging exchange of skills and traditions. The two Kamala craft retail outlets have an artisan base of over 2000 artisans who supply to the shops regularly. The objective is to increase this number every year.

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Sustain

⁠⁠Revival of Crafts and Design

One of CCI’s primary objective is the revival of traditional handicrafts which were once an integral part of various communities. The restoration of these culturally rich crafts not only preserve’s the past but also create’s a sustainable future where these products have a place in modern society. CCI has consistently recognised the need to nurture these crafts to ensure their survival and relevance. By reviving traditional handicrafts, the artisans can be innovative and create designs for contemporary markets. CCI has been successful in reviving crafts like the Killimangalam mats, the Pattamadai mats and the kalchatty.

⁠Relief

The Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters have wiped out many artisan communities who did not have the resources to support themselves. Over the years CCI has stepped in on several occasions to lend a helping hand to artisans to recoup and cut their losses. Measures are in place to see that the artisan and his craft do not suffer hugely due to these factors.

⁠Craft Economics

CCI’s efforts to bring awareness to the lack of robust data on the handicrafts and handloom sector led to the Central Statistical Organisation agreeing to include handicrafts and handlooms in the Sixth Economic census in 2013. In 2023, in collaboration with the Institute of Human Development CCI has worked on a toolkit for a methodology to collect data on artisans and to be able to bring their contribution into the national accounting systems. A pilot study in five states has been completed and a final report is awaited.