Crafting futures India: The empowerment of women and girls through artisanal textiles, digital technology and entrepreneurship in India
- Submitting institution
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Nottingham Trent University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 15 - 1069253
- Type
- N - Research report for external body
- DOI
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- Commissioning body
- British Council
- Month
- December
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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https://design.britishcouncil.org/blog/2019/jan/21/research-crafting-futures-india/
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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C - Fashion and Textiles Research Centre
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Craft, India’s second largest employment sector after agriculture, has taken a central role in the country’s economic regeneration in the postcolonial period, providing jobs in rural areas where opportunities are limited and social norms preclude women from working outside the home. Focusing on handmade textiles, the report assesses regional opportunities for women and the factors that militate against their entry into employment. It discusses examples of successful NGO-practice in the craft and women’s development sectors, identifies future development opportunities, and delineates how digital technologies might be harnessed to education and training, trading and marketing in the Crafting Futures India programme. Thus, craft production is reviewed not only as an expression of India’s cultural heritage but as a transformative medium for women’s uplift and social mobility on the subcontinent.
Commissioned by the British Council, the report provides a baseline study for the Crafting Futures India programme currently being rolled out. It presents an overview of craft in India that is accessible for partners and sponsors in the scheme. It notes existing niches for women in the craft landscape, hand embroidery for example, and identifies potential opportunities, such as tailoring, that do not conflict with prevailing modesty codes. Based on primary research with NGOs, cultural and educational organisations, female entrepreneurs, fashion-industry experts, and hereditary artisans, and drawing on the author’s knowledge of the Indian craft sector, the report offers an appraisal of craft’s potential for social transformation and the professionalisation of women.
The report was peer-reviewed by development specialists in South Asia and India, also by the British Council’s South Asia programme team and its editorial unit. It is based on focused field research in India with development agencies and drew on the author’s deep understanding of the region, its craft, gender and social organisation. Research was funded by the British Council.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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