Sumita Ghosh says that her company, Rangsutra, was started in 2005 with the sole belief that craftwork could be a sustainable and lucrative business for artisans. Although clothing, incorporating traditional Indian craftwork, has become hugely popular in the international market today, the artisans who are involved in creating the craftwork earn a mere pittance.
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| Sumita Ghosh |
“I felt that the traditional ‘charity model’ of grants to improve the lot of artisans was not enough, neither was the purely rights based approach of advocating for better wages and opportunities from the government and private players. The artisans needed to be fully involved in shaping their own destinies,” says Sumita. The artisans associated with Rangsutra produce a range of apparel for men and women, home furnishings and accessories.
How It Operates
Rangsutra works with small ‘producer groups’ in villages and towns and other remote areas of the country. These groups comprise artisans and weavers as well as people who manage the group’s activities. The role of a producer group is to organize artisan producers into small groups and to ensure that work is given out to all members and shareholders. Since the artisans work out of their homes, one of the major functions of the producer group is to make sure that the designs they need to use in their work are understood and implemented as per the required quality and on time. The group also facilitates overall production processes such as sourcing of yarn and dyeing.
“This is helpful as most of them, especially the women, are part-time artisans, so they combine this with work they have to do in and around their homes. So, it acts as a much needed regular source of income for them,” says Sumita.
What It Provides
Rangsutra provides the artisans with design support, market linkages, procurement of supplies such as yarn, education about matters such as using the right dyes, and technology. It also conducts workshops to help the artisans. For example, a design workshop teaches them about using the right dyes for their work, while a skill development workshop helps them to use technology effectively. Awareness workshops on quality, equipment and time management are also conducted.
“We have a central design and marketing office in Delhi, and production bases in and around Bikaner for western Rajasthan and Varanasi for eastern India,” says Sumita. They work with artisans based in Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Mirzapur. They also connect with artisans based in Lunkaransar, Bajju, Phalodi and Ranikhet in Rajasthan and in other places such as Bongalgaon and Hyderabad.
“We plan to expand more in eastern India, where there are rich handicraft skills and also a real need for providing employment to increase the incomes of the craftspeople,” says Sumita
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How It Started
Rangsutra runs its operations through a working capital loan from Axis Bank and term loans that it has procured for infrastructure. “We invested in a mechanized yarn dyeing machine to ensure timely and quality dyeing. We were also fortunate to have the committed support of two venture funds, Aavishkaar Micro Ventures and Artisans Micro Finance. The latter is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fabindia. They had faith in the venture and this gave the artisans also the courage to put in their own hard-earned money into the company. Many of them had to take loans,” reveals Sumita.
As of now, Rangsutra has 2,000 artisans working with it. The profits earned from sales go back to the artisans, who are shareholders in Rangsutra. “Rangsutra’s core value is respect for both the producer and the customer. We ensure a fair price to the producer as well as quality products to the customer. The aim is thus twofold,” explains Sumita.
They prepare their own designs and do their own sampling. Then they decide on what wages are to be paid after making an evaluation of the time taken for a particular piece of work and the level of skill needed. Other factors that help in deciding wages are the minimum wages stipulated in the state and the comparative wages prevailing in the area for similar work.
“If an artisan works for a whole day (eight-nine) hours, he can earn Rs 6,000-8,000 a month,” says Sumita. “We work on a high volume, low mark-up model as our goal is to ensure sustainable livelihoods to as many artisans as possible.”
Most of Rangsutra’s products are sold to Fabindia. A small part of its products are sold to the ethical trade market in Europe. Soon, it hopes to expand sales to the international market. Last year, it sold Rs 4.25 crore worth of goods; in 2011, it hopes to notch up Rs 8 crore.
Sumita says that until now, the major challenge has been to combine making profits with ensuring fair wages to the artisans. She hopes to tackle the problem by involving more and more artisans in the company. “We want to create excellent products for our enlightened customers, for whom a style statement is not only what the product looks like, but also the story behind it,” she says.
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