“Odisha is rich in culture but poor in economy,” says Shipra Agarwal, Co-Founder of KalaGhar. She and Co-Founder Megha Agarwal have spent a lot of time in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, “the city of temples, where art is a way of life.”

Yet the artisans who live here are not even able to create sustained livelihoods from their craft. What’s more is that very few of the region’s crafts make it to the global sourcing market for handicrafts in India, Shipra explained to us.

Megha and Shipra saw this disparity as an opportunity to create dignified jobs for the large artisan community in Bhubaneshwar. They started their company, KalaGhar, to help the local artisans work towards product innovation, operations efficiency, and marketing of their products on a global level.

Founded in 2019, KalaGhar works with groups of 60-65 artisans to source and market eco-friendly and aesthetically pleasing home décor products. The team runs regular design workshops to build skill development and design innovation among the artisans.

KalaGhar is one of 10 job-creating companies that is participating in Upaya’s 2020 Accelerator cohort. While the accelerator workshops look at bit different this year, taking place virtually instead of in person, we were able to ask Megha and Shipra a bit more about how and why they started their company via an email interview. Here’s what they had to share!

Q: What are the key problems your company aims to address?

“Women artisans in rural Odisha are prone to many forms of social injustices owing to the issue of disguised unemployment and low economic status in society.

We are working with women Sabai (natural fiber) weaving artisans in Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha. Lack of design innovation, operational inefficiency, and lack of market linkage, makes it difficult for these artisans to reach the right market and create a sustainable source of income through their work.

While there are challenges in production, there are also a lot of opportunities in this craft form. There is an increasing demand in quality sustainable products worldwide, and the customers is constantly looking for innovative products. We at KalaGhar, are consistently working to bridge the gap.”

Q: How did you become so passionate about this problem?

“The idea of being a part of social change has always inspired us. But we truly grew passionate about this cause when we started working on the ground level, stayed with the rural artisans, and got to see their challenges up-close. These artisans had a strong need for livelihood opportunities and were willing to work hard and learn. There were training programs by various NGOs at the villages, but it was not leading them to a sustainable source of income.

They have their tiny farms and strong community support in the village. Migrating to urban cities away from their families for labor work is not a feasible solution for the rural artisans. We feel there is a strong need to create work opportunities in the rural economy for sustainability. KalaGhar, is a result of our efforts in this direction.”

Q: What have been your biggest challenges so far?

“Building the artisans’ capacity and systems on the ground level has been the biggest challenge so far. Our artisans are from extremely remote villages of Odisha, where the roads and railways miss to visit. But, as we had decided to work on building the operations efficiency and craft innovation, it was essential to build our base inside the villages.

Because there is no direct connectivity of roads and railways, we had to opt for local buses and shared autos to reach to the village from the nearest railway station, which used to take a lot of time. Reaching out to different artisan groups, building a team of artisans, and conducting workshops with the limited communication resources were difficult tasks in the first year.

There were also no local lodges anywhere close to the village, and the villagers were not ready to rent places to outsiders. The places where we used to stay had cloth tent wash rooms (like one in the picture), which was painfully challenging, as our core team is all women. But these experiences helped us understand their challenges and appreciate their hard work from an entirely new perspective.

After a year of work on the ground, now we have our own workshop in the proximity of our artisans’ groups. Also, people trust us enough to give their homes at rent.”

Q: What has been your biggest learnings till date?

When you work in a sensitive sector like the impact sector, you start critically questioning the difference you are making. At times that makes it difficult to persevere, as the positive change starts showing slowly, and a lot of times it is a snowballing effect of the work done consistently over time.

My biggest learning in this sector has been, we can’t make the entire situation perfect. But with consistent evaluation and efforts, we can always make things better.”

Q: What is your vision for your company?

“To build an ecosystem which creates dignified livelihoods for rural artisans of India at the bottom of pyramid resulting in 1) improved skills, employability, and economic security, and 2) better social and economic standing within their families and communities.

We want to establish KalaGhar as a global supplier for premium natural fiber-based products.”

Q: What is your vision for India or the world at large?

“Our vision for India is to be a country which can create dignified jobs and lives for all its citizens who are willing to work hard to earn a living.”

Q: What has been your greatest accomplishment to date?

“Before we started our work, the women artisans used to supply their crafts to some local traders. These local traders used to pay the artisans petty low wages and hold their payments up to 45-60 days. The artisans hardly used to negotiate on the prices for the products with us or any other trader. They also didn’t participate in local fairs, as due to extremely infrequent orders, they felt underconfident about the marketability of their products.

We started working them, we paid them 2.5-3x times the wages for making the same product. Also, our payment policy for artisans is to make the payments within 7-10 days of production.

After working with them for six months, they negotiate confidently with us and others. Now, they have made small groups to sell their products in local fairs. Our greatest accomplishment till date is their confidence that their products can sell in the market and that their skill set has a financial value.”