Across India, Nila supports communities of farmers and artisans by providing consistent, growing livelihood capabilities as well as vocational training programmes led by our studio. Alongside our independent work with small artisan clusters and individual farmers, we do partner with likeminded NGOs who are already doing incredible work across remote parts of India, building on the local farm-to-textile economies of rural communities. Below is some information about our partner organisations.
LBCT & ARKE
Our sister organisation, LBCT, was founded in 2001 to improve education, help promote economic growth and support women and children. Arke was established by LBCT to provide financial independence and social empowerment for women’s groups. To date, it impacts around 100 women in 10 villages. Arke is independently run by female aspiring and established artisans who receive vocational skills trainings on crafts and enterprise management.
Nila facilitates intensive up-skilling programmes for the women of Arke across a broad range of crafts and supports them with our productions. Nila’s tailoring, quilting and hand-embroidery production is increasingly being handled by these incredibly motivated women.
KHAMIR
Khamir is a platform for the craft, heritage and cultural ecology of Kachchh, Gujarat. The organisation was founded after the devastating earthquake of 2001 to strengthen and promote rich artisanal traditions of this fabled region.
Nila’s extensive support to spinners and weavers of Kachchh is partly facilitated by Khamir. Our training focuses on women hand-spinners working from home, as well as rural handloom weavers. As a part of our training, we also commit to purchasing all the yarn and textile produced by these artisans. The fibre being used is indigenous, naturally organic kala cotton grown by local farmers.
ANTARAN
Antaran is a key intervention of the Tata Trusts’ craft-based livelihood programme, initiated to bring about seminal changes in the development of the crafts sector. This comprehensive programme aims to rejuvenate ailing handloom clusters.
Nila works with Antaran in Nagaland, where we are supporting farmers to grow indigenous Naga “Tree Cotton” - a naturally organic and sustainable alternative to GMO crops. Our pledge to the farmers is to financially support their crops, after which we will be giving the fibres to hand-spinners across the region, pledging to purchase all yarn produced, which is then given over to traditional female loin-loom weavers. Training will be provided where necessary.
SPINNERS OF GOVINDGARH
The community of women in Govingarh, near Jaipur, are often talented spinners - traditionally supporting the weavers of the region with pure, hand-spun yarns.
Nila provides training to unskilled and skilled spinners alike, to improve their yarn quality and support their livelihoods. We pledge to purchase all of the local cotton yarns produced, then assist weavers to set them to looms and revive purely handspun, handwoven textile in the region.
