Dastkar

To support craftspeople across India by reviving and promoting traditional crafts and creating markets and opportunities that make craft a means of earning and empowerment.

Dastkar is a pioneering Indian non-governmental organisation working with craftspeople across the country for the revival and promotion of India's traditional crafts. Founded in Delhi in 1981 by a group of six women, including its longtime chairperson Laila Tyabji, it began with fifteen craft groups and now works with hundreds across India. It is best known for the Dastkar bazaars, direct-to-market craft fairs held since 1982 that let artisans sell their own work and meet urban customers, and for the Dastkar Nature Bazaar promoting natural materials and nature-inspired craft.

Founded in 1981, Dastkar was among the first organisations to reconceive craft revival around the marketplace, creating the Dastkar Bazaar, first held at Triveni Kala Sangam, where craftspeople came directly to sell their products, both a sales opportunity and a learning space. The model, much imitated since, spread to cities across India. In 1995 it launched the Nature Bazaar, inspired by the conservationist Valmik Thapar, now with a permanent venue at Kisan Haat in Mehrauli. Over four decades Dastkar and Laila Tyabji, a Padma Shri awardee, have worked with hundreds of craft groups and NGOs, credited with helping build a modern market for Indian crafts and with using craft skills as a means of livelihood and empowerment.