About
To enable the women artisans of Kutch to earn a dignified and steady livelihood from their embroidery, and to preserve the region's embroidery traditions.
Shrujan is a pioneering non-profit craft organisation based at Bhujodi near Bhuj in Kutch, Gujarat, founded in 1969 by Chandaben Shroff when Kutch was facing severe drought, to enable the region's women embroiderers to use their skill to earn a dignified and steady income. Over more than five decades it has worked with thousands of women artisans across the ethnic communities of Kutch, preserving and reviving their distinctive embroidery traditions while creating sustainable livelihoods, and it established the Living and Learning Design Centre (LLDC), a major museum and craft-education complex dedicated to the crafts of Kutch.
Shrujan began in 1969 when Chandaben Shroff, moved by the hardship of drought-stricken Kutch, saw that its women possessed extraordinary embroidery skills and set out to turn that skill into livelihood, beginning with a small group of embroiderers. Over the decades it grew into one of the most respected craft organisations in India, working with women across Kutch's communities, documenting and reviving embroidery styles, and eventually creating the Living and Learning Design Centre, a large museum and centre for the crafts of Kutch that has become a landmark of craft preservation and education.
Shrujan is one of the most important craft organisations in India, a pioneer of livelihood-based craft revival and, through the Living and Learning Design Centre, of the documentation and celebration of Kutch's embroidery heritage.
[Atlas Perspective] Profiled as an Institution (Operator) in the Crafts field. Shrujan connects to the embroidery traditions of Kutch and to the women artisans who practise them, and runs the Living and Learning Design Centre. Founder Chandaben Shroff was a pioneer of craft-based livelihood.