Sasha Association for Craft Producers (SACP) is a Kolkata-based not-for-profit product development & marketing organisation for crafts people and producers from all over India. Founded in 1978, SACP is part of a decentralised network of organisations built on complementary competences. Besides SACP, the following organisations belong to the Sasha network: Sasha Textile Artisans Association (STAA), Sarba Shanti Ayog (SSA) and Ruro Agro Services Association (RASA). With different focuses, they all work towards the collective mission of strengthening and expanding market opportunities for artisans.
SACP's services concentrate on the fields of design, business development and marketing. For this purpose, it provides the artisan partners with a team with correspondingly versatile expertise in design, marketing and administration. One of their activities is a collaborative transformation of market trends into designs which are attractive for the international market and the high-end domestic market.
Today, the Sasha network partners with nearly 100 artisan groups and producers from rural and semi-urban areas of Northeast India, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and some other states. By bringing together artisans from different fields, the product selection is as varied. It includes handmade clothing and home textiles as well as metal crafts, jewellery, pottery, decorative hangings, natural herbal body care and organic food products.
As principles of its own business model, Sasha names equity, transparency, social justice and environmental concern. Moreover, SACP is founding member of the Fair Trade Forum – India (FTF-I) and also a “Guaranteed Member” of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO). The organisation aligns its work with the 10 principles of Fair Trade. More information here.
One of the partners that has been working with SACP since 2016 is Sri Rama Handloom. The Indian handicraft company specialises in the production of jute and cotton fabrics, including the manufacture of dhurries. A dhurrie, also called a darī or durrie, refers to a flat, woven rug, usually made of cotton or wool, sometimes jute, silk, leather or a mixture of all, from India, Pakistan and Myanmar. The traditional rugs are woven on a handloom. Because of the weaving technique, they can be laid out on both sides and are usually washable or easy to clean. Warangal in the south-eastern Indian state of Telangana is one of the centres with skilled weavers and dyeing facilities. It is here, in the village of Kothawada in Warangal district, that Sri Rama Handloom was founded in 1995 by Koduri Rajamallu. At present, 20 master weavers, 10 printers and 7 weavers who do preparatory work for weaving are working there.
The beautiful cotton carpets with geometric patterns that we offer in the FOLKDAYS shop were made by Sri Rama Handloom.
Available at FOLKDAYS: products by Sri Rama Handloom.
The photos show some of the artisans of Sri Rama Handloom.
As of December 2021.