Threads Of Empowerment

OUR JOURNEY WITH WOMEN'S CO-OPS

The women-run artisan cooperatives that create the clothing in this catalog are quite different from typical India garment manufacturing units. In India, women rarely have the chance to develop professional skills such as managing a supply chain, tracking finances, and overseeing quality control.

At a cooperative, a woman may initially join to help support her family through embroidery, but those with talent and initiative are encouraged to take on more, furthering our goal of promoting empowerment and self-development.

"There is bound to be conflict, but being part of the group is so much more than that," explains Shivkumari Prajapati, whose Prerna Cooperative was recently restructured from a collective (owned by one individual) to a cooperative (where ownership is shared). "When we started the new group, one thing was common: we had all gone through the same change, and we had to fight together to make it a good change. Now we all stand by each other because of that bond."