Craft Resource Center
Craft Resource Center – India
The Craft Resource Center (CRC) is a Fair Trade Organisation which was founded in 1989 in Kolkata. This organisation provides a link between small workshops across northeast India and international buyers. CRC seeks to develop economic self-sufficiency for a vulnerable segment of society through traditional handcrafting skills, helping informally organised artisan groups to develop self-sustaining businesses. One of the groups CRC works with produces high quality jute products, another workshop produces leather goods, while other groups are highly skilled in textiles.
Seven artisans skilled in leatherwork came together in 1989 to form a cooperative. They did not know how to go about finding customers for their products, so CRC organised a product development workshop for them, and sent samples from the workshop to international Fair Trade Organisations. Years of hard work have paid off, and now over 100 people have regular work with the cooperative, while many more families and suppliers benefit indirectly. They have now built a workshop for the collective and have also set up an emergency fund for their members.
CRC provides marketing, design, finance and exporting assistance, raw materials, production coordination between groups and additional training. Because of CRC’s coordination of craft production between different artisan groups, artisans have a high level of connectedness and cooperation. As a result, artisan groups have been able to work together in partnership in times of need.
