Social startup giving Kerala's traditional crafts an international platform

PRODUCTS from Kerala artisans have great demand in the international market. But these artisan communities struggle for visibility as they are unable to feature their products on a global platform.

- ANU KURUVILLA @Kochi

Aiming to help change this situation, Biju George—a mechanical engineer by training but with more than 20 years of experience in the IT field—and Rakkee Thimothy—a researcher from the Jawaharlal Nehru University—shared a dream of developing a business model that would improve the reach of Indian craft in the global market.

That was the time they were relocating to Kerala. And they founded a social startup, Graamyam, which is now bringing joy into the artisan communities across the state.

"We wanted to make a change in the lives of rural craftspeople," Rakkee tells TNIE.

Highlighting the problems plaguing the sector, she says lack of revenue makes the younger generation ditch craft work. "Another major issue with traditional crafts is the absence of innovation in design and process. The laborious processes make the products costly and unaffordable to a large section of society," she adds.