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Jaipur Rugs
Foundation was established with a primary objective of
alleviating poverty through income enhancement. It is an
attempt to provide the underprivileged communities with
a sustainable livelihood in carpet weaving and other
activities in the carpet value chain. Carpet weaving is
one of the oldest industries in India and it is highly
labor intensive, which provides livelihoods to about 2.5
million artisans. Till today, carpet weaving is largely
unorganized and it is primarily rural in nature. More
than 90 percent of the production is under the
disorganized sector. As a result, the channels are very
exploitative. By earning better wages, the artisans can
lead a healthy and normal life.
Earlier known as International Research and Development
Institute (IRDI), the foundation is a result of the
strong desire of Mr.
Nand Kishore Chaudhary,
a leading entrepreneur in hand knotted carpets, to
contribute back to the society. His dream is to develop
a society where equality and justice prevails,
altogther. JRF was established with a purpose to
organize carpet-weaving artisans at grassroot level,
build up their capacity so that they may have decent
earnings, and lead a dignified life.
Through our continuous research and interactions with
the grassroots, we discovered the following facts:
• Majority of the artisans face one of the most
devastating consequences of unrelenting poverty.
• Many communities do not avail their rights to
education, health and sanitation.
• Weavers are paid below the industry standards by the
middlemen and are not exposed directly to the markets.
• The standard of living of the artisans is generally
low and has not improved even after conventional
development interventions.
• The artisans are unaware of their rights and various
beneficiary schemes by the government that can aid them
with financial assistance.
We work with downtrodden communities with an aim to
uplift and provide them better living conditions. Our
target beneficiaries are poor artisans and their
families associated with carpet weaving living in rural
India.
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