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The Sabha outlet in
Bangalore Bangalore, October 18, 2000 Sabha, a retail marketing
outlet for traditional Indian arts and crafts, is a micro enterprise initiative
of Action Aid India (AAI), an international NGO. AAI has been in India for
twenty-seven years, and has worked in many areas of development for the
disadvantaged and marginalized communities. Sabha understands that a
lot more needs to be done for rural artisans besides financial support. There
exists a gap of effective marketing, proper design inputs, product development,
technical support, together with a continuous need to incorporate changes
dynamically with the market trends and needs. Sabha was started to address
these needs and work more proactively towards bridging the gaps effectively.
Sabha since its inception
has worked actively to support sustainable livelihood systems through promotion
of micro enterprise for the poor. Sabha aims at the upliftment of the
unacknowledged and unknown of India. Promotion of the rural art of these
artisans as the prime concern, Sabha is currently working with 90 producer
groups all over India. Sabha is a fair trade
marketing platform for the arts and handicrafts of the country. The landless
agricultural laborers, marginal workers, tribals, dalits, people with
disabilities, self-employed women, home based workers and those employed in the
unorganized sector are supported through this effort. Sabha is the only outlet
of its kind around the country. It works with groups from rural India, whose
only source of living is the crafts that have been passed on from generations.
Many of the groups engage the disadvantaged and marginalized women of these
villages. Sabha markets and
promotes the products, ensuring a continuous demand. Its efforts are geared
towards ensuring increased market options for producer groups, demand led
production plans, improved insights on the market behavior, broadening the
prospective of a producer groups and enhancing capabilities to manage
enterprises. Sabha offers interactive
communication on social issues and provides information on the people behind
the wonderful products, who are often unseen and unheard of. Sabha organizes
exhibitions on a regular basis for the product groups, during which the
artisans are invited to demonstrate their art to the consumers in the cities.
They get to interact with the customers and know about the kind of market
demand that prevails, and the trends and tastes of the consumer. Sabha has a wide range of
unique, exotic, ethnic hand made products, which include a range of functional
and well-designed products for homes. Sabha’s range consists of exquisite
embroidery from various parts of India, patchwork linen, ethnic furnishings,
intricate artifacts, paintings and hand crafted leather items, art nouveau
terracotta, traditional and tribal crafts and a lot more wonderful products.
Sabha may be contacted at
the following address: Action Enterprise
Also check up our other feature :Action Aid India
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