VISION

To create a society where equality, justice and peace prevail through socio-
economic development opportunities for all.
MISSION
To serve as a social innovator promoting the cause of artisans by providing them
with decent work opportunities and lead them towards their socio-economic well-
being.
Our goal is to bring positive sustainable change in lives of artisanal communities,
to provide a life of happiness and dignity.
The visionary
The man who revolutionized traditional carpet industry in India, NK Chaudhary
established JRF to enable economic prosperity among destitute communities.
Starting with one vision, two looms and an extraordinary journey, he was able to
connect people around the world with the timeless craftsmanship of Indian
artisans. Through the coming years, he developed a network of more than
40,000 artisans spread across five states, who today work with dignity.
Who we are?
Jaipur Rugs Foundation was born in 2004 as a non-profit organization. Built on
the bedrocks of love and compassion, our work is to engage communities to
develop their creative capacities and sustain them as a part of an entire
movement of empowerment.
Why rug-weaving?
As it does not demand massive infrastructure, the practice of rug-weaving seeks
to keep women away from forced labour and migration by empowering them
with economic independence through sustainable livelihoods at their doorsteps.
Entrepreneurship Development
JRF reaches out to rural communities and creates awareness about carpet
weaving as a vocation and their potential gateway for earning a sustainable
livelihood. We seek to transform impoverished individuals and make them
employable by focusing primarily on building skills through training in rug-
weaving. Building skills is furthered by nurturing leadership capacities at the
grassroots among women artisans that help them build a bright and healthy
future. The purpose is to create an inspired and engaged environment which
encourages artisans to feel connected to the higher purpose of their work.
The overall ambit of Entrepreneurship Development includes two significant
verticals respectively:

Skill Development

The focus primarily is to augment the economic well-being of destitute

communities living in the most far flung corners of the country. We reach out to
the marginalized segments and transform unemployed, unskilled populations
into employable, skilled craftspeople through training in skill development
thereby promoting weaving as a sustainable non-farm livelihood opportunity. We
further explore how their collective strength may be developed. Skill
development manifests in the following two junctures:
Training New Artisans: To identify, locate and gradually transform unemployed
individuals into employable and skilled artisans is the main purpose of training
new artisans
Developing Existing Skills: Training programmes specifically designed to augment
existing skills of artisans in accordance to contemporary trends and designs.
Training New Artisans
This skill development intervention commences with community mobilization,
where JRF team spends time in rural villages, identifies potential target
beneficiaries focusing predominantly on rural women and begins the process of
creating awareness about how they hold the power to transform their own lives
through the timeless craftsmanship of rug-weaving.
Once the community is convinced about the prospects of pursuing weaving, the
training begins in their own local villages where it is convenient and accessible
for them. The trainings occur in batches and goes on for a period of couple of
months depending on the kind of skill and the type of product. Post training, JRF
installs weaving looms within their houses thereby making it easier for artisans
to work from home, and take a leap of faith towards a brighter future that awaits
them.3379
Developing Existing Skills
JRF truly believes that learning is a constant process and relentlessly needs to
occur time and again. Hence, even for artisans, once they have acquired
rudimentary weaving skills, they get an opportunity to further develop their
technical capabilities through extensive trainings conducted by master trainers.
The aim of upgrading skills in artisans is to enhance productivity and error
reduction, directed towards augmenting the earning potential of craftspeople.
The intervention focuses primarily on improvement in weaving techniques,
enhancing speed, timely delivery, quality benchmarks and waste reduction.740

Leadership Development

To foster the spirit of pro-active leadership among artisans at the grassroots, the
programmes aim at permeating a founders mentality and a better
understanding of the higher purpose of their work. With this training, artisans get
a full understanding of the supply chain and awareness about customer
expectations.
Artisans Engagement Programmes
Developing Owners Mind set
Artisans Engagement Programmes
The objective is to have a well-structure engagement with significant
stakeholders within the carpet value chain and to make them aware of their
possibilities and creative capacities.
Developing Owners Mindset
To go beyond being mere wage earners to being owners of their work, JRF
focuses on orienting women artisans towards developing an owners mindset.
This helps reinforce confidence among women to gain higher responsibilities and
work towards setting a certain growth trajectory for themselves as artisans.2038

Modus Operandi
Quintessentially, JRF concentrates on pursuing unemployed and unskilled women
living in rural villages and seeks to provide training in the craft of rug-weaving.
Once the woman is transformed into a working artisan, she also gets an
opportunity to integrate with the Jaipur Rugs inclusive development model. The
subsequent phase is to deliver technical training and augment their skills and
knowledge through up-gradation. This completes the skill-building facet of
transforming women artisans, who now have earned economic independence,
working from home.
However, this is just the beginning of the artisans career, which has
established a certain growth trajectory from this point onwards. To facilitate the
same, JRF reaches out to the many artisans working with them and starts the
process of creating awareness about the organization, the journey of the founder
NK Chaudhary and establishes their connection with the bigger picture; the
purpose of reviving craft and providing employment to thousands of unemployed
women in rural India.
This process of engaging the artisans with the vision of the organization is
followed by a series of trainings which aim at instilling an entrepreneurial
mindset among artisans. The purpose of developing this is to enable the artisans
to acquire higher responsibilities and take control of their lives with an owners
mindset.
The last facet of Entrepreneurship development is to create leaders at the
grassroots, who create more leaders, as they spearhead the mission of enabling
sustainable livelihood to all those in need.
32,000 lives impacted
6,000+ sustainable job created
3,800+ grassroots leaders developed
Social Development
We focus on improving well-being of artisans and their communities by providing
access to various socio-economic benefits. Through social development, we seek
to ensure basic facilities, especially for those with bare minimal resources.

Alternative Education Programme

We believe that every human being must have the opportunity to learn how to
read and write. Alternative Education Programme launched by the foundation
provides basic functional literacy education to marginalized communities set up
across impoverished villages in India. It is limited not only to artisans and their
families, but anybody who wishes to learn. We focus on selecting teachers from
within the community to be responsible for imparting knowledge among fellow
villagers, in their vernacular for smoother communication.

2,198 women successfully graduated under AEP

Health Care
We organize health camps throughout several villages belonging to artisan
communities by bringing in medical professionals and doctors who carry out
regular health check-ups. Checkups and medications are provided for anyone in
need. These are limited not merely to artisans and their families. Local villagers
are welcomed to attend temporary clinics set up in the villages.

20,077 artisans benefited from health camps

80 cataract operations conducted

Financial Inclusion
We seek to equip artisans with basic knowledge and skills that help them save
money to shape a brighter future for their families. We aid them to receive
various benefits provided by the government. This entails assistance in
formalities like filling of form, supporting documents and linking them with
banks. In addition, a new system of payment introduction of M-Pesa by
Vodafone, has been facilitated for easy transactions.

1,932 artisans assisted with financial inclusion

Artisan Cards
One of the biggest challenges faced by artisans is the lack of awareness and
knowledge regarding opportunities intended for them under various social
welfare schemes. JRF has been playing an instrumental role in facilitating access
to artisan cards. These are issued to the artisans by Development Commissioner,
Handicrafts (Government of India) with support from District Industries Centers
(DICs).

6,519 artisan cards facilitated

Insurance Linkage
One of the major learning gaps amongst artisans identified by the foundation is
the lack of knowledge and information regarding the various types of insurance
benefits intended for them and offered by the Government of India. Moreover, if
they happen to know about such benefits, they hesitate to apply for the same
considering the large task of being able to complete the formalities and
paperwork and claim processing requirements. Hence, we reach out to artisans
and their families to inform and elucidate benefits of health and general
insurance, especially those pertaining to the artisans.
1,568 artisans benefited with insurance linkages

Udhyog Adhar Number

With the prospect of the ease-of-doing-business with (MSMEs) micro, small and
medium enterprises, Government of India has introduced Udyog Aadhar, the
registration of which enables artisans to seek information and apply online about
various services being offered by all Ministries and Departments. By applying for
the same, the artisans get recognized as potential business entities.

5,241 artisan cards generated

2,000+ women artisans educated
50 health camps organized