There are many run-away young boys & girls, who can often be seen on the sides of signals and on streets scavenging through disposed-off tires, plastic bottles and other garbage. This is more prominent in bigger cities where the lure of a glamorous life forces many kids to migrate or run from their homes. Most end up in slums.
Vocational skills can play a crucial role in...Read More
Even though SETU works for Women Empowerment & Gender Equity all through the year, we observe International Women’s Day as an opportunity to celebrate the milestones achieved in this direction!
There are many crafts in India which are stereotyped as “men’s” crafts, while women are supposed to follow “softer” craft skills. One such craft is the Wood Carving. C...Read More
After the world emerged from the depths of COVID pandemic, the significance of computer literacy has become more evident than ever before. It has accelerated the transformation of education, making computer literacy indispensable for all. Online classes, digital resources, and collaborative platforms have become the new norm.
By equipping underprivileged girls with computer ...Read More
SETU continually endeavors for holistic development of underprivileged & marginalized women. To achieve women empowerment, it is important to focus on economic independence, literacy and self-confidence of women. We are running several initiatives in the form of Training workshops and awareness programs like tailoring & other handicraft skills’ upgradation, livelihood...Read More
Date: 8th March 2022
Place: Bagru, Rajasthan
In today’s world, especially after the pandemic outbreak, everything has become “online”….be it kids’ schooling, shopping, news, entertainment, any type of registration, everything involves the use of technology & internet. And so computer knowledge has become the need of the hour. However, the underprivileged & ...Read More
“Pay attention to the hungry, both in this country and around the world. Pay attention to the poor. Pay attention to our responsibilities for world peace…. ” George McGovern
The UN data shows that about 815 million people in the entire world live in hunger. Out of these, 200 million people are in India alone! This means about 15% population of India still fights hunger...Read More
Even though SETU strives every day to empower women, we love to celebrate International Women’s day! And so, on the occasion of this day, SETU organized a two-day Workshop on Skill & Quality Upgradation for the women artisans of one of our partner artisan groups, V.R.D.I. Trust in Kutch.
The group is engaged in making fine quality gloves and masks, hand-tailored out of...Read More
With the objective of providing self-employment opportunities to the underprivileged women artisans, a training centre was started at the Sanjay Nagar slum area of Jaipur, about 4 months back. A lot of women here have already learnt various skills & are able to produce bags, buntings and a range of other home decor items. Looking at the interest of many women & to add m...Read More
SETU has been working towards the development of skill sets among the women artisans, thus empowering them to create a sustainable and dignified living for themselves. With this objective, a training center was started in the urban slum areas of Jaipur on 17th of October 2018.
The objective of starting the center in the slum area came out of the idea that majority of the wom...Read More
With an objective to constantly upgrade the skill sets of artisans, Kallista designs in association with SETU Society, organised a skill up-gradation workshop for the silver jewelry artisans at Jaipur.
These artisans are working with us since a long time and we have supported them in multiple ways, like: by providing monetary help in purchasing raw material for jewellery, by...Read More
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, SETU organized a five-days’ workshop on Product Design and Skill upgradation for women artisans at Chohtan village near Barmer, Rajasthan. The workshop was conducted from 8th March to 13th March, in association with our partner artisan group SURE . A total of 40 women from the nearby villages of Navatala, Binjrad and Bidhani att...Read More
Women empowerment is one of the foremost objectives of SETU. Making women literate & financially independent are the two main pillars that make them empowered in real sense.
To achieve the mission, SETU has been running a literacy centre at Govind Garh, Rajasthan for the illiterate women in that locality. To take the women towards the next step of self-reliance, SETU con...Read More
A Product designing and skill development workshop was organized for our Paper Mache artisans, based at Srinagar, Kashmir. The Group is engaged in making beautiful and unique artifacts from recycled paper, which are then hand painted in fine traditional & modern designs.
The objective of the one month long training program was to engage underprivileged women in the craft...Read More
To achieve the long term objective of empowering the women artisans by making them proficient in skill based work, SETU opened a tailoring centre at Malikpur Dhani. The women artisans are associated with SETU for the past many years and earlier have also been part of our learning initiatives project for the elderly, where the women have successfully learnt how to read & wri...Read More
In the present times, a lot of the illiterate youth is moving to urban areas in search of employment and many end up living a life in slums, frustration & crime. Being unskilled, they do not have interest in practicing the traditional craft forms and thus they do not have any direction as to how to earn a decent livelihood and live a respectful life. There are a few tribal ...Read More
The month of October is celebrated worldwide by Fair Traders as the Fair Trade Month. SETU always tries to conduct some special & meaningful activity to mark the occasion. This time we conducted a series of skill development training programs for our underprivileged women artisans engaged in making upcycled products.
The week long Training Program started from 16th of Oc...Read More
With an objective of upgrading the skills of artisans, specially underprivileged women, so as to enable them earn sustainable livelihood for themselves, a workshop for a duration of one month is being conducted by SETU, starting from 15th of july 2016 at Mandavi Bhuj. The beneficiaries of the training Programme are women artisans engaged in making Bandhani crafts . These artisa...Read More
With a view to promote sustainable livelihood opportunities, SETU conducted a 15 day long tailoring and designing workshop for the underprivileged women at Wazirabad. The training programme started on 5th of May and continued till 20th May 2016.
The women involved belonged mostly to minority communities with male dominating environment. Many of the participating girls and wo...Read More
To achieve women empowerment in the true sense, women need to be equipped with 2 main things: basic education & financial self-sustainability. There are many underprivileged women who are not only illiterate, but also do not have any livelihood skills. Such women lack self-confidence and are usually the most prone to social exploitation and male dominance, with little or no...Read More
International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 every year. SETU celebrated the occasion with the underprivileged women artisan community of Barmer, Rajasthan engaged in embroidery and appliqué work. SETU is associated with the artisan community since past many years.
The artisans of the region are facing an acute shortage of electricity which is hampering their qualit...Read More
SETU carries out skill based community development programs and workshops for the artisan community on a timely basis. These skill based programs help the artisans in shaping their skills and exploring new avenues of employment. The programs are specially designed for the women artisans so that they can be breadwinners for their families or contribute to the family income.
In ...Read More
With it’s long term objective to make the artisans and their families educated, specially women, SETU has been running 3 literacy programmes. These have been specially designed for the illiterate women from the artisan communities. Two centres were started in November 2014 ; at Gajsingh Pura, and Kaladera, near Jaipur, Rajasthan. Besides providing primary education to the art...Read More
With the objective of making underprivileged women self sustainable and spreading awareness on the importance of education, SETU has been running 2 education centres for the women, especially focussing on adult education i.e., providing education to the illiterate women in the age group of 18- 50 years. Both the centres have been successfully running since over a year and the p...Read More
SETU believes in self sustainable growth of the artisan community and provides self employment opportunities to the underprivileged and downtrodden sections of the society.
Handmade products have a large potential, requires less investment and offers infinite self employment as well as job opportunities. Special needs people with disabilities and persons with weak mental str...Read More
Distribution of certificates to the participants by SETU
To ensure all round development of the artisans, SETU had started a computer training project in the year 2014 to provide technical education to the artisans & their families at our partner NGO, SURE, based at Binjrad village of the Barmer district of Rajasthan. This small village is located at a distance of 75 kms...Read More
SETU organized a 10-day skill-upgradation workshop in association with SETU’s partner artisan group ‘Anwesha’, based in Orissa. Anwesha is a non-profit organization working for the underprivileged artisans in rural and tribal backgrounds. SETU supports the artisan group by providing them with international marketing platform to sell their products.
The underlying objec...Read More
Artisans need to hone and up-grade their skills from time to time to keep up with these competitive times where the customers need new and innovative designs & products every day!
Keeping this in mind, SETU organized a 10-days skill up-gradation workshop for our wood carving artisans, between the period of 2nd March to 12th March 2015 at Kajiwala village in U.P. The work...Read More
In our mission to promote economic independence for underprivileged women artisans, SETU has come up with two training centres for tailoring in remote villages of Narsapur district in Andhra Pradesh. Training centres have been established in the two villages (one center in each village) of Narsapur district viz Mogultur and Appanarmunilanka. Our crochet lace women artisans live...Read More
SETU constantly endeavours for women empowerment by way of developing livelihood generating skills, so that the women can become economically independent and can also contribute to their family income. In the series, a fifteen day long tailoring workshop, with the motive of inculcating stitching/tailoring skills in the poor women artisans coming from the underprivileged and dow...Read More
In its constant efforts to support the differently-abled, SETU organised a training workshop on Block printing for the special needs people at Very Special Arts, New Delhi on 2nd May 2014. This was second in the series of these training workshops to be organised here. Earlier in 2013, similar session was conducted at VSA who is our partner artisan group since many years. VSA is...Read More
Locality: Mazdoor Nagar Basti, Jaipur
(8th March 2014)
In continuation with the series of livelihood generation programmes for women coming from the underprivileged and downtrodden sections of the society, SETU organized a training workshop for women residing in the slum areas of Mazdoor Nagar Basti, Jaipur, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, 8th March 2014. Ma...Read More
SETU is associated with many women artisans doing appliqué and embroidery works, braving poverty as well as the harsh conditions of the Thar Desert region in west Rajasthan. Opportunities for livelihood and development are low. SETU tries to make them self-sustainable by partnering with them and helping them to develop new products & providing marketing platform for the pr...Read More
With an underlying motive of increasing livelihood opportunities available to poor women homemakers, a training workshop was organised by SETU Society on 6th September 2013 at Shaktinagar (Nivar road) Jaipur. The basic thought behind carrying out the workshop was to help women in contributing towards the family income by making them learn the art of jewelry making & simple ...Read More
Venue: Hasanpura slums, Jaipur (Rajsthan)
“Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, an age old idiom still holds significant meaning in today’s times. To spread awareness about Sanitation practices among the underprivileged and marginalized sections of the society, residing in urban slum areas, an awareness workshop was organized by SETU Society for Empowerment and Trade Upl...Read More
(30th July 2013)
SETU Society is actively working to provide livelihood alternatives to the underprivileged and downtrodden sections of the society. In one such endeavor, a training workshop was organized for the women residents of the urban slums at Govind Nagar , Jaipur (Rajasthan). The women folks here come from low income groups and are not educated enough to get decent ...Read More
Venue: Very Special Arts India, New Delhi
(May 06, 2013)
SETU organized a skill up-gradation workshop on block printing at our partner artisan group called ‘Very Special Arts India’ on 6th May 2013.
VSAI is one of SETU’s partner artisans working with the disabled and underprivileged young population of India. They use art & craft for skill development of people...Read More
Venue: MBSS , Uttar Pradesh
Date: February 15-17, 2013
SETU organized a three – day interactive workshop & problem solving session with our partner handloom weavers of Mahila Bunkar Sahakari Samiti (MBSS) from 15th to 17th February.
MBSS is a co-operative of artisans in U.P. who create some of our beautiful home décor items and bags. The cooperative aims to organi...Read More
In the vicinity of about 50 kms around Jaipur, there are lots of artisan families engaged in various traditional crafts, which are also their sole means of livelihood. Lack of exposure, stagnancy in their designs & product range and lack of market opportunities is leading these artisans towards an uncertain future …
SETU is associated with such artisans in Renwal, a sm...Read More
Venue: Nagina, Bijnor, U.P.
Date: January 22-25, 2013
SETU is associated with a number of wood carving artisans who create beautiful products for us. For majority of them, wood carving is their traditional skill being practiced from ages and they are quite dexterous in crafting regular designs. However to stay abreast in these times of competition, they need to sharpen thei...Read More
Livelihood Promotion Workshop
Venue: Sanjay Nagar (Chitrakoot), Jaipur
Date: November 23-24, 2012
Every woman can play an important role in the development of the family if she is provided with awareness & training and given the necessary freedom.
SETU has been focusing on livelihood generation initiatives for the women dwelling in poor slum areas of the city. Lot...Read More
Venue: Tilonia, Rajasthan
(July 19, 2012)
SETU conducted a workshop with the artisans in village Tilonia to address the quality issues that the artisans were facing from quite some time.
The artisans make beddings & other home decor products for us. So SETU organized a Quality Improvement Workshop for them. Ms. Raj Kanwar & Ms. Ganeshi Bai (senior quality checker...Read More
Venue: Bijnor, U.P.
(June 13- July 2, 2012)
The art of wood carving is prevalent from ancient years. Passed down from generation to generation, this traditional skill provides livelihood to countless no. of artisans & their families.
However, with time it is being observed that the percentage of older people practicing this craft is increasing. Ageing & failing h...Read More
Venue: MBSS Surajpur, Uttar Pradesh
(29-30 March 2012)
SETU organized a two-day training & development workshop for our handloom weavers of Mahila Bunkar Sahakari Samiti on 29th & 30th march 2012 at Surajpur, (U.P.)., for Capacity Building & Readiness for Export Market.
MBSS is a co-operative group of artisans who create some of our beautiful home décor item...Read More
Workshop on Capacity Building & Self-development for our artisans of Kutch, Gujarat
(October 8, 2011 to October 10, 2011)
Venue: Bhuj, Kutch, Gujarat
A total of three workshops were organized by SETU for the artisans of Bhuj, Kutch with the help & co-operation of our partner NGOs viz. Khamir CRC, Qasab & VGS. The venues chosen were the artisan facilitation Cent...Read More
Tailoring Workshop (24-27 September) , Ashok colony Gwalior
A four-day tailoring workshop was organized for the residents of `Nadi Par Taal’, Ashok colony,Gwalior. The people come from the underprivileged and downtrodden sections of the society who make a living by working as seasonal wage laborers and thus fall short of employment all the year round.The training programme...Read More
(6-8 August 2011)
Location: Barmer, Rajasthan
Artisans produce beautiful designs, straight from their heart, sometimes unmatchable with even the classy fashion designers. Their designs are characteristic of the innocence and purity of their dedication towards the craft. Artisans are excellent at the artistic part of the product but to increase the market demand, it is essen...Read More
In today’s scenario, when everything is virtual and online and just a click away, being computer savvy is an essential need. A lot of underprivileged & poor women are forced to take a back seat due to lack of computer knowledge. The anxiety and fear associated with the lack of computer awareness is even more detrimental for them.
And so, on the apt occasion of Intern...Read More
Barmer Rajasthan
SETU organized a “Workshop on Self development and Quality improvement” for our wood Block printing artisans in the desert areas near Barmer, Rajasthan on 23rd March 2011. Artisans here specialize in Ajrakh block printing, a form of block printing on cloth; characteristic of this region. These artisans belong to the Khatri community and are engaged in th...Read More
an urban slum at Gwalior
(2nd Feb 2011)
Life is sometimes too harsh for some people. Food and water which are life’s basic necessities are not an easy affair for many. This is true for the people of Jagnapura Laghedi, an urban slum at Gwalior where SETU team made a visit.
The sole source of income for the residents here is embroidery on sarees which women of the family...Read More
As part of our efforts to bring about artisan development, we decided to provide training to our wood carving artisans in a bid to lessen their product rejections. These artisans make beautiful products but fall short on certain parameters of product design and quality, leading to rejections. To solve this problem and to polish their skills, we invited them at SETU. They were a...Read More
(8-9 December 2010)
In an effort to implement our vision of overall artisan development, SETU team visited our jewellery making artisans at Moradabad and wood carving artisans of Bijnor.
Visit to Moradabad:
SETU team, consisting of team head Rashmi and product development manager Archna, visited the artisans. The group houses our jewellery making artisans. Our beautifu...Read More
Reinforcing artisan talent!! (December 2010)
Nurturing talent is as important as recognizing it, only then the true mettle of an artisan can come out. With this view, in December 2010; SETU sponsored awards to the student women artisans of Kalaraksha Vidyalaya (a venture of Kalaraksha, one of our partner NGOs). Awards were given for showing excellence in respective art forms...Read More
Developing the craft skills of artisans – Trainer for artisans development (November 2010)
Artisans are experts in their various traditional art forms but sometimes lack efficiency in design skills, especially for contemporary & functional product development and need training to upgrade them. Keeping in view this fact, we at SETU has appointed a master trainer to deve...Read More
(October 2010)
Design is the soul of a product. Updating artisans with contemporary trends in designs is essential for creating / maintaining the demand of a product among customers. This not only enables the artisan to make products in accordance with customers taste but also introduces them to latest techniques in the marketplace which is necessary for their overall develo...Read More
(August 2010)
SETU organized a technical workshop at one of our artisan groups `SABALA’ in the arid villages of Bijapur, Karnataka. It is an all women’s organization dedicated to the empowerment of Women and Children.
With a view to improve the skills of artisans and to update them with the latest colour trends a workshop was organized at SABALA.
Highlights of the ...Read More
Development & Education Project: The [candle] flame that never extinguishes
This project revolves around the organization whose main purpose is to provide education and health care to underprivileged children. The school also provides vocational education to help them become self-sustainable when they grow up. The school raises some income by making the newspaper &...Read More
“Kala Raksha” means “Protecting art”. At SETU consortium, we greatly value the conservation of handmade, cultural and artistic talents.
In our experiences, we have noticed that many art forms are becoming extinct. Unfair trade practices make artisans go out of business, provide mundane work at factories that doesn’t require artistic skills, and ultimately stop th...Read More
