A rapidly changing and growing Indian economy with its emphasis on knowledge workers and skilled service-oriented workforce has made the century old skills and the traditional products of these artisans irrelevant.But having no new skills, or means to acquire new ones, has made them unwanted. Alienated from their traditional craft and skills they end up in dead-end menial jobs, far away from their villages, and live in squalor of an urban slum.

The result: in village after village, creative and productive artisan communities are dying—‘not with a bang but with a whimper’.

I say whimper because there’s no institutional mechanism anywhere in the country to help these artisans and their children manage change, upgrade their skills, prepare themselves for the challenges and help them control their destinies.The vacuum is however filled by consultants and managers who may know the market but don’t understand the craft or the plight of the artisans. Thereby, making an already bad situation worse.

As a designer, educationist and social activist, I have worked closely with these rural, tribal artisans and over the last 18 years have seen this happen time and again. So I resolved not to be a silent witness anymore and decided to take action. The revival of Kumbham— centuries-old potter’s village in Aruvacode, Kerala—at the brink of extinction became my passion. My experience at Kumbham has given me deep insights and helped me distill a long-term solution.

A solution centered on building a long-term relationship between artisans and their village, training traditional
potters to diversify their product range and linking technology and design improvements to create aesthetically and market relevant products.

Simply put, create an improved status for the artisans and higher revenue for their products. To realize this
vision, I started the Enable Artisan project.

Kumbham (koom-bhum) at Aruvacode, Kerala is a unique example in reviving an almost wiped out pottery tradition. In 1993, I began working with over 150 artisans in Kumbham, and in the course of 13 years we designed and developed over 500 new designs and products, using a novel way of initiating creativity amongst artisans. A fundamental premise of the training interventions at Aruvacode (Ah-roova-code) was the cultural, aesthetic and creative superiority of the trainees, compared to the 'developed' mainstream of Indian society. The basic attempt at these training programs was to help the individuals regain their wisdom and confidence which lies embedded within their own communities and culture.Today, I can proudly say that the hopes of the artisan’s have been rekindled and the potters’wheel is spinning again. For a detailed study visit-

It is a two year long project designed to enable, equip and empower a group of 12 young potters so that they can evolve their craft into meaningful livelihood activity.