Chanderiyaan.chanderi.org

The effort to revive a marginalized weave is finally coming full circle thanks to the efforts of the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), a not-for-profit. A little more than a month ago, its Chanderiyaan project in Madhya Pradesh, run for the benefit of about 3,500 families of Chanderi weavers,saw the launch of Chanderiyaan.net, an e-commerce website. Through this, weavers can bypass middlemen and sell their products directly online.  Read full article

Following are some excerpts from the Outlook Traveller article

“And this,” says the weaver, unfurling with the flourish a gossamer-fine pink-and-gold fabric, “is the Kareena Sari!” As we wander through pretty-as-a-picture village, we’re walking in the footsteps of Amir Khan his co-star from Three Idiots.  Read full article

With great delight and satisfaction it is stated that the work happening with the 40,000 strong weaving communities in Chanderi in Ashok Nagar District in Madhya Pradesh is an example in itself. The empowerment and development of the community has largely come through scaling up the weaving practices of the world famous weavers with new designs and patterns of work including finished product making. The support from relevant software and hardware use has been tremendous.

The design empowerment is largely happening through the innovative software being used, created by Wonder Weaves Systems (www.wonderweaves.com). The design support from Wonders Weaver Systems have come through the Dobby Master software, which is an extremely sophisticated design tool which not only caters to the qualified designer but also to the novice who may not have much weaving knowledge. The Jacquard Master used is probably one of the most detailed software for jacquard weaving; it is assisting in delivering designs like Terry / Plie and other complex Furnishing fabric. The JacDraw is providing with several tools for Editing or retouching images. The impact of the technology & software support from Wonder Weaves Systems has been manifold in Chanderi:

1. With the use of these software Chanderi’s product demand has increased almost double than the previous two years.
2. Weavers getting almost double income.
3. At present 95% of Chanderi’s design is being designed with the help of these software.
4. With the use of these software weavers are saving around 7-8 days lien time in a month.
5. Another impact is the increase in the number of looms due to product and market demand for more supply based on new design patterns.

Digital Empowerment Foundation (www.defindia.net) is satisfactory of the fact that the software support from Wonder Weaves Systems have helped in achieving key objectives of the project ‘ Chanderi Weavers ICT Resource Centre’ , a project of Ministry of Information & Communication Technology, Govt. of India and implemented by Digital Empowerment Foundation and Media Lab Asia. Currently the second phase of the project is in run. We hope that the technology and support services of Wonder Weaves Systems will continue to provide such qualitative services to communities as and when required. With best regards OSAMA MANZAR Founder Director Digital Empowerment Foundation New Delhi