Vankar weaver community
Nirona village, Bhuj taluka, Kutch, Gujarat
Woven by Hansaben Vankar on a fair-wage loom in Nirona, Kutch. Each shawl takes 6 days on the loom.
Every purchase supports sustainable livelihoods, preserves traditional knowledge and strengthens women-led producer groups in this village. You are not buying a product — you are joining a community.
Handwoven Kutch Shawl
by Kutch Weavers Collective
Handwoven Kutchi shawl in extra-fine merino, dyed with natural indigo and madder.
"The mill can copy my pattern. It cannot copy the six days I gave it."
100% of the profit reaches the artisan. Anudaan collects 0% platform fee on marketplace orders.
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Working capital for women weavers in Kutch cooperatives
Kutch, Gujarat · 73% funded
The story behind this piece
Hansaben was 11 when the loom in her father's courtyard fell silent — mill shawls had reached the Bhuj market and nobody would pay for six days of a woman's hands.
After the 2001 earthquake flattened her home, she restrung that same loom under a tarpaulin because it was the only thing she knew how to rebuild. Nine women joined her. Today the collective she chairs pays 42 weavers.
The indigo in this shawl is fermented in a clay vat for three weeks; the deep rose comes from madder root grown behind the weaving shed. No two shawls carry the exact same tone — the vat, like the desert, changes with the season.
Wearing it means a girl in Nirona sees weaving as a future rather than a fallback.
How it's made
- 1Merino yarn is hand-spun and sized with local wheat starch.
- 2Yarn is dyed in fermented natural indigo and madder-root vats.
- 3Warping takes a full day across the courtyard.
- 4Six days of pit-loom weaving, with extra-weft motifs counted from memory.
What your purchase changes
- • ₹2,400 is 6 days of fair-wage income for one master weaver.
- • Every 5 shawls fund one month of a young weaver's apprenticeship stipend.
- • Profits stay inside the women-led collective — no middlemen.
