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Craftwork home working systems could be the future of decentralized garment production

Haute Couture designer – Rahul Mishra, and the founder of Nest – Rebecca Van Bergen on providing artisans with a favorable working environment. Implementing home working practices

Craftwork and the lack of consideration for the workers

As COVID-19 ravaged the world, halting orders from places like India, Bangladesh, garment workers were left without jobs. Many high street and high-end brands pulled their orders, leading to a deepening craftwork crisis for garment workers. In a report by the International Labour Organization and the Better Work group, COVID-19 has had a ripple effect on production; with «global garment trade virtually collapsing in the first half of 2020». For many years, factory work has been touted as ineffective and damaging; with the growing health concerns over overcrowded spaces and a lack of oversight and legislation. This allowed third-party contracting to exploit areas where textile production and craftwork have been handed down for generations. 

The Nest’s non-profit – supporting craftwork

Some brands and organizations have been working against the tide to help workers create safe, flexible working conditions that bring them out of cities and back to their homes. The Nest’s non-profit founder – Rebecca Van Bergen, and haute couture designer and supporter of traditional craftsmanship in India – Rahul Mishra; worked to support craftwork for marginalized groups. Securing their jobs through longer contracts, helping them work with brands; re-organizing structures created to prioritize factory work over home working in terms of safety and quality assurance. Rahul Mishra comes from Malhausi, a small village in India, where he grew up before entering the National Institute of Design. He met M.P. Ranjan, a leader in design thinking that helped him realize production problems without purpose.

Rahul has since worked with artisans on bringing them back to their villages. Setting up clusters where they can work together in their homes. Their craftwork provides them a stable income outside of the shorter contracts offered by fashion companies that look at their embroidery as a trend rather than a long-term collaboration.

Looking at ways that artisans can function as SME 

Although fashion brands can, and should, approach workers from within their own supply chain; others are looking at ways that artisans and craftworkers worldwide can function as SME’s from their home. Rebecca Van Bergen, is based in America and coordinates Nest’s activities. A non-profit that works towards helping women and craftworkers develop in their field. She started through a master’s degree in Social Work at Washington University.

The Nest non-profit works through a number of routes, one of which is the Nest Guild that connects more than 500 artisan businesses across over 90 countries. «We find artisan businesses in many ways – often, they find us through research or word of mouth. Our team also meets artisan partners during our travels and at trade shows and events. We do strategic research when partners are looking for specific techniques», says Van Bergen.

The organization also runs a sourcing collective, an artisan accelerator, and sets the standard for home working craftswork through its Nest Standards for Homes and Small Workshops, as well as setting out the guidelines for the Seal for Ethical Handcraft. These schemes focus on legitimizing the home worker industry through improved and legislated safety regulations. In addition also growth programs like the accelerator, giving training and resources to artisans. Allowing the organization to tackle handcraft and home working at every level.

New routes for craftwork like 3D printing

It helps women to develop businesses that can be both flexible. New routes for handcraft like 3D printing, and extend cultural knowledge of textiles and traditions. For Rebecca Van Bergen, «One of the changes that came from working with companies is that the larger the company becomes; the more we have to think about compliance and transparency. When small companies do it, they know their supply chain. So it is easier to wrap your head around what your production looks like».

«The larger the company, the larger the orders, the harder it gets. About seven years ago, we reached a group of brands and industry partners that came to us. They said that the barrier for them in expanding their commitments. Employing more artisans in their supply chain was the lack of shared industry standards for production. This is to say when artisans are in homes or in informal workshops where visibility is harder. We started this journey to create our standard for production that happens in these unregulated spaces».

India’s biggest crisis – the craftwork migration crisis

One of the issues with factory work in garment production hotspots like India and Bangladesh is that as an industry, it has allowed for workers to move away from their villages and gather in expensive and overcrowded cities like Delhi. Mishra’s experience of working with artisans when founding his brand was pivotal in the way he has approached working with them and decentralizing the production process. «In India, the biggest crisis was the migration crisis. In 2014, I started a program where I went to slum areas, and realized that I cannot get my work produced from there. Even though they were producing for some of the top brands». 

«What I asked them instead was whether they would like to go back to the village. The first thing to know about production work is that in India, there is no opportunity for jobs that reach the villages. Most of the time, people have to migrate out of the village. When they reach a city, they either become laborers or embroiders, craftsmen. These people can see how cities are so expensive». 

«They end up living in slum areas, which creates slums in cities. For most of them, their dream is to build a house in the village where they were born. Over the first ten to twelve years, they save enough money, but they only spend 10 percent on themselves every month, and the rest of the money they send back home. With that money, the houses are built and finished properly; it takes care of their family, parents, and children’s education». 

Workers living in miserable conditions

For these people, because there is no work for them in the village, they end up spending their lives in miserable conditions. Working and sleeping in overcrowded rooms of twenty people to 10 feet by 20 feet area. To go to the toilet, they have to walk almost two kilometers to an area for open defecation. When they come back, there is no water even to drink or to take a shower every day. With the hot and humid conditions of Bombay, it is dangerous.

That is why I started to reverse that process. Now, more than 200 people in one of these small villages have gone back, and they all work from there, making embroidery. I am decentralizing the process right now. It started six-seven years back as an experiment. Now the workers live near their families, get home-cooked food, take care of their parents and children, and live a happy life. When they lived in cities, they had to do unproductive chores every day because they were living alone. They would get one cooked meal at night, and the same meal would become breakfast the next day. These are bad conditions to live in, and I am happy that 85 percent of our production work comes from the villages of India. 

Public safety for women remains an oft cited barrier for employment

As rent is high and the garment contracts can be short, ranging from three or four months to longer periods, workers cannot find adequate housing and instead live in slums. For women, safety issues with working outside their home arise as many locations are not safe to work in. An Economist article from July 2018 cited that, «public safety for women remains an oft cited barrier for employment. Some cities, notably the capital, Delhi, are perceived as inhospitable to single women». 

Addressing the industry’s shortfalls in terms of uneven production cycles

The lack of legislation and relationships between brands and craftsmen can improve the industry. Through work by designers like Rahul Mishra, and the work of non-profits like Nest. Many advances can map the products’ cycle from end to end. Such as the introduction of funding, growing accountability and technological improvements through blockchain. This leads to a better relationship not only between brands and workers. But consumers as well, who would appreciate the link between their item and the people behind its creation. Often, designers and brands are the only ones credited for the craftwork that goes into these pieces.

NEST

Nest is a nonprofit that works toward building a new handworker economy; to increase a global workforce inclusivity, improve women’s wellbeing, and preserve cultural traditions. 

RAHUL MISHRA

Rahul Mishra is an Indian fashion designer. The first to showcase his designs at the Paris Haute Couture Week; and the first Indian designer to win the Woolmark Prize in 2014.  

Zofia Zwieglinska

The writer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article.

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