Artisan Turned Entrepreneurs: A Case Study of Kolhapuri Chappals

Kolhapuri chappals are famous handcrafted footwear made in a cluster of villages in the border districts of Karnataka (Belguam district) and Maharastra. They are made from locally processed leather using vegetable dyes. The men usually fashion the lower sole and women design the innersole and work the uppers with intricate braiding and other designs. Majority of the Kolhapuri footwear artisans were bonded laborers. They were bonded by traders and middlemen who had control over the market and the raw material. In January 1999, Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiative (ASCENT) -a Bangalore based institution initiated a project, titled as ‘Project EnterPrice’. The objective of the project was to ensure that the artisans got the right price for their handcrafted footwear and in the process transformed them into entrepreneurs particularly women with core principal -“build, operate and transfer”. The business front-end and social back-end needed constant balancing using an equality, equity and inclusive approach. The outcome of this intense joint Project EnterPrice was the formation of ToeHold Artisans Collaborative (TAC) in 2002. From a business perspective TAC has been an overwhelming success.