Our Story
SEWA Ruaab is a women-owned artisans' producer-company with over 160 grassroots women shareholders. It was born out of SEWA, India's largest informal women workers movement, in 2009 by the home-based embroidery workers in Delhi and traditional silk weavers in Bihar, as an intervention to the economic and social abuses and exploitation that women faced in the garment supply chain. These women who comprise the cooperative are diverse and each has their own story of triumph.
Women in the informal sector face a myriad of problems, such as low wages, sweatshop conditions, and bonded and child labor. Ruaab is a brand that is owned and run by women artisans, providing them control of their work and production; it directly connects its producers with the end buyers to bring artisans from the shadows of the informal sector and home-based work into the global supply chain. By economically uplifting and investing in the social conditions of our artisans, we help shape their role in the workplace, economy, and society. Our goal is to share the tradition and history of Indian artisan work through each piece we handcraft and redefine the value of our artisans' work, who integrate traditional methods into the contemporary garment production chain and produce for large brands and retailers, small businesses, and boutiques, and end consumers.
We are reshaping our women artisans’ roles not only within the global supply chain but also in their homes and communities. Furthermore, changing the way people purchase goods and the role of the producer on a macro as well as a micro-scale.