Arti Sharma has eleven years of work experience in vertical markets like Automobile, IT and Healthcare where she had worked in Marketing, Business Development, New Customer Acquisition and Customer Satisfaction Departments. Her areas of interests and expertise are Strategic Direction for new businesses, Product/ Brand Management, Sales Promotion, Corporate Communication, Event Management and Intercompany International Marketing. She did MBA at Pune University and added an executive management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
This journey started in 2012 when Arti Sharma, with family and friends, visited Taj Mahal (one of the seven wonders of the world) in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. During the stay in Agra and Fatehpur Sikri they were roaming around and reached an area where a group of women was sitting outside their home at a social gathering place. The whole group was busy with some work. While passing, Arti and friends noted that they were doing zari and embroidery work. This was a different and pleasant experience for Arti because the threads of zari were taking dream shape in their work. It was the imagination of their work getting printed on an ordinary cloth. Out of curiosity, Arti asked about their work, took few photographs and noticed that they were making zari bags. She investigated those bags to buy, a lady refused and replied that those had been made for a contractor. She got puzzled to know that these women were getting 40-50 rupees per day. It was shocking that the wages were very low and to earn this amount they had to work around 8-10 hours per day to feed their families. She further asked why they were paid so less for such an amazing job and where these works would go. One of them replied “In foreign, but we get work from a contractor. Whereas the contractor gets work from different cities and asks us to prepare various artistic goods”. With craze, she asked ‘”Are you getting money every day for your work?”, she replied they get money in a month or two. Arti and her friend left the area and noticed that similar kind of work was happening at nearby places and mostly involvement of women was there. This thought was well-captured by Arti. After reaching home, she researched Indian Art and Artisans life in depth. She got amazed to know that Indian Art & Culture is deeply rooted in Indian Society especially in rural areas. As a woman, it came to Arti’s mind that something needs to be done for Indian Art and Artisans. She kept on searching and discussing with friends on this topic. Later in the days, she met Satish Kumar from Shahjahanabad (Delhi) as he was well aware of this kind of work. She went along with Mr. Kumar to visit Shahjahanabad where she found that Artisans were working and he introduced her with them. She saw deprived lifestyle of Artisans in that area. They were making handmade Jewelry and Iron Crafts. After couple of visits, one of the Artisan (Shabana) became her friend.

After few months Arti got married with an IT Professional. Arti’s research was continued even after her marriage and she visited several Delhi markets like Janpath, Connaught Place and Lajpat Nagar, where similar goods were available. She found that there were retailers, big shops, but no Artisans. She asked shopkeepers about Artisans. They said “We have no information”, then she checked the products and they were expensive. She got mystified why Artisans are paid so less where the products are expensive. With this thought, she decided to visit Shahjahanabad again and inquired Artisan friend about crafting work and the process involved in that.