The Role of Social Enterprises in Providing Sustainable Livelihood to Rural Artisans

Social enterprises are unique in the way that they allow charity and business to intersect, ultimately giving birth to innovative market solutions that not only bring in profits, but also address poverty, hunger, and lack of sufficient jobs. The field of social entrepreneurship itself was borne out of understanding that charity and business—on their own and separately—cannot always address the most challenging problems modern communities are facing. One of the ways by which social enterprises help people and communities is by providing different kinds of innovations and opportunities for a sustainable livelihood.

Social enterprise innovations can be in the form of a physical product, like looms, clean burning cook stoves, and similar tools of the trade. They may also take the form of service innovations like door to door sales models as well as better sales channels for artisans who struggle to market their products. Central to the theme of social entrepreneurship is the emphasis on the BoP or ‘bottom of the pyramid,’ which should arguably be treated as lucrative profit generators and not just charity cases.

Social enterprises take time to design development programs that must not only earn community buy-in, but also promote eventual financial sufficiency for aid recipients like rural artisans. For instance, there are social businesses that provide trade tools to individuals and employ an extremely helpful cost-share model that allows people who cannot otherwise afford tools and materials to produce products, giving them the resources they need to sustain a livelihood. This is the kind of positive impact that social enterprises offer to local communities of skilled individuals, as in the case of rural artisans.

Studio Enoy is one of the most recognized social enterprises today, enabling and motivating local rural artisans to uphold a sustainable livelihood using their traditional crafts. Studio Enoy continues to uplift and support local artisans and communities by providing them with the resources and even the training that they need in order to maintain their livelihood. For years, Studio Enoy has been providing a platform for traditional heritage crafts and local artisan handiwork to take center stage in the modern market. The company specializes in Indian handmade wood toys, home décor, tableware, lighting, sarees, and handloom textiles, all created by talented hands of the local artisans that the company supports.

Studio Enoy is a Social Enterprise & Design Studio, we dealing in various handicraft products which includes wooden handcrafted home décors, lighting & textiles like sarees and dress materials.