5 min readNew DelhiFeb 5, 2026 05:24 PM IST
First published on: Feb 5, 2026 at 05:24 PM IST
Poonam Muttreja was all of 18 when she visited Zamrudpur, opposite Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College, as a student, and an NSS volunteer. She found leather artisans making bags for Rs 5 a piece. It didn’t sit well with her that the hands that made designer bags were not acknowledged for their skill and paid so meagerly. She began visiting more frequently to understand their situation, the reality of being Dalits and untouchability brought their own challenges into the mix. “This was in the early 70s. I began working in one such leather factory to learn how to cut patterns and understand all about leather. I even visited the Central Leather Research Institute in Chennai to understand the way the material and industry worked,” says Muttreja.
She would return to buy leather and teach new patterns and designs that the workers could use in the bags. To get fabric on discount she met Fabindia’s founder John Bissell, who then introduced her to Aruna Roy. Time spent with the social activist, who co-founded Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, gave her insights into rural needs and grassroot activism. This was also the time when Ravi Mathai, who helmed IIMA (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad), had partnered with Ashoke Chatterjee, then Director, NID (National Institute of Design) to start the Jawaja Project. It was a place to learn corporate principles of building and managing sustainable communities, which privileged people as its biggest resource.
Poonam Muttreja, the new Chairperson of Dastkar (Image: File)
Armed with indigenous insights and the word “cooperatives” in her mind, Muttreja returned to work with the leather artisans and managed to convince BB Bhasin, who headed the Gujarat State Handicrafts Corporation (GURJARI) and was at the time heading Cottage Industries Emporiums, to support an exhibition. On board was also LC Jain, a well-known Gandhian economist, member of the Planning Commission and also High Commissioner to South Africa. The craft bazaar at Triveni Kala Sangam in 1977 that came together with the support and initiative of these stalwarts grew to become what we know today as Dastkar, a name suggested by Jain that honoured the craftsperson. Dastkar would join the dots between tradition, innovation, culture and livelihood, giving more than just sympathy to a craftsperson. It now holds seasonal crafts exhibitions at Nature Bazaar, Chhatarpur, in New Delhi.
“The first one was a three-day exhibition. We were sold out and the response and support we received gave us hope for what has now become more than a four-decade organisation. All the credit goes to Laila, who took the lead and single-handedly and brilliantly made Dastkar a strong institution. There are people who worked here for years, including Shelly Jain, who has now become the Chief Operating Officer,” says Muttreja, 70.
For more than a decade now, Muttreja has been at the helm of the Population Foundation of India and as its Executive Director been an advocate for women’s rights and the impact of their empowerment, both at the national and global level. “Women’s fertility and reproductive autonomy are correlated to their ability to be educated, trained and part of the workforce. In craft, more than 50 per cent of artisans are women and many of them live in remote villages. Sadly, the government is conspicuous by its absence in promoting, strengthening, empowering the 75 million artisans India has. You know, India’s demographic dividend, gender dividend, will happen when these women, of whom barely 10 per cent have bank accounts, are empowered to make choices and have the freedom to use the money the way they want to,” she says.
Since its beginnings in 1981, Dastkar has been a platform that gave artisans dignity through fair market prices and avenues to showcase talent. “I would say even in the 1970s and ’80s, the emporiums gave artisans opportunities to promote their products. Craft revivalists like Mapu (Martand Singh), Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Rajeev Sethi were instrumental in holding festivals at the national and international level. But by the 2000s, the Indian and global markets were flooded with cheap Chinese goods that never matched the finesse or skill of Indian craft. The craftspeople of India even then and even now have the spirit of ‘atmanirbhar’ but today our emporiums are like godowns and stagnating,” says Muttreja.
Even when Muttreja worked at the MacArthur Foundation and was its first country director in India, her Delhi office was specially designed keeping craft and art at the fore.
For any institution, evolution is the way ahead and Muttreja sees that as an opportunity in Dastkar too. “It’s a solid institution and we have to continue to seize new opportunities, communities need to be strengthened especially in technology. Nari Shakti is the big slogan of the government and we hope to amplify that going forward for all artisans and weavers. The organisation has all the knowledge and data from the artisans and the goal of Dastkar will remain to empower them.”
Poonam Muttreja, the new Chairperson of Dastkar (Image: File) 
Poonam Muttreja, the new Chairperson of Dastkar (Image: File)
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