Our Story

Nestled in the picturesque Vindhyachal valley and situated in the Ashok Nagar district of Madhya Pradesh, the town of Chanderi is famous world over for its magnificent weaves. The town also hosts the occasional sightseer since it is interspersed with more than hundred monuments, both religious and secular, which stand in testimony for its glorious and eventful past.  Chanderi can best be described as a rural town with an urban consciousness. Weaving is the source of livelihood for more than 60% of its population, while the rest are engaged in agriculture, biri making, stone quarring and tertiary occupations.

Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) in collaboration with Media Labs Asia has conceptualized the Chanderi Weavers ICT Resource Centre (CWICTRC) in order to provide technical education to the textile weavers of Chanderi. It endeavours to provide alternative options of livelihood through ICT based empowerment. This initiative, collectively called ‘Chanderiyaan’ aims at fostering community based development and empowerment through the Chanderi Integrated ICT for Development Program (CIIDP).

The Chanderi Integrated ICT for Development Program (CIIDP) endeavours to enable multi-pronged integrated digital development of Chanderi by creating a digital ecosystem of the town. The program is all embracing, incorporating Social entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Education and Tourism and integrating it with the socio – economic and historical fabric of Chanderi.

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Chanderi Weavers Information Resource Centre (CWIRC)

The Chanderi Weavers Information Resource Centre (CWIRC) has been operational for about 8 years and has been serving the entire 40,000 population of Chanderi including 13 schools and more than 50 Panchayats. CWIRC was selected for conducting the Training of Trainers (ToT) and also for the deployment of the Wireless Mesh Network.

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Digital Designing and Archiving

With more than 3500 weaver families in Chanderi district, we have been able to archive more than 5000 traditional designs, passed from over five generations into our Digital Archive Bank. We hold design competitions inside the district. The winners of which are handpicked and trained on advanced design softwares like JacqDraw. The outstanding performers of these training workshops are employed as designers who thereby amplify the efficacy of this cycle and further enhance job creating opportunities.

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Capacity Building and Skilling

Apart from digital literacy and information, Chanderiyaan also acts as an agent to build capacities of communities in the region. Number of workshops are organized at the center revolving around issues like menstrual health, skill development, environmental consciousness in collaboration with other organizations and government bodies.

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Entrepreneurship Development

Believing in this philosophy of giving back to the community, Chanderiyaan has always been dedicated not only towards benefiting the population of Chanderi through its organizational initiatives, but also towards encouraging the people for entrepreneurship and empowering them for true utilization of their skills for the betterment of society.

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Wireless for Community

At Chanderi, DEF decided to make CWIRC centre as the base, covering 20-30 kilometers
of the region with a purpose of establishing one relay station and five point-to-point
nodes. Through this setup, DEF covered 30 schools of the region and more than 50
panchayats to provide the connectivity.

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Handloom Tourism

Chanderi is a place highly renowned for its rich heritage, cultural diversity and profound tourist attractions. With the current historical information of over 13 Centuries, the first historical aspect of Chanderi can be traced back to the 8th Century AD, when the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty established its sovereignty over Boodhi Chanderi, making it a sizeable township complete with all the regalia befitting a town.

Our Products

Located in the Ashoknagar district of Madhya Pradesh, Chanderi is a town rich in heritage, culture, tradition, art and handloom that dates as far back as 10th century AD. At present, there are about 3,500 weaver families and an equal number of handlooms in Chanderi, which has a population of approximately 30,000 people. However, the brand Chanderi and and beautiful silk sarees were facing a stiff competition from powerlooms until project ‘Chanderiyaan’ was launched in 2009.

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Conscious Clothing

Every product is hand woven, upholding the age old art of handloom weaving. Most of the products are made using natural dyes and all of them are made using sustainable silk and pure cotton.

Skillfully Crafted

The weavers in the region have been crafting beautiful fabric since time immemorial. One piece of fabric often requires 6 hours of labour and concentration.

Lovingly Hand woven

Chanderiyaan represents a blend of traditional and modern tastes. The patterns and colours used are fashionable, trendy and spread happiness.

Comfort and Quality

Woven with great care and eye for details, cotton and silks used are of highest quality, and colours used are safe, natural and skin friendly.

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