• Launches Karigar Mela – A dedicated storefront with a unique selection of handmade products made by tribal artisans and weavers
• Over 12 lakh artisans and weavers associated with sellers part of Amazon Karigar will benefit from a 100% Sell on Amazon (SoA) fee waiver offered for 2 weeks

Bengaluru, 30 August 2021: Ahead of the festive season, Amazon India today announced the launch of Karigar Mela in partnership with Tribes India. As part of the initiative, Shri Arjun Munda, Hon'ble Minister of Tribal Affairs, Government of India launched the Karigar Mela storefront. As part of this initiative, customers will be able to access and shop from a selection of over 1.2 lakh unique traditional tribal & local Indian handicrafts and handloom selections. Some of the unique art forms that will be available in products listed for purchase as part of Karigar Mela include Bidri, Dhokra, Ikkat, Patachitra, blue art pottery etc. As part of the Karigar Mela initiative, Karigar sellers will also benefit from a 100% Selling on Amazon (SoA) fee waiver for 2 weeks starting from August 30, 2021, to September 12, 2021.

“The tribals artisan and weaver community are at the nucleus of the Indian economy. It is also one of the segments that have been most severely hit due to the ongoing pandemic. The launch of Karigar Mela will play an important role in helping artisans and weavers revive their livelihoods and accelerate their growth during these challenging times. I also appreciate the long-term partnership of TRIFED and Amazon to empower artisans and weavers from across India and helping in increasing visibility for local products by bringing the offerings to the forefront. Such initiatives will help in driving deeper sentiment of ‘vocal for local’ among Indian consumers and help in boosting Prime Minister’s vision to be an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” said, Shri Arjun Munda, Hon'ble Minister of Tribal Affairs, Government of India.

“India’s rich cultural heritage is held together by the tribal artisan and weaver community; whose creations are a source of livelihood for millions of families. To help generate online demand for artisans and weavers’ products while supporting them with working capital as they look to bounce back from the recent disruptions, we have launched the ‘Karigar Mela’ storefront. With the festive season coming up, we believe that such initiatives will empower indigenous craftspeople, weavers and tribal artisans and help the rich legacy of Indian art and craft to thrive,” said, Amit Agarwal, Global Senior VP and Country Head, Amazon India. “We will continue to collaborate with government and non-government organizations to enable Indian artisans and weavers across the country to accelerate their growth through e-commerce,” added Amit.

“TRIFED and Tribes India are a family of 5 lakh tribal master craftsmen and women who produce a rich volume of handicraft and handloom products in India. Our partnership with Amazon as part of the MoU signed has enabled us to take Made in India tribal products to customers across the country and the world. With Amazon introducing the Karigar Mela initiative towards the revival of this segment, tribal artisan sellers will benefit from a dedicated store as it will bring customer attention to their unique and differentiated products while providing them with a host of relaxations and benefits of selling online.” said, Shri Pravir Krishna, Managing Director, TRIFED, Government of India.

In the last 12 months, Amazon launched other initiatives such as Stand for Handmade in 2020 for small sellers which enabled over 4500+ Pochampally weavers from 56 villages of Telangana, 5000+ weavers from West Bengal, 1000+ artisans from East India, over 10,000 artisans from Chhattisgarh among many more who are associated with sellers that are part of Amazon Karigar program to recover and resume their handlooms and handicrafts business. Amazon Karigar is an initiative to empower Indian artisans to sell their handcrafted products across India and for sellers selling such products to reach customers nationwide and scale their business on Amazon. Through this initiative, Amazon supports the artisans in various ways in launching, scaling, marketing their businesses on Amazon. Today Amazon Karigar positively impacts over 12 Lakh artisans through its network of Karigar sellers and over 28 government emporiums.

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Media Contacts:

Shashank Rathod
Amazon India
rathshas@amazon.com

Suman Nath
MSL
suman.nath@publicisconsultants-asia.com