Jaipur Rugs cut out rug middlemen by training weavers as village managers

India's hand-knotted rug industry employed hundreds of thousands of rural artisans, but the supply chain was dominated by contractors who controlled access to raw materials, designs and export markets. Weavers — predominantly women from lower-caste and tribal communities — received a fraction of the final price, had no knowledge of what their rugs sold for abroad, and could not negotiate because the middleman was their only buyer.

Nand Kishore Chaudhary started Jaipur Carpets in 1978 in Rajasthan with a direct-to-artisan model: go to the villages himself, train weavers, supply materials directly, and let them work from home. The innovation deepened in 2014 with the Bunkar Sakhi ('Weaver Companion') program, training selected weavers as community leaders who manage supply chains, mentor peers, and liaise with the company at village level.

Jaipur Rugs eliminated the contractor layer by delivering raw materials — globally sourced wool, hand-spun in Bikaner, dyed and pre-packaged with specific designs — directly to weavers' doorsteps. Weavers work from home on their own looms, usually two artisans per loom. The Bunkar Sakhi program trains experienced weavers as village-level supply chain managers: they handle material distribution, quality oversight, training, and wage coordination, replacing the middleman with a trusted peer.

Trained weavers as village managers to replace middlemen, delivering materials and designs directly so the information monopoly that justified the middleman evaporated.

Middlemen's power rests on information asymmetry; giving weavers direct market access removes their leverage.

Bunkar Sakhis are trusted peers who can manage quality and disputes better than external supervisors.

Centralizing sourcing, finishing, and sales maintains quality while keeping production distributed.

Weavers become micro-entrepreneurs, increasing their commitment and output quality.

Replace exploitative intermediaries with trained producer-leaders from the community; centralize only what individuals can't do alone.

Jaipur Rugs says it now works with about 40,000 artisans on 7,000 looms in five states, roughly 90% women, exporting to over 100 countries. The Bunkar Sakhi model and Jaipur Rugs' direct-to-artisan supply chain have been studied as a template for other handicraft industries. The company's Manchaha initiative — letting artisans design their own rugs from leftover materials without templates — won multiple international design awards. The Freedom Manchaha program extended the model to prison inmate rehabilitation across seven Rajasthani prisons.