Our Story
Chanderiyaan.com is an e-Commerce portal to showcase the magic and beauty of Chanderi weaving in its multifaceted hues to the world outside. It is a platform to share the brilliance of craftsmanship of the Chanderi weavers in District Ashok Nagar of Madhya Pradesh in Central India. It is one stop online shopping platform for Chanderi products. Chanderiyaan.com has a wide array of products that range from Chanderi ethnic pure designer hand work. It is a platform to share the richness of weaving and design patterns evolved through many centuries in this weaving town with its own historical dynamics and stories to reveal.
Chanderiyaan.com is serving to meet the demand and supply chain for the unique Chanderi weaving products. This platform of the weavers, for the weavers and by the weavers, is managed by a network of weavers self-help groups through a common platform – Chanderi Weavers Resource Integrated Information Resource Centre, which is an initiative of Media Lab Asia & Digital empowerment Foundation with support of Dept of IT, MCIT, GOI.
Chanderiyaan (www.chanderiyaan.com) is a social entrepreneurial initiative towards escalating the sustainability levels and livelihood of the chanderi weavers community. Chanderiyaan is an opportunity for weavers to bypass the hefty network of master weavers and sell their creations directly in the global market. We, at Chanderiyaan, believe that success can only be achieved by giving back to the community, and for the same, every chanderi you purchase from us, entitles the weaver to directly earn profits from the sale.
Chanderiyaan and Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) in collaboration with Media Labs Asia has also 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 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.
Digital Empowerment Foundation
With the motto of ‘Inform, Communicate and Empower,’ Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) started its journey in the month of December, 2002. Based out of New Delhi and registered as not-for-profit under the “Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, the effort at DEF has been to find sustainable Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions including digital and new media to address digital divide in under-served and unreached regions and communities. With a non-political approach, it was founded to contribute to an enabling social and economic order in India as well as in developing societies with the need based support of ICT tools and means. With ground work since 2003, DEF has reached over 22 States and 8 countries.
Media Labs Asia
Media Lab Asia, promoted by Department of Information technology, MCIT, Govt. of India as a nonprofit organization, endeavours to bring the benefits of ICT to the common man. It started with the functional activity areas such as World Computer (Affordable, ubiquitous computing & access devices), Bits for All (Low Cost, High bandwidth connectivity) and Tomorrow’s Tool (Rurally relevant applications). However it was later changed to application areas such as ICT for- Healthcare, Education, livelihood, Empowerment of the disabled, and Wireless Connectivity.
