About us
‘Gestures’ is an independent, community livelihoods support initiative that provides a platform for marginalised and resource-poor communities in rural and urban India to sell their handmade, handcrafted and handloom products. In addition to the community-made products, we have a small section of products by Friends of Gestures.
Gestures is an effort to create eco-friendly, people-centric and sustainability footprints from the producer to the consumer.
Gestures was initiated by a not-for-profit organisation, Kriti: a development praxis and communication team which has been training and handholding many of the producer groups for more than two decades, through several social and skill-based interventions.
Gestures products are priced on the principles of fair trade, ethical production, and a violence-free production model, to suit the pocket of the ordinary citizen so that s/he can replace toxic and non-sustainable products with sustainable ones both, for daily use and gifting!
We are based out of New Delhi, Mumbai and Dehradun.
Become a sustainable consumer and directly contribute to local producer livelihoods and small enterprises that care for the planet Earth.
- Ecofriendly & funky tote bags & wallets in cloth, canvas & jute for daily & special occasions, by street children & youth in Punjab and Haryana.
- Colourful handmade & recycled paper stationary, gift & wine bags, shagun envelopes & notebooks by disabled youth in Delhi & Haryana.
- Natural Holi colours made of flowers, petals, herbs and leaves with corn-starch and rice flour base by disabled young adults in Delhi and Haryana, and women in Madhya Pradesh; with turmeric base in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
- Handcrafted jewellery & key rings for you & your kids, by poor slum women in Delhi & Punjab; artisans in Rajasthan and more.
- Handwoven & handknitted woollen shawls, stoles, mufflers & mittens by rural women in the upper Himalayan region, making you cosy & confortable in the cold.
- Handknitted and handmade toys by rural women in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
- Embroidered khadi and mangalgiri cotton kurtas for style & comfort, made by rural women in Haryana.
- Handloom cotton sarees & dupattas by tribal women & weaver families in U.P., Odisha & West Bengal to make a sustainable fashion statement
- Pure cotton stoles that feel sensual & beautiful, by traditional, handloom weavers in Barabanki district of U.P.
- Natural, chemical free & freshly fragrant soaps made by women in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand; Delhi and Jharkhand
- Natural herb & flower essential and diffuser oils for your body & soul, made by marginalised women in Jharkhand.
- Pure handrolled incense sticks made by communities in the upper Himalayan region of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as well as Delhi
- Handcrafted ceramic home essentials made by dropout young adults in Maharashtra.
- and the list will continue to expand...