Mentors
Charaka Mahila Vividdodesha Kaigarika Sahakari Sangha
Prasanna
Prasanna, a renowned theatre director and an activist is the founder of Charaka and Desi. He has been instrumental in growing this organization over the past two decades.
As a part of the All India Federation of Handloom Organizations, Shri. Prasanna spearheaded the Handloom Satyagraha in 2013-14, which was represented by thousands of weavers from Karnataka and Andhra. They demanded the Government to implement the Handloom Reservation Act of 1985 to safeguard the livelihood of Handloom weavers.
In 2015, the Handloom Satyagraha was expanded to include all organizations working towards sustainability into this campaign. Badanawal Satyagraha became a joint campaign of all consumers and producers of a sustainable production range. As part of this Satyagraha, meetings, workshops, street performances and visual art campaigns were conducted all over Karnataka culminating in the National Convention for Sustainable Living.
In 2017, a nation wide protest that came to be known as the Tax Denial Satyagraha was undertaken to unite all handloom and handicrafts sectors to protest against the unfair treatment of handmade products under the GST (Goods and Services Tax) regime.
Ujjramma
Mentor
Uzramma is director of Malkha Marketing Trust. She is the founder of the non-profit research centre, “Dastkar Andhra”. She has been associated with the cotton textile industry of India since 1989. She has been a member of policy groups for the handloom industry constituted by the Planning Commission and the PMO, and has participated in multiple seminars on cotton growing, weaving, and marketing.
Jagada Rajappa
Mentor
An independent textile entrepreneur/consultant working with weavers and printers all over the country. Consultant to various Textile-Related Projects sponsored by Government and NonGovernment agencies. She has conducted Natural Dyeing Workshops in the states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh as Consultant to Dastkar Andhra Natural Dyes program in various medium.
Jayanthi Marulasiddappa
Mentor
Jayanthi Marulasiddppa, daughter of the well-known writer Shri. G S Shivarudrappa and wife of famous literary critic Shri. Marulasiddppa is a well-known costume designer for theatre and films. She is providing design service to Desi Trust as Trustee since inception.
Geeta Patil
Mentor
Geeta Patil is striving to preserve and revive the traditional textiles of Northern Karnataka such as Guledgudda khana and Ilkal sarees. Khana, a blouse material, is traditionally only 31″ wide and 20″ long. The first attempt was to make the width bigger and weave a saree. It took almost a year before we had our first ever handwoven Khana saree and aptly named ‘Laxmi’ saree after the daughter of the weaver.
M V Chandrashekar
Mentor
M V Chandrashekar is Fashion Designer who runs his own studio named Metaphor at Bengaluru. He is involved in costume designing for Films and Television. He has been Trustee of Desi since its inception and is also the Chief Designer at Charaka Society.