Macramé from the Nilgiris! - Inspiring story of Indian Yards

After spending over a decade with the corporate world chasing materialistic dreams and leading a typical urban lifestyle, we decided to call it a day. We wrapped up our lives in the cities into 5 bags, and we moved to the blue mountains – The Nilgiris. We were in search of a better quality of life. We bought a piece of forest, did farming, built an earth house, worked in the fields alongside indigenous people who lived around us, listened to the elephant's trumpet and bear growl.

It was during this time we noticed a serious issue – lack of a steady livelihood for the majority around us. Most of them owned land that was much bigger than ours, but they had to work in tea estates or construction sites as daily wage labourers. We noticed that the women seemed to shoulder the responsibility of the household more than the men, and they needed all the help they could get.

We both felt we had skills we could put to use, and we believed we could up-skill ourselves further to do our bit towards the solution. Thus the birth of IndianYards™. We up-skill women from these communities to become fine macramé artisans and subsequently enable them towards becoming independent producer groups.

We enable these women to handcraft exquisite macramé products in the home & garden décor and lifestyle segments. We use only 100% cotton yarn that is recycled from the pre-consumer waste generated by the fashion industry. We currently engage with 20-30 women across 3 villages in The Nilgiris. We aspire to impact 5000 women in the coming years.