(A Brief Description)

Tara (Trade Alternative Reform Action) Projects made its humble beginning in early seventies with the objective of creating avenues of economic growth for economically disadvantaged Artisans and Craftsmen of Delhi in the unorganized home-based sector. Encouraged by its initial success the Project gradually extended its socio-economic and trade reform activities to the adjoining states of North India.

Since its inception Tara Projects has been actively engaged in providing support services to the production and marketing of handicrafts on Fair Trade principles, while addressing community developmental needs of grassroots craftspersons by imparting human rights & general awareness and vocational & informal education for the human dignity.

The Project has constantly remained an active catalyst in fighting exploitation, poverty, illiteracy and slavery of artisans who do not have any dignified identity and remained constantly subject to social injustices at the total disposal of unfair trade and middlemenship practices. "Make Trade Fair" has always been the principal goal for ushering in social and economic transformation at Tara Projects.

The Project imparts exposure and training in conceptualizing, designing, capacity building and producing handicrafts in compliance with Marketable Quality Standards for helping the artisans get fair wages equitably by finding local, regional and international fair trade markets for their produce with transparency and social accountability.

A number of Registered Co-operative Societies, Producer Groups operating on Co-operative lines and Extended Family Workshops of Grassroots Artisans are

the members of Tara Projects benefiting desirably from the fair trade working of the organisation. Utmost attention is accorded to directly pass on the maximum benefits of production and trading to actual grassroots producers.

Tara Projects is funding & maintaining a number of non-formal schools and vocational training centers along with several adult literacy centers, besides spearheading many campaigns against child and bonded labor, illiteracy, unfair trade practices and for ecological, environmental and female educational issues. These developmental programmes are sustained primarily from the revenues generated by the sales of handicrafts, albeit, organizations such as Oxfam GB in India has effectively funded "Make Trade Fair" joint signature campaign and other such important fair trade programmes.

The vision at Tara Projects is to further consolidate the gains by expanding the developmental base, upgrading and opening new centers for capacity building and promoting fair trade among more craftsmen in northern and other parts of India in the next few years. The different and alternative way of doing business in Tara Projects seeks to find and create new fair trade markets in the mainstream of business enabling the producers to compete in their own rights of production capacity, product quality and professional efficiency.

Tara Projects is a secular, democratic and dedicated organization serving selflessly the downtrodden and deprived sections of society in its own humble way. In order to blend excellence of professionalism with its socio-economic commitments, it is envisaged to launch the trading activities of the organization as a fair trade company with limited public liability to redouble its endeavor and to make further positive contribution to the lives of the multitude of deserving artisans and craftsmen by transforming their lives socially and economically on fair trade standards, working for the ultimate goal, that all trade on globe becomes Fair Trade in the long run.