Laila Tyabji

Laila Tyabji authored Threads and Voices – Behind the Indian Textile Tradition, published in 2007, and has written numerous articles in Indian journals. Unmarried by choice, she lives in Delhi, designing, writing, and speaking on behalf of crafts and craftspeople at her Andheria Modh office as Chairperson, Dastkar.

In 2003, Tyabji was awarded the Aid to Artisans' Preservation of Craft Award, the first Asian and the second overall recipient of the award, the investiture ceremony taking place in New York. Eleven years later in 2012, the Government of India honored her with Padma Shri, the fourth–highest Indian civilian award. She is also a recipient of the NIFT Lifetime Achievement Award and the Chishti Harmony Award. The Limca Book of Records, an Indian repository of records and achievements, named Laila Tyabji as the Person of the Year, in 2014.

The first NATURE BAZAAR in 1995 was an attempt (inspired by Valmik Thapar, the well known tiger expert and wildlife conservationist) to get craftspeople to use Nature as a source of both creative inspiration and raw material . It has since become a regular event, with a permanent venue at Kisan Haat, Mehrauli, Delhi. Over the last 35 years, Dastkar and Tyabji have worked with numerous crafts organisations and NGOs to use craft skills as a means of earning and empowerment. She is credited with revolutionizing the craft industry in India by developing a market for Indian crafts, modernizing the artisans' skills, and acting as the liaising link between the artisans and the buyers. Dastkar operates on the policy of leaving the ownership of the goods to the artisans who produced them, retaining a 10 percent revenue towards the operating costs. It provides the artisans with entrepreneurial training and assists them with credit, designs, and product development techniques. The organization has a producer group base of over 700 artisan groups, collectively comprising over 1 lakh craftspeople.

A meeting with Bunny Page, a Parsi woman with the same concerns and ideas, and many discussions and meetings, resulted in Tyabji co-founding Dastkar with five other women in 1981 The objective was to give traditional craftspeople the design, product development, market information, and entrepreneurship training that would help them regain their place in the mainstream market. The Dastkari Bazaars, where craftspeople came directly to sell their own products in the Metro market, were both a sales opportunity and a learning place for craftspeople who had never previously encountered their urban customers. It was a novel idea at that time – much imitated since. The inaugural Dastkari Bazaar was held in New Delhi, the same year at the Triveni Kala Sangam. Bazaars in Mumbai, Kolkota, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, and other Indian cities followed, and became annual events.

Laila Tyabji (born 2 May 1947) is an Indian social worker, designer, writer, and craft activist. She is one of the founders of Dastkar, a Delhi-based non governmental organization, working for the revival of traditional crafts in India. She was honored by the Government of India in 2012 with the Indian civilian award of Padma Shri. She is the daughter of late Badruddin Tyabji, ICS, who was a senior Indian civil servant and diplomat.

Laila Tyabji was born in Delhi on 2 May 1947 to an Indian civil servant as one of his four children. Her early schooling was in schools abroad and at the Welham Girls' School in Dehradun. She subsequently continued her studies in art at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Vadodara. Later, she went to Japan to study with Toshi Yoshida, the well-known Japanese printmaking artist, before returning to India to start a career as a freelance designer. Assignments included graphic and interior design, costumes and sets for the theatre, garments and textiles.