TARA Projects – Empowering Fair Trade Artisans Across India
Every handmade gift has a story. Behind every carefully crafted ornament, piece of jewellery or decorative home accessory is the skill, creativity and dedication of an artisan whose work deserves to be valued. TARA Projects exists to ensure those artisans receive exactly that.
Founded in 1973, TARA stands for Trade Alternative Reform Action. What began as a small initiative supporting disadvantaged artisans living around Delhi, India, has grown into one of the country’s best-known Fair Trade organisations, working with artisan communities across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Today, TARA Projects continues to create sustainable employment for hundreds of skilled craftspeople, helping preserve traditional techniques while providing fair wages, safe working conditions and long-term opportunities for families who might otherwise struggle to earn a reliable income.
Creating Opportunities Through Fair Trade
Many talented artisans possess incredible skills but often have limited access to markets where they can sell their work fairly. Instead, they can become dependent on middlemen who pay very little for their craftsmanship.
TARA Projects was established to change this.
By connecting artisan groups directly with Fair Trade organisations and ethical retailers around the world, TARA enables makers to earn a fair price for their work while developing sustainable businesses that benefit entire communities.
Every handmade product represents not only exceptional craftsmanship but also a commitment to creating a more equitable global trading system.
Supporting Communities Beyond Craftsmanship
The work of TARA Projects extends far beyond producing beautiful handmade gifts.
The organisation actively invests in community development by supporting:
- Vocational training programmes
- Adult literacy centres
- Informal education
- Children’s education
- Human rights awareness
- Community development initiatives
These projects help families build brighter futures while giving artisans the confidence and opportunities to develop their skills for generations to come.
A Vision for Fairer Trade
Since its creation, TARA Projects has campaigned to promote the principles of Fair Trade, believing that international trade should benefit the people who make products rather than exploit them.
Its mission has always been simple:
To create opportunities, reduce poverty, promote dignity and help artisan communities become financially independent through ethical trading. By purchasing products created by TARA artisans, customers become part of that mission, helping preserve traditional craftsmanship while supporting communities across northern India.
The Vision of Professor Shyam S. Sharma
TARA Projects was founded by Professor Shyam S. Sharma, an educator, academic and social reformer who believed that education, dignity and fair employment should be available to everyone.
Alongside an accomplished career as a university professor, Professor Sharma dedicated much of his life to improving opportunities for disadvantaged communities. His vision eventually led to the creation of TARA Projects and later contributed to the development of the Asia Fair Trade Forum and the Fair Trade Forum India, organisations that continue promoting ethical trade throughout Asia.
His work has inspired countless artisans and Fair Trade organisations, leaving a lasting legacy that continues more than fifty years later.
Why Voyage Art Supports TARA Projects
At Voyage Art, we’re proud to work with fair trade organisations like TARA Projects because they share our belief that beautiful handmade products should also create positive change. They have been a member of the World Fair Trade Organizarion (WFTO) as they strictly follow the 10 fair trade principles.
Every Fair Trade gift made by TARA artisans represents hours of skill, patience and creativity while helping provide sustainable livelihoods for artisan families throughout India.
When you choose one of these handcrafted gifts, you’re doing far more than buying a beautiful object. You’re helping preserve traditional crafts, supporting ethical trade and contributing towards a fairer, more sustainable future for artisan communities.
Explore our collection of Fair Trade gifts, handmade home décor, artisan jewellery, and ethical accessories to discover beautifully handcrafted products created by talented makers supported through TARA Projects.
TARA stands for: trade alternative reform action, and was created to help the struggling artisans in Delhi, trying to find markets for their products. TARA Projects created opportunities for home-based artisans and craftsmen to set up in markets, for them to sell their art. As a result this helps to generate steady work and income. Due to the organisation’s early success, TARA has continued to expand, now covering a 120 mile area surrounding the city of Delhi. TARA also funds non-formal and vocational schools as well as literacy centers for adults and constantly campaigning for fair trade. Their goal is to end injustice of the world’s mass trade system.
TARA made its humble beginning in 1973 with the objective of creating avenues of economic growth for economically disadvantaged artisans and craftsmen of Delhi and its surrounding areas in the unorganised home-based sector. Encouraged by its initial success the project gradually extended its socio-economic and trade reform activities to the adjoining states, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan in Northern India.
Since its inception Tara actively engaged in providing support services to the production and marketing of handicrafts on Fair Trade Principles, while addressing community developmental needs of the grassroots craft persons by imparting, general awareness, Human Rights, vocational and informal education for the human dignity.
Tara Projects, the Association has constantly remained an active catalyst in eradicating poverty, by fighting against exploitation and illiteracy of the producers and its working communities who are deprived of dignified identity and remained constantly subject to social injustice at the total disposal of Unfair Trade and middle men practices. “Make Trade Fair” has always been a principle goal for ushering into social and economic transformation at Tara.
A Commissioned Officer in the Indian Army, later joined as Officer of the Army Wing of the National Cadet Corp at Jamia Millia Islamia University. Prof. Shyam S. Sharma achieved top ranking positions throughout his school and university and excelled as a student leader, event organizer and innovator. He was awarded many prestigious awards in curricular and extra-curricular disciplines. He honed up his leadership traits and became a leading intellectual.
As Professor, he initiated Department of Hindi, Comparative Literature & Print Journalism at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. His career at the prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia University as a teacher catapulted him to achieve greater heights in life, ushering in a pinch of professionalism and excellence in teaching career in India.
He has been an active catalyst in bringing substantial improvements in the quality of education by making it purpose driven and wholesome. He founded ‘World Family’, an organization that believes and practices human solidarity through benevolence and later set up Tara Projects assist the marginalized communities living around his university and neighborhood in Delhi. He also founded Asia Fair Trade Forum (AFTF) as the first Founding Member of AFTF and served on the AFTF Board in several capacities. He was also the Founding member of Fair Trade Forum-India and served as its President for two terms.
