Padma Shri award recipient Laila Tyabji, a noted designer and craft revivalist has been bestowed with the title of National Design Guru by the Sonipat-based World University of Design.
On this occasion Laila Tyabji said, “All over India, we have crafts people with extraordinary skills who are able to handcraft everything, from a terracotta statue to a temple, from a wicker basket to diamond jewelry. They are not only an important part of our aesthetic and culture, but of our economy too. These skillsets and knowledge systems represent a gold mine, an edge that we have over the rest of the world.”
She further added that crafts people face lot of discrimination. They are seen as part of an exotic but irrelevant India rather than the skilled professionals that they are.
Laila Tyabji’s remarkable journey as a designer, activist, and co-founder of Dastkar, a society for crafts and craftspeople, has left an indelible mark on the Indian cultural landscape.
In the last 3 decades, Dastkar, under Laila Tyabji’s visionary leadership, has partnered with numerous crafts organisations and NGOs to uplift artisans and provide them with economic opportunities.
Laila Tyabji’s commitment to artisans extends across the length and breadth of the country, encompassing diverse craft forms such as Banjara Needle Crafts, Rabari mirror work from Kutch and Maharashtra, Chikan craft from Lucknow, Gond, Phad, and Mata art from Pacheri, Madhubani painters, Kasuti embroidery from Karnataka, Handloom weavers in Bihar and Karnataka, as well as leather, textile, and terracotta artisans in Rajasthan.
