Our leather items are manufactured in the Equitable Marketing Association (EMA) Development Centre in Baruipur, about an hour and half’s drive from Kolkata, India. Twenty artisans started the unit two years ago and now the number working there has risen past fifty - some of them choose to be independent artisans while some are employees of EMA.

The independent artisans are paid according to the number of items they make. On the other hand, the EMA artisans are given fair and regular remuneration for the work they do, along with pensions, health Insurance and a share in the profit generated.

Since most of these artisans hail from remote villages they are offered accommodation by EMA, where they stay for five days a week in the dormitories provided for male and female artisans, with food provided free. The independent artisans also get food at a subsidized rate.

Some of the artisans who do the screen-printing, hand-painting or spray-printing are physically challenged (deaf and mute).

Leather production

The making of quality leather products is a time consuming process, involving many steps and many artisans.

The raw material – Shanti Leather - is first examined thoroughly for thickness, smoothness of the surface and most importantly, for tick marks. After this scrutiny, the “Cutters” cut the leather into different parts for the product and design specified. These parts are then cleaned with oxalic acid solution and “blocked” or embossed if required.

After the leather pieces are dried the “Touchers” do the painting or colouring on the embossed patterns. Not all the patterns are hand painted. Some are spray-painted and some have silkscreen printed finishes. “Glazers” then smooth the uneven surface of the leather, in a process where the leather pieces are pressed by a glass ball fitted on to a machine.

“Skiving” then scrapes off those portions of the leather pieces which are to be stitched, followed by stitching, pasting and lacquering to finish the products, and a final quality control check before packaging.

The Equitable Marketing Association

The Equitable Marketing Association was established in 1977 by co-operative societies of craftspeople and individual social activists. EMA's 'members' are registered bodies of craftspeople, small farmers and families, individual members and staff members. These constitute the general body, therefore all of EMA's activities (interest-free loans for production, purchase of machines and worksheds, design, raw materials procurement, tax advice, marketing etc) are designed for and with the people who own the organisation. EMA's goal is to enable people to obtain income security and thereby enable them to transform the socio-economic structures that exploit them. EMA was founded with the limited objective of selling 25% of the production of each of its corporate members in overseas markets.