To create a socially innovative wooden toy through co-creation with craftspeople in Sawantwadi.

This project was done in Sawantwadi, a wooden craft cluster, India in order to revive the traditional craft of making wooden toys. Our group co-created a set of wooden dolls that promote inclusivity.

Sawantwadi is a tehsil (town) in western India, which is famous for its wooden toys. It has been termed as a ‘dying craft’, because in the past decade, the market has been flooded with plastic goods, with machine manufacturing giving them a tough competition through alternative products that are available at a lower cost.

Sawantwadi wooden toys involve high craftsmanship that take years to master, but it being a small town in India, and an even smaller population still contributing to the craft, it remains as an untapped market.

‘Kutumbh’ is a set of twelve dolls that shows four different types of families.

The idea behind this product was to create a set of dolls that would convey an important social message, but by being subtle, while retaining Sawantwadi’s USP of bright colours and wooden lathe toys.

It is common to see the “ideal” family in all doll sets in Sawantwadi, with two parents and two children, but we felt that this was not inclusive of all the different types of families such as single parents, unmarried couples and reconstituted marriages.

Many people feel excluded in Indian societies because of not being the ideal family, but these set of dolls can pass a powerful message and can make all types of families feel included.

The primary learning was about perspective. Us, as a group of students designing with them, versus, them, as people for whom this craft was their bread and butter. We realised that we were one of the many groups of students that have visited Sawantwadi over the years. Many of the locals complained of abandonment and usually lost interest in working with students like ourselves.

When we speak of co-creation, it is important to acknowledge that they too become a part of the design process. The process should not be ‘input-output’, where we are using the craftspeople of Sawantwadi as mere skilled people. They have a rightful say in the designs that we propose to them, and it is important to take them into consideration.

The second learning was about stepping out of a comfort zone. We truly understood their plight not just by reading about them, but by visiting their houses and working with them. When we made those wooden dolls in their houses, although they did not speak much, we noticed the nuances of their poverty-stricken lives. In no way were they complaining about it, but it became evident to see why they were slowly giving up on this craft.

In order to keep these crafts alive, we require a systemic change. There is no one person to blame. Dying crafts are not just a design problem, but a socio-political problem as well. There is a fair chance that in the next decade, there would be even fewer people who practice this craft. In order to revive the craft there has to be a system design change.