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Sustainable Indian crafts, handmade with natural materials for conscious wholesaler, retailers and global buyers.
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The Indus Craft Co. | Crafting Nature into Life.
Version 1.0 | Effective Date: 22 June 2026
The Indus Craft Co. | Kolkata, India
Commerce That Sustains Culture
The Indus Craft Co. was founded on a conviction: that the world's most beautiful objects are made by human hands, not machines — and that the artisans who make them deserve a fair share of the value they create. Every buying decision is a vote for the kind of economy you want to live in. When you buy from TICC, you vote for artisan livelihoods, living heritage, sustainable natural materials, and trade that genuinely serves the communities it touches.
1.1 Fair Prices for Artisans
TICC operates a cost-plus pricing model with all artisan vendors. We pay what artisans ask — we do not negotiate prices down to extraction levels. Our vendors set prices that reflect their material costs, time, and skill. TICC then applies a transparent margin that covers our export operations, quality assurance, and sales costs. We believe that paying fairly is not charity — it is the only way to ensure the quality and continuity of the crafts we sell.
1.2 Prompt Payment
TICC pays all artisan vendors on agreed payment terms — typically 50% on order confirmation and 50% on dispatch. We do not use extended payment terms to manage our cash at the expense of artisans.
1.3 Long-Term Relationships
TICC prioritises long-term relationships with artisan vendors over transactional one-off sourcing. Long-term relationships give artisans stability to invest in their craft, train apprentices, and build sustainable livelihoods.
1.4 Women Artisans
TICC actively sources from and supports women-led artisan groups, cooperatives with significant female membership, and individual women craftspeople. Women's economic empowerment within artisan communities is a core value, not a marketing claim.
1.5 Artisan Attribution
Where buyers request it, TICC can provide information about the regional craft tradition and artisan community behind each product range. We support buyers who want to tell the provenance story of their goods to their customers.
2.1 Natural & Renewable Materials
The overwhelming majority of TICC's product range is made from natural, renewable raw materials: cotton, jute, coir, bamboo, rattan, cane, grass, natural clay, terracotta, wood from managed or traditional sources, natural dyes and pigments, and food-safe finishes. We avoid synthetic and petroleum-derived materials wherever possible.
2.2 Natural Dyes
Many of TICC's textile and surface-finish products use natural dye traditions — indigo, pomegranate, henna, turmeric, madder, and other botanical sources. Natural dyeing is labour-intensive, variable, and beautiful. It is also far less harmful to waterways than synthetic commercial dyes.
2.3 No Harmful Chemicals
TICC does not source products that use banned or restricted chemical substances, including azo dyes that release carcinogenic amines, formaldehyde-based finishes above safe limits, or lead-based pigments. Buyers requiring specific chemical compliance documentation (REACH, OEKO-TEX, Prop 65) for their markets should advise TICC at the order enquiry stage.
2.4 Bamboo & Cane
Bamboo and cane used in TICC's basketry and furniture range are harvested by artisan communities from naturally regenerating stands. Neither requires replanting — they grow back after harvest. Bamboo in particular is one of the fastest-growing and most carbon-absorbent plants on Earth.
2.5 Wood
Wood articles in TICC's range are sourced from artisan vendors who use locally available timber from traditional wood-working regions. TICC does not source wood from species listed under CITES Appendix I or II without appropriate documentation, and does not source from vendors known to use illegally logged timber.
3.1 No Factory Mass Production
TICC does not source from mass-production factories or industrial facilities. All products are made by individual artisans, family workshops, or artisan cooperatives — small-scale, low-energy, low-waste production environments.
3.2 Low Carbon Footprint Production
Artisan production by its nature has a far lower carbon footprint than industrial manufacturing. No large machinery, no air conditioning, no automated assembly lines. A potter's wheel, a weaver's loom, a woodcarver's tools — these are the production equipment in TICC's supply chain.
3.3 Minimal Waste
Artisan production generates minimal industrial waste. Offcuts are repurposed. Clay scraps are recycled. Natural fibre trimmings are composted or used as garden mulch. This is not a sustainability programme — it is simply how artisan communities have always worked.
3.4 Packaging
TICC uses export-grade corrugated cardboard packaging — recyclable, biodegradable, and appropriate for international transit protection. We avoid single-use plastic packaging wherever safe to do so and are actively working with vendors to reduce plastic use in internal product wrapping.
TICC's products are not currently mass-certified under major fair trade or sustainability certification schemes (Fairtrade International, World Fair Trade Organization, GOTS, etc.). This is primarily because these schemes are designed for industrial-scale supply chains — the certification overhead is not yet proportionate to TICC's artisan-scale operations.
However, TICC's practices align substantively with the core principles of fair trade and sustainable sourcing. For buyers who need formal certification documentation for specific products or markets, please contact TICC to discuss options. We can facilitate:
▸ OEKO-TEX Standard 100 testing for textile products (buyer-initiated).
▸ SGS chemical testing reports for specific destination markets (buyer-initiated).
▸ Product-level declarations for REACH compliance, RoHS, and other standards.
For buyers who require GOTS, Fairtrade, or other formal certification on specific product categories — please discuss with TICC at the enquiry stage. We can connect you with artisan vendors who hold or are pursuing these certifications for specific product lines.
Why Craft Heritage Matters
India's handcraft sector is the world's largest — employing an estimated 200 million people in over 3,000 distinct craft traditions.
These traditions — terracotta, block-printing, kantha embroidery, blue pottery, dokra metal casting, bamboo weaving, and hundreds more — represent millennia of accumulated human knowledge, aesthetic heritage, and community identity.
Many of these traditions are endangered — not by lack of skill, but by lack of markets. When a craft dies, it dies forever. The knowledge cannot be looked up online. It lives in the hands of the artisans, and when the last artisan who knows it is gone, it is gone.
TICC's commercial purpose is inseparable from its cultural mission: to create markets that make craft survival economically viable for the next generation of artisans.
TICC buyers are encouraged to use TICC's Fair Trade & Sustainability Policy and supporting materials in their own:
▸ Retail and brand storytelling — product descriptions, packaging inserts, website copy.
▸ Sustainability reporting — buyer CSR and sustainability disclosures.
▸ Supply chain due diligence responses — in response to retailer or platform supplier codes of conduct.
▸ Consumer communications — sharing the artisan story and provenance of TICC-sourced goods.
Request Supporting Content
TICC can provide additional supporting content on request: artisan community profiles, regional craft tradition descriptions, production process photographs, and artisan impact statements. Contact hello@theinduscraftco.com.
The Indus Craft Co. | GSTIN: 19AAXFT9159Q1ZK | IEC: AAXFT9159Q
Crafting Nature into Life.
Fair Trade & Sustainability Policy v1.0 • Effective 22 June 2026 • hello@theinduscraftco.com • www.theinduscraftco.com
