Raipur Startup Lifts 200 Artisans' Income 30% With Folk Art

Shambhavi Pandey left her job as a corporate VP to ask a question the craft world had stopped asking: why does beautiful traditional Indian art so rarely make it past the gallery and into someone's living room?

The answer she found changed lives. Her Raipur-based company Folkstroke now works with 200 artisans across seven states, boosting their incomes by 30 percent by doing something simple but radical: turning ancient art into things people actually use.

Take Santu Tekam, a Gond tribal painter from Patangarh, Madhya Pradesh. In his village of 1,000 people, nearly 100 practice the traditional art form. For years, his income was seasonal and uncertain. When the monsoon came, painting stopped. When COVID hit, the work disappeared entirely.

Then Shambhavi called. Now he earns between 10,000 and 30,000 rupees monthly, year-round. "During COVID, when I did not have any work, Didi gave me work," he says. "More people recognise our art these days."

The secret isn't just selling art. It's redesigning how it gets used. Folkstroke transforms Gond, Warli, Pichwai, and other folk traditions into folding side tables, mobile holders, pen stands, and wooden trays. Products range from 150 to 7,000 rupees and ship to the UK, US, Malaysia, and Australia.

Shambhavi's childhood prepared her for this work without her knowing it. Growing up as an Army officer's daughter, she moved constantly across West Bengal, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, and Punjab. Each place taught her something different: color, craft, storytelling, warmth.

"My sensitivity to various cultures and people helped me," she says. "I could get along with almost anyone by the time I was in middle school."

That ease with difference mattered. After earning her degree in human resources management and winning awards managing workforces of 3,000 employees across international teams, she felt something missing. She wanted purpose beyond titles.

Her first venture was Healted Tech, a health startup offering second medical opinions to remote Chhattisgarh villages. Her husband Ritam now runs it. But Shambhavi kept returning to the art question.

She started small in 2019, working with a single teenage artisan. By November 2021, she registered Hasthkala Curators as a private company with Folkstroke as its brand.

Why This Inspires

What makes Folkstroke work isn't charity or preservation for its own sake. It's meeting modern customers where they live while honoring centuries-old traditions.

Delhi customer Ranjana Chauhan ordered Kalamkari wooden trays as wedding return gifts for her son. "I wanted something artistic and authentic," she says. "I am happy both with the quality of products and the service."

The artisans get consistent work. Customers get functional beauty. Ancient art forms survive by evolving. Everyone wins.

Shambhavi didn't save traditional Indian art by putting it in museums. She saved it by putting it on coffee tables, desks, and walls where people see it every single day.