The mountainous regions of north and northeast India, the arid terrains of Rajasthan and Gujarat in western India, and the Deccan Plateau are home to one of the largest populations of sheep in the world. India's vast genetic resource of sheep, yak and camels especially have been conserved and bred by the nomadic pastoral communities of these regions. Pastoralists in the past extensively used this wool for domestic purposes.

However, with increased demand for sheep meat and with governments promoting meat over dual purpose sheep breeds, pastoralists have begun to dilute their native stock by various cross breeding that provides more meaty stock. This has led to a decline in indigenous sheep numbers, and with it there has been a sharp fall in the production of local wool.

With globalization and opening up of trade channels, heavy import of wool varieties from New Zealand, Australia, and the rest of the world is dominating the Indian market, and this has further led to a phasing out of the indigenous wools.

The preservation of native breeds is important as they have been an important source of wool, which has had an entire value chain linked to it in the past, besides providing wool to keep people warm in the winter months.

Many of the Indian indigenous wools are coarse and rough, and require significant research and development in order to make them user-friendly for fashion garments, though their textures still lend them suitable for home furnishings.

The CfP realised that the indigenous wool economy needs to be resurrected in order to save this circular, natural value chain from collapsing, and it came up with the ‘Desi Oon’ initiative.

The CfP carries out invaluable research and on-field documentation of how pastoralist communities work, studying them from the multi-faceted perspectives of social, cultural, economic, historical and scientific angles. It also partners with organizations doing meaningful, relevant work in this sphere in different geographies spread across India.

Partnership with different organizations allows the centre to focus on its various objectives of: research and technological support, advocacy for investment and development in the wool economy, marketing and building the ‘Desi Oon’ brand, and spreading consumer and industry awareness on such matters.

The CfP and its brand ‘Desi Oon’ have managed a good social media outreach through various online social media platforms and offline events that include large, wide-ranging public exhibitions, thematically focused consultations with pastoralists, civil society and policy-makers, academic workshops and conferences and product exhibitions related to wool products. These events are an attempt to reach out to diverse external audiences and to ensure that pastoralists are part of these conversations.

Their work in the sphere is helping integrate the indigenous wool value chain together: a chain that consists of the sheep, shearers, carders, hand spinners, handloom weavers, and dyers.

It is helping to reinstate the livelihoods of these traditional occupations that have been languishing in the last decades, and also restore their sense of pride and dignity in their traditional occupations which forms a large part of their cultural identity.

CfP has been successful in forming the following partnerships for strengthening the wool value chain in the sphere of apparel and textiles:

1) Rangsutra, an Indian handicrafts company working for sustainable livelihoods

2) Khamir Craft Society, strengthening and promoting the rich artisanal traditions of Kutch, Gujarat

3) Avani Kumaon, working in the Kumaon Himalayas to promote sustainability through community empowerment

4) Dakhni Diaries, providing livelihoods to Deccani pastoralists and craftspeople

The initiative has been successfully conducting the ‘Living Lightly – Journey with Pastoralists’ exhibition, which is a travelling exhibition on the land, lives and livelihoods of Indian pastoralists. It captures their remarkable history of mobility, the eco-systems that nurture their life-worlds, their culture, science, art, politics, spiritual moorings and the economics and challenges of herding.

The exhibition comes to life through a fusion of testimonies, ethnographic material, archives, poetic forms, music, storytelling, crafts, material, crafted narratives, film and performance.

The ‘Desi Oon’ initiative has also been successfully selling indigenous wool products developed by its partner organizations and individuals through their exhibitions and in online marketplaces, under the branding of ‘Desi Oon’. Thus, it has been successful in creating interest and enticing participation from the design industry in India.

‘Desi Oon’ is bringing about a collectivization of different brands, NGOs, and designers working with indigenous wools of various regions of the country – thus, making a stronger mark together in the markets.

The branding of 'Desi Oon' also brings in a system of traceability, where the end consumer can be assured of where their wool came from - which region in India, and which communities were involved in the rearing and extraction of the material used in their product.

Photo by Arie Kamphorst on Flickr