AASTHA
Rafu Kar!
Study of the mending culture in Indian communities and building a democratic digital platform to better connect indigenous textile menders & the public
Role: Data Collection, Platform Prototyping
Timeline: April 2023- September 2024 l 1 Year
With: Circular Design India, Estethica, Repair Cafe Wales, Iro Iro
Rafu-kar aims to integrating the cultural practices with the modern fashion consumption system by connecting the consumers with the large network of menders in India making repair accessible.
The first phase of the project supported by the British Council and UAL revealed the urgency for bridging the gap between consumers and indigenous menders. Through public engagement, the idea of a directory of trusted menders, educational platform and a guided process to access repair was prototyped. Through the 2024 New Landscapes Grant, project was be able to achieve:
Establish a strategic data collection method to tap into various geographical, social and economic diversities of India to find trusted menders both ones formally running businesses and informal workers. Through both offline and online as well as qualitative and quantitative tools, we devised a scalable method to collect data across different cities in India.
Implemented and Tested the method in Bangalore, India by developing an open source directory.
Mender Profiling; Qualitative study of Menders
We mapped the various types of menders in the context of the city to be able to get an overview of the profiles.
Identified 8 Mender Categories
Based on factors such as the team’s access, mender availability, skill sets, business we reached out to 5 of them for a more in-depth interview in both the cities; Delhi and Bangalore
Perceptions of Mending in India; Online Survey and Interviews
In 2023, the first survey conducted recorded 250 responses about general perception about mending. Based on the responses, a prototype platform was generated.
The same year, another round of qualitative user testing was undertaken to gain feedback on the developed prototype.
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In 2024, an online survey was circulated to crowdsource data of menders in Bangalore. It recorded 45 Responses.
Currently, an India-wide survey is live for crowdsourcing information about menders across the country to further scale the directory.
Open Source Directory
This directory maps 45+ menders for the city of Bangalore. It integrates other directories as well as crowdsourced data.
Data Analysis and data collection strategy for scaling
Data over the last two years have been analyzed to draw insights about the culture of mending in India.
Additionally, by testing the strategies, a model for data collection has been devised to upscale a similar platform for other cities. This is important because mending in India largely falls under the informal sector.
A culture of Mending
Building Partnerships: Workshops with services based businesses in UK to explore the market opportunity.
Engaging Public: Communication of the collected data on social media has led to increasing interest of the people to join the project.