Some of the rural artisans involved in terracotta art have been crafting pottery with their own hands for a long time. But it is not easy to make these utensils which look very beautiful in appearance. First the soil is finely sifted and then it is churned with water. After that, they are given any shape or size and left to dry. Then it’s time to cook them in the furnace. These utensils are cooked in the furnace at a temperature ranging from 600 to 1000 degrees.
But even after working so hard, these artists are not getting the right value for their art. A major reason for their condition is the middlemen present in the market, who do not allow full money to reach their pockets. At the same time, the second reason is not getting the right platform for marketing. In order to remove these middlemen and provide a platform to the artisans, two 20 year old students – Abhinav and Megha have started the startup ‘MITTIHUB’.
In fact, ‘MittiHub’ is an online store by Abhinav Agarwal and Megha Joshi from the Pink City of Jaipur, Rajasthan, which connects artisans directly with buyers. Here, they sell their products to the customers without any middleman. This is the specialty of this startup.
At present, 25 artisans are associated with this startup and today they are earning 40 thousand rupees a month. This is a better attempt to save this art and artists who are getting lost somewhere among the machines.
an attempt to save art
Abhinav, a student of Global Center for Entrepreneur and Commerce (GCEC) The Better India Told to, “It started in the year 2020. We got a project to build an e-commerce platform in college.
Since childhood, I had been hearing about the troubles of the pottery artisans in my home and how this art is slowly dying out. Then I thought why not do something to save this art and then we decided that we will develop an online platform to market their products.
These artisans settled in the rural parts of the country are carrying the double weight of this hand crafted art on their shoulders. It is their responsibility to save the heritage and also to run their livelihood. But in the circumstances in which they are working, it has become difficult to save both of them. Anyway, people are now turning to machine made goods. But what is in hand made utensils is not found in machine made utensils.
Startup started with only fifty thousand
“Even under these conditions, half of what these people earn goes to middlemen,” says Abhinav. Well, today there is a lot of demand for pottery in cities. The real problem is with their marketing. These people do not get a platform where they can sell their goods nor are the customers able to find them easily.
These two students first worked at the grassroots level. He gathered all the information by interacting with potters from different communities. He landed in his startup with a team of seven undergraduates. Now they had to find new customers for the terracotta product. Initially there were five artisans with him, who were making the products.
He says, “Some savings were with us and some we borrowed from friends and family. In this way, we got into this business by investing Rs 50,000. “Aggregator delivery services were started for shipping, website was created and artists were taught the techniques to deliver the product in a better way. Within a few days, his startup was also shortlisted for Atal Incubation Center.
Earnings increased compared to earlier

Abhinav said, “We have planned our strategy in such a way that the profits start coming from the very beginning. When MittiHub was launched in 2021, we had 30 orders at that time.”
Today, a total of 25 artisans from Ramgarh in Alwar, Uttamnagar in Delhi, Haryana and Agra have joined this social enterprise. His income has increased. All these artists are making different types of kitchen sets, utensils, tableware, planters and home decor products and they are being sold all over India through the website.
Tej Singh is one such terracotta artisan of Rajasthan. His age is only 23 years. Earlier, they depended only on art exhibitions held from time to time. Just hoped that their products would sell well during this period. But after meeting Abhinav at the handcrafted Nature Bazaar, his life has changed. Where earlier only a certain amount used to come in the pocket, today he is earning a lot. Tej Singh says, “Earlier, I could earn only about Rs 15,000 a month. Today my earning has become 40 thousand rupees by joining Mittihub.
Artisans connected with new technology
These artisans did not know about the new marketing strategies and even if they did, they did not know how to work. Just the students have made their task easy. However, for this he also had to work hard. But it was also a challenge for them that how to connect these artisans with the new technology?
He taught every artist associated with the site to run applications like WhatsApp, so that they could easily be connected to each other. The website has earned around Rs 3 lakh in the last six months. “The artisans account for 45 per cent of the total sales on the site,” says Abhinav.
making products on demand

In addition, getting a business to business order means getting the product designed according to the demands of your customers. Abhinav says, “Srikrishna, a member of the team, makes 3D models for such a design. Because when we talk to the artisans about this or explain to them, there are often some things left.”
To increase the business, these students have set up several restaurants and retail stores in Jaipur like Tapri, Jaipur; Mega Store, Delhi; And partnered with barbecue company. Two consignments of these products have also been sent to London and the US. At the same time, talks are going on about more possibilities in the future.
Abhinav, being busy with business, is unable to devote much time to college. He, too, admits this and proudly says, “But whatever I am learning from business, I will not find anywhere in the books.”
For more information about MittiHub, visit their website https://www.mittihub.com/.
Original article: Riya Gupta
Editing: Archana Dubey
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