“I always loved practising Nirmal painting, but I doubted in my mind regarding what the future holds for this art form? Will anyone appreciate it enough to keep it alive?” wonders Mohammed Abdul Hakeem, a 57-year-old artisan from Telangana.

For years, he had been working as a piece-rate artisan, creating beautiful wood-based paintings, but was unsure about his craft’s sustainability. With traditional art forms slowly losing their place in the modern world, the artisan felt trapped in a cycle of underappreciation and uncertainty about the future.

But his story took a turn when he met Sushmita Kaneri, a software engineer-turned-entrepreneur, who started reviving endangered crafts and improving the livelihoods of artisans like Hakeem.

Hailing from a humble background in Pune, Maharashtra, Sushmita was raised by parents who were committed to hard work and self-sustainability. Her parents taught her the values of wisdom in decision-making and kindness. With a degree in software engineering from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) Pune, she was ready to start her professional journey in 2020. However, it was during her schooling days that the seed for social entrepreneurship was first sown.

In a conversation with The Better India, the 26-year-old recalls, “During my school days, I was the class monitor and tried to launch a crowdfunding campaign, gathering money from my classmates to donate to a cause. We raised Rs 500 and decided to help an orphanage by buying them stationery. That small gesture opened my eyes to the struggles faced by many people, and it stirred my passion for social impact and volunteering with various NGOs.”

It was this formative experience that led her to think about making a difference through technology and social impact. After completing her studies, she found herself at a crossroads. Even though she already had a job offer in hand, she felt a strong pull towards striking a balance between her expertise in technology with her passion for building a social enterprise.

Instead of choosing a stable career in software engineering, in 2021, she finally launched ‘Gullak’, a crowdfunding platform aimed at tracking donations and their impact. While the initiative provided an outlet for generosity, it also revealed the limitations of simply donating money.

“I realised that just donating money was not sustainable. We needed to create solutions that would empower people and help them build a lifelong income,” she says.

From coding to crafting: How this software engineer took the leap

This realisation led the young entrepreneur to pivot her focus towards livelihood-based crowdfunding. She began her search for solutions that could provide sustainable livelihoods for people in need, particularly through the lens of India’s rich but endangered crafts.

One of her turning points came in 2021 when she travelled to Telangana and met artisans practising Nirmal art, a wood-based craft known for its intricate process and storytelling through painting. “I saw how these artisans had been practising the craft for generations, but their art form........

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