The Freedom Manchaha project by Jaipur Rugs employs jail intimates to create beautiful rugs

We believe that art is for everyone and that it can be a powerful healing tool. The Freedom Manchaha initiative by Jaipur Rugs gives livelihood opportunities to inmates, enabling them to express and heal. The project encourages disengaged inmates to make handmade works of art using leftover yarn from commercial carpet production. Inmates get trained in the art of carpet weaving and express themselves creatively on the loom, weaving their dreams and hopes knot by knot.

Jaipur Rugs took up the challenge to ensure that the livelihood opportunities for inmates were sustainable and they helped inmates disassociate from negative emotions of guilt and shame and bring back dignity, creativity, and healing into their lives. For Jaipur Rugs, it was a way to create purposeful and original works of art for the conscious design fraternity. All, while bringing awareness that beauty can manifest from a place as dark as a prison.

The aim of the project is to have not just a long-term impact, but systemic changes that will redefine how inmates engage and heal in prisons. Since the project was successfully implemented at Jaipur Central Jail with 80 inmates, it has scaled to three other prisons in Rajasthan, India within two years. Given our customer reach and a commercially viable product, it can be scaled to other prisons across the country.

This August, make your Independence Day celebrations special by shopping this incredible collection only on the Jaipur Rugs website and stores.

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