Today we’d like to introduce you to Shama Pawar.
Hi Shama, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Shama Pawar is the founder of The Kishkinda Trust and convener of the INTACH Anegundi – Hampi chapter a visionary rooted in the World Heritage Site (WHS) of Hampi. Her work has primarily been in conservation of environmental, tangible and intangible heritage driven by community guided by sustainability.
Her journey when she first visited the region in 1991, struck by its raw beauty — the boulder-strewn hills, the river, the ruins. In 1997, she founded The Kishkinda Trust (TKT) with a bold but heartfelt mission: to help the local community flourish through preserving their heritage, nurturing crafts, and building livelihoods. From the very beginning, she saw heritage not as a relic, but as a foundation for the future — something deeply interwoven with the lives of the people who live there.
Over the last 30 years Shama has established traditions of eco-sustainble craft- livelihoods using locally available materials. While India is known for its rich heritage of traditional crafts Shama has established new craft traditions that have become the hallmark of Hampi. Through the Kishkinda trust she has trained and incubated crafts before handing the running of cottage industry to a women led organisation. Her work with Banana Fibre has been known to be a great success. Over the last 30 years over 800 individuals from the area have been trained in different craft based livelihoods.
But Shama’s vision goes beyond craft. As the convener of the INTACH Anegundi-Hampi chapter, she plays a key role in heritage planning and preservation. She has made suggestions to public policy in making development WHS inclusive of environment, visual integrity, and the local community. She has pushed for more than infrastructure: she advocates for systems that empower local people, manage mobility, and revive the “garden-like forests” of the sacred landscape.
Education through perfoming arts for the children of Anegundi was the first program that Shama started and has been running successfully for the last 30 years. It fosters empathy, critical thinking, and cultural continuity qualities essential for building cohesive communities and responsible future leaders. Moreover, rural children often lack access to such enrichment. Regular, structured exposure to the arts can be life-changing offering not just skill-building but a sense of belonging, purpose, and voice.
Her institute the “Cultural Industries Centre” hopes to formalise vocational training for individuals from the region to be skilled in hospitality, crafts, tourism and performing arts. This training will aim to provide training that is attuned to the sensitive approach one must take in setting up entrepreneurial ventures in the region.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many challenges over time. We are a small organization that has mostly tried to fund our own initiatives. If our impact has to grow we will need all the support and collaborations that we can make. The world can become a conscious place only if we act as a collective. These have to be collaborations with community, government and corporations. Since all our work is at grassroot level the impact of the work is always a tangible one.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have always tried to work with whatever is available to me as resource. I am fortunate that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and it continues to inspire me even after 30 years. I don’t know if I would like to say that something sets me apart because I think everyone has their own process. Whatever I work on, for me should have an impact on the person who is consuming it. Be it a lifestyle product that I design or a piece of art I create. What is the effect that it has on the community, on the environment and what it does for the person who ultimately uses it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://handmadeinhampi.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kishkindatrust/
