The hands behind handmade never get their due: they remain faceless, voiceless, penniless. Crammed into workstations like spools in a thread box, made to work in poor ventilation and lighting, paid a pittance, darjees and karigars are exploited by designers. Four conscientious Indian designers want to change that. Trained at Parsons School of Design, New York, Mumbai-based Bhumika Ahluwalia and Juhi Melwani, Delhi-based Parul Sahni and currently nomadic Shriya Chandrasekhar have started an online storytelling project called #knowyourdarjee. It was in New York, while working at fashion houses, that the group of 20-somethings had their moment of reckoning.

Chandrasekhar, the designated spokesperson of the group, says, "We became quickly aware that something wasn't right with the way this industry functions: its imbalance, the overabundance of marketing in the supply chain, the structure between the front and back-end, or the fact that no one cared that the H&M sweatshirt was an outrageous rip-off of a McQueen, Kenzo or a [Maison] Margiela. [At about the same time], we also witnessed two major events: the horrific collapse of the Rana Plaza [in Dhaka] and the rise of Amancio Ortega, chairman of Inditex, or Zara, as one of the richest men in the world." The 1,134 garment workers, who got buried under the building, are buried six feet under; as of November, Ortega is worth $67.2 billion, give or take a billion.