Founded in 2004, Chetna Organics is an Indian co-operative that’s 100% owned by smallholder producers. In sustainable fashion circles, Chetna is well known for its ground-breaking work producing organic cotton, promoting Fairtrade and helping India cotton farmers have fairer, better lives.

What we love about Chetna is that it’s 100% owned by smallholder farmer/ producers. The 35,000 members (including 15,000 organic members) are organized into 14 co-operatives and 2,000 farmer ‘Self Help Groups’ (SHGs). These farmers produce around 40 different crops, including cotton, rice, lentils, dahl, pigeon pea, oils, peanut and sunflower, with each household producing between 5 and 15 different crops to encourage diversity.

Members who grow Fairtrade cotton earn a premium, which makes a real difference to their livelihoods and their lives, but Chetna considers the impact of Fairtrade Premium to be much deeper and broader. They often use the premium prices to leverage broader investment, such as their recent purchase of land in Utnoor to create a one-hectare demonstration farm and training centre.

Chetna’s biggest client is one of Ethical Edit’s regular supplier partners. While cotton is grown in the parts of India where Chetna operates because it is drought and stress tolerant, cotton yields in India are down overall, which is why Chetna’s food crop programme encourages farmers to diversify their crops.

Chetna also monitors the gender division of labour – traditionally, women tend to do around 70% of the hardest jobs on the farms such as leveling, weeding and picking cotton. Most farms use family labour, although farmers also help each other out.

Farmers are paid through the bank and payments are noted in farmer records, which reduces the risk of corruption because transactions are traceable. Payments are usually made to the women, because farm loans are usually in the name of the male owner, and loans often get waived during election time - so it pays to have the cotton receipts kept separate!

Ashram Tribal Girls School

In the tribal areas where many cotton farms are located, it’s common for children to attend school some distance from home. Chetna has adopted four Government-run boarding schools (2 girls’ and 2 boys’ schools) with a view to investing where there are gaps in funding. One of these is Ashram Tribal Girls School, a primary school in Utnoor, which has 340 students.

Chetna takes a phased approach to filling the gaps in funding over a three to five year period. They see their support as a catalyst for investment, as it encourages local government to invest as well. Support to date from Chetna, Dibella and its brand partners includes providing desks and chairs, mattresses and sheets, lab equipment and musical instruments, construction of a stage for performing, covered seating and a drinking water station, teaching support and educational scholarships.

Helping young men & illiterate farmers

Young men in low-income rural communities are often drawn to the cities or to look for work in conventional farming due to the lack of opportunities. Chetna’s Fairtrade prices and premiums create an incentive for young people to stay in farming and for families to stay together.

Chetna actively supports education of illiterate farmers, such as through their programmes with schools and the demonstration farm. With more education and literacy, farmers report higher self-esteem, have better access to job opportunities and government schemes, and are able to help to illiterate peers while taking leadership positions in their community.

The above are just a sample of the many initiatives and programmes created by Chetna. Ethical Edit is proud to be associated with such a progressive and enlightened organic cotton supplier – one that truly lives up to the meaning behind its name: empowerment and emancipation.