Every once in a while, the craft world brings together two journeys that were always meant to intersect.
Our recent live session with Simeen, a social entrepreneur travelling across India to understand craft ecosystems, was one such moment.

You can watch it here:
👉 Live Session – HKV Benaras × Simeen

Who Is Simeen?

Simeen has been moving across different craft clusters of India — meeting artisans, listening to their stories, understanding their struggles, and creating bridges between genuine makers and ethical markets.
Her work is rooted in empathy, transparency, and craft preservation — values that align deeply with what we do at HKV Benaras.

She discovered us through the wonderful community at Creative Dignity, a collective working to support artisans and revive handmade economies.
We are grateful for this connection, because it brought a truly meaningful conversation to our looms.

Her Visit to HKV Benaras

When Simeen visited our workshop, she didn’t just see sarees;
she saw:

• 5th-generation weaving heritage

• artisans setting up pattern cards by hand

• Kadhua motifs being woven thread by thread

• the dying reality of handloom vs the flood of imitation

• our technology-enabled traceability system, HastKala Pramanak (HKP)

• and the emotional weight carried by every loom in Banaras.

Her questions were sharp, honest, and rooted in a desire to understand—not consume.

The live conversation became a space where we spoke openly about:

• the decline of real handloom

• fake vs authentic Banarasi

• what artisans truly earn

• how HKV Benaras is trying to preserve authenticity

• why HKP (NFC + traceability) is necessary to protect weavers

• and the future of craft in India if we don’t act today

Why This Conversation Matters

Social entrepreneurs like Simeen play a crucial role in the craft ecosystem.
They listen, document, and amplify.
They ensure that authentic artisan voices reach audiences who genuinely care.

For us at HKV Benaras, the session was more than a marketing moment — it was a reaffirmation of our mission:

To protect real Banarasi handloom
To support artisans with dignity
To bring transparency
And to merge heritage with technology

Every time someone like Simeen understands our story and shares it, the craft takes one step closer to survival.

Watch the Full Conversation

👉 HKV Benaras × Simeen – Live Session

We invite you to watch, learn, and join this movement —
because handloom will not survive unless we all stand for it, speak for it, and buy it responsibly.