Vishpala Hundekari

Vishpala Naik Hundekari is the founder of Ekibeki, a social enterprise that aims to preserve, rejuvenate, and grow rich craft heritages and create livelihoods for artisans. Ekibeki creates aspirational, high-quality contemporary products using traditional crafts. Vishpala’s business establishes market linkages to create a sustainable ecosystem and a virtuous growth cycle for craft clusters.

Vishpala studied architecture at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur and furniture design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She is also a co-creator of Creative Dignity, a nationwide movement started during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has designed residential interiors for over 20 years and for the last 13 years, she has been working extensively with artisans in remote villages of India, developing craft-based products for retail, exports and corporate gifting.

Vishpala is part of the second cohort (2021) of Facebook Pragati, a CSR initiative of Facebook powered by The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation. Vishpala received a special mention at the Kamladevi Chattopadhyay Award -2021 for social impact in the craft sector. Vishpala is also a regular speaker at schools, colleges, corporations and design events to promote Indian folk arts and crafts.