There is a tired habit in disability coverage of treating work as charity and craft as therapy. Karmann pushes back on both.

Based in Mumbai, Karmann is a sustainable manufacturing brand that upcycles textile waste into useful everyday products while employing 50 artisans with disabilities. The company grew out of Mann, a transition program founded by special educators Beverly Louis, Dilshad Mehershahi, and Geetanjali Gaur to support young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities after school ends. According to The Better India, Karmann has now generated about Rs 2 crore in revenue, upcycled more than 10,000 kilograms of textile waste since 2021, and operates from Mumbai with manufacturing units in Maharashtra, Kashmir, and Gujarat.

That matters for a lot of reasons.

It matters because disabled people are being employed in skilled, visible production work. It matters because the products are designed to be useful and desirable, not pity purchases. And it matters because this is one more example of disability inclusion looking strongest when it is built into the center of a business, not taped onto the edge of one.

When school ends and the silence begins

One of the strongest parts of this story is the problem Karmann was built to answer.

The founders saw what happened when formal schooling ended for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Structure disappeared. So did clear pathways into adulthood. Families were often left with very few options, and employment, when it existed at all, was too often framed through charity rather than skill. The founders launched Mann in 2011 as a transition ecosystem in Mumbai for disabled young adults who had completed school and were otherwise being left without direction or community.

At first, Mann was not mainly about jobs. It focused on adult life, routine, friendships, independence, and belonging. But over time, the founders realized something important. Employment was not separate from identity. It was part of it. They saw confidence rise when people were trusted with responsibility, and they saw families begin to respond differently when disabled adults were recognized for capability rather than dependence.

That is a point Disabled Art readers will understand immediately. Making is not just output. It is self-definition.

From transition space to manufacturing brand

The leap from Mann to Karmann came during the pandemic, when many disabled workers lost jobs and the fragility of relying on outside employers became impossible to ignore. In October 2020, with guidance from supporter and mentor Sudhir Shenoy, the founders began rethinking the model. Rather than training disabled adults and hoping employers would include them, why not build the workplace themselves? The pilot for Karmann began in late 2020, operations accelerated in 2021, and the brand officially launched in 2022.

Karmann was built around two linked ideas. The first was direct employment for disabled people, especially those with higher support needs. The second was using reclaimed fabric and textile waste to make practical, well-designed products people would actually want to buy. The founders were explicit that they were not trying to create decorative “craft” objects that survive only on goodwill. They wanted durable, high-utility products with strong design value.

That distinction is important.

Disabled makers deserve to be connected to quality, design, and professional standards, not just uplift language and a sympathetic checkout page.

Waste becomes material, material becomes work

Karmann sources textile waste from mills, brands, corporate partners, family networks, and donors, including surplus denim, end-of-range fabric, and discarded stock. That waste is then transformed into bags, organizers, apparel, accessories, pet products, stationery, travel organizers, and customized corporate gifts. Early revenue came from donors and believers in the concept, with about Rs 40 lakhs generated in the first year. Since then, the company has expanded significantly, with clients that include Reliance, Tata-Trent, Godrej, Aditya Birla, L&T, and Culver Max.

This is where the art and design story really comes into view.

Upcycling is not just a sustainability trend. At its best, it is a design discipline. It asks people to look at discarded material and see possibility, structure, texture, durability, and beauty. In that sense, Karmann is doing more than employing disabled artisans. It is placing them in a live conversation about material transformation and purposeful design.

That belongs squarely inside the Disabled Art conversation.

Work that changes how people are seen

The Better India article includes voices from artisans that make the point more clearly than any branding language ever could. Akanksha Mhatre, a master artisan at Karmann, says she wanted what everyone else wants: purpose, income, responsibility, and to be known for her work rather than her diagnosis. Other artisans describe the pride of taking fabric with a history and turning it into something useful, beautiful, and durable. One talks about supporting his mother through his work. Another talks about the collective nature of the production process, how everyone contributes to making something together.

That is not a side note. That is the center of the story.

Employment changes how disabled people see themselves, yes. It also changes how families, institutions, and customers see them. The founders of Mann and Karmann recognized that years ago. They saw respect follow responsibility. They saw identity sharpen through paid work.

That is a reality many disabled artists and makers know intimately. Visibility is nice. Being trusted with real work is better.

This is not charity. It is infrastructure.

What makes Karmann especially worth watching is that it is not framed as a one-off workshop or a temporary social initiative. It is infrastructure. Mann trains, Karmann employs. That continuity matters because it creates a real pipeline from education into work. The model is especially important for disabled adults with higher support needs, who are too often described as “not employable” when the actual problem is that most workplaces are not designed to include them consistently.

There is a lesson in that for arts institutions and creative industries everywhere.

Too many organizations still talk about disability inclusion as an accommodation issue. Karmann shows what happens when inclusion is operational, when it is built into hiring, workflow, and product design from the start. It becomes ordinary. And once it becomes ordinary, it becomes scalable.

Why this belongs on Disabled Art

There is a tendency to place disability arts in a narrow frame, gallery work, performance, maybe illustration if it behaves itself. But disabled culture has always lived in making, in applied arts, in design, in craft, and in the transformation of everyday material into meaningful objects.

Karmann belongs in that lineage.

It is not an “art project” in the conventional sense. But it is deeply tied to design intelligence, material sensitivity, hand skill, and the politics of being known for what you make. It asks a question Disabled Art returns to again and again: what changes when disabled people are centered not as recipients of support, but as makers of value?

A lot changes.

Waste becomes product. Training becomes employment. Diagnosis becomes background information. And disabled artisans become what they should have been understood as all along, skilled workers shaping their own futures.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Karmann?

Karmann is a Mumbai-based sustainable manufacturing brand that upcycles textile waste into everyday products while directly employing disabled artisans. It officially launched in 2022 and grew out of the transition organization Mann.

Who founded Mann and Karmann?

Mann was founded by special educators Beverly Louis, Dilshad Mehershahi, and Geetanjali Gaur. Karmann later emerged from that work as a direct-employment model.

How many people does Karmann employ?

According to The Better India, Karmann employs 50 artisans with disabilities alongside 20 staff members.

How much textile waste has Karmann upcycled?

The company says it has upcycled more than 10,000 kilograms of textile waste since 2021.

Why is this story relevant to Disabled Art?

Because it sits at the intersection of disability, design, making, and dignified work. It shows disabled artisans being recognized through skilled production and material transformation, not charity framing.

Further Reading

• The Better India feature on Karmann and Mann.
• Karmann official website.

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