Shakti Cart
PARTNER: PVR NEST LOCATION: NEW DELHI
Design Research & Insights
Product Design
Brand Identity
Design for Women's Economic Inclusion.
The Shakti Cart is a livelihood cart specially designed for the economic inclusion of women street vendors to increase their visibility and mobility in public spaces. This one-of-a-kind product has been conceptualized and designed by Desmania Designed for Good with the support of PVR NEST.
01.
Overview
Street vending in Delhi is a male-dominated trade — one that typically demands the physical strength to push heavy, unwieldy carts, making it far less accessible to women. Without a well-formed structure or an easily maneuverable cart, women street vendors are often discouraged from participating altogether, left instead to manage makeshift, hard-to-maintain open carts. The Shakti Cart is a livelihood platform conceptualized and designed by Desmania Designed for Good, with the support of PVR Nest, to increase the visibility and mobility of women street vendors in public spaces — building on PVR Nest's Garima Shakti Program, which trains women in vocational skilling and self-reliance.
02.
Objective
To give women street vendors, entrepreneurs, craft-preneurs, and small-scale business owners a platform built around their needs — lightweight, manageable, and easy to push — so they can sell their wares in public spaces with dignity, comfort, and independence. The Shakti Cart aims to make women active, independent participants in Delhi's public spaces, rather than a population designed out of them.
03.
Impact
100+ WASH champions equipped to use the platform
Modular, compact, expandable, and easily transportabe, the Shakti Cart features large display sections that give women vendors a prominent platform to showcase and sell their products — meeting their everyday practical and social needs while boosting both visibility and mobility.
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The Shakti Cart launched on August 16, 2023 as part of PVR Nest's Garima Shakti Program, at an event held at PVR Plaza, New Delhi, marking the first public screening of the film Ghoomer. Director R. Balki, alongside actors Abhishek Bachchan, Saiyami Kher, and Angad Bedi, joined the WASH champions of the Garima Shakti Program to unveil the cart — a livelihood platform designed for women by Desmania Designed for Good, supported by PVR Nest.