YOJANA May 2011 1

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May 2011 Vol 55

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YOJANA May 2011 1

C O N T E N T S

EFFECTING INTEGRATION FOR GROWTH Vanita Viswanath...............................................................................5

ARTISANAL CLUSTERS: TOWARDS A BRIGHTER FUTURE Tamal Sarkar .....................................................................................8

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITION OF HANDLOOM WORKERS IN INDIA N D George .....................................................................................12

PROMOTING OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY Nupur Bahl ......................................................................................18

DEVELOPMENT OF KHADI AS A BRAND Kumud Joshi ...................................................................................22

EMPLOYMENT IN HANDLOOM AND HANDICRAFTS SECTORS P M Mathew ....................................................................................25

DO YOu KNOw? INTEGRATED COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT ...................30

INDIAN CRAFTS IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY Laila Tyabji .....................................................................................32

SHODH YATRA MOTEK TREADLE PRESS: REVIVING THE OLD LETTER PRINTING PRESS .......................................37

STOPPING MIGRATION FROM VILLAGES: CHALLENGES FOR THE HANDLOOM SECTOR Syama Sundari ................................................................................39

WEAVING A THREAD OF SWARAJ Mallikarjuna Iytha ...........................................................................43

DESIGN INNOVATION IN THE HANDLOOM SECTOR Sarvamangala ..................................................................................48

BEST PRACTICES WEAVING DREAMS INTO REALITY Nusrat Ara .......................................................................................50

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There is no denying the fact that India owes a lot of its cultural identity to its rich handloom and handicrafts heritage. The colourful tapestry of bandhej, zardozi, kanjeevaram, bomkai, or tangail, the fragrance of sandalwood being carved into

intricate products, the tinkle of metal as it takes awesomely varied forms under the artisan’s hammer, and the multitude of carpets and durries, boxes and bags , jewellery items and stone work may have, at some point of time in the distant past, been mere everyday activities and common place products in any typical village in any part of the country, but things are changing today. Our handloom and handicraft products are fast becoming major lifestyle statements and have secured a place for India in the lives of millions across the world. For a growing number of people at home and abroad, the exquisiteness and exclusivity of the handmade is working as a powerful lure against the monotony of the mass produced, opening up huge possibilities of market expansion. The sector provides livelihood to over 130 lakh weavers and artisans, a large percentage coming from the marginalized sections of the society. The industry is largely environment friendly and low on energy consumption, and consciousness on these issues, as also on fair trade practices is growing fast. All this makes the sector a potentially powerful player in the country’s economy and an important tool for the empowerment of crafts persons. The government, NGOs and the crafts persons themselves are today working together to work out and put into practice the best ways to unleash this potential.

There are several issues that need attention both in the form of policy intervention and ground level implementation. There are issues of securing steady, dependable and affordable sources of finance for the artisans, skill upgradation, bringing in new and useful technology and innovations in design. Devising and operating a marketing mechanism that ensures fair returns to the artisans and is socially inclusive is another crucial area of concern. This entails providing marketing intelligence, building value chains, publicity of the product, building brand image and a lot more. Overall, the challenge is to ensure sustainable production and growth of the sector along with empowerment of the practitioners.

The last two decades have seen a lot of positive activity in the sector, both on part of the government and the non government organizations. To overcome the disadvantage posed by the highly dispersed nature of the sector, there is stress on organizing artisans and weavers into clusters and cooperatives. Financial institutions, NGOs and the government are coming forward today – not with subsidies and such other props, but with positive action to empower the crafts persons. Thus financial, technological, design, publicity and market intelligence inputs are all being provided with the aim of enabling the craftspersons to produce sustainably, goods that are of high quality and in tune with popular demands, and to market the same on terms that are to their benefit. The current issue of Yojana brings you articles from experts in the field who discuss issues crucial to the handloom and handicrafts sector in India. q

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About the Issue

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N D I A N HANDICRAFTS are rich in diversity and spread all over the country both in rural

and urban areas. Though it is considered a cottage industry, it has evolved as one of the major revenue generators over the years. There has been consistent growth of 15% over the last few years and the industry has evolved as a major contributor for exports and thus, for foreign revenue generation. Since most of the manufacturing units are located in rural and small towns, handicraft industry is a major source of income for rural communities, employing over six million artisans who are mainly poor and majority of them are women. Additionally, with a growing middle class that has spread beyond the four metros, there is market potential for handicrafts in smaller towns in a way not seen before, especially with the spread of retail.

Effecting Integration for Growth

HaNDlOOMS-HaNDiCRafTS

Vanita Viswanath

aNalySiS

Government programs need to be more creatively

designed to accommodate the various players, various stages of

growth of handicraft enterprises, and the various subsectors that have their own

value chain dynamics

Handicrafts are complex in terms of products and market segments. In textiles and clothing, there is a more seamless movement of product lines and designs among the segments than before. Products and designs that used to be considered ‘boutique’ are now seen in retail. This provides a market opportunity for artisans to be employed, despite the challenges posed by machines duplicating the designs and use of cheaper fabric. There is a greater thrust for social consciousness and fair trade and these have become worldwide movements. There is a focus on sustainable consumption, social protection, environmental standards and occupational health and safety. These concepts and terms were rarely used a few years ago. Certifications have also become available to assist in branding and socially conscious advertising. The challenge is to widen these benefits to the large number of artisans who are outside the formal sector.

I

The author is the Chief Executive Officer of Udyogini, an organization that works to promote poor women as entrepreneurs.

6 YOJANA May 2011

Much of the work in handicrafts remains dispersed and informalized, mainly in the rural areas. This is both an advantage and a curse. For women it is an advantage because it enables them to work out of their homes thus providing much needed employment to those who would otherwise not be employed. It is a curse because the dispersed nature of production increases costs of developing an efficient value chain for production and marketing. The value chains are long and relationships along the chain are non-transparent. Margin calculations are ad hoc and exploitative with artisans not receiving returns commensurate with their skill or labor. There are no standard or average markups in many cases. Every transaction is a different transaction wherein each transacting party attempts to gain the maximum share. The mark up on lower quality, lower priced goods is low and markups on higher quality, higher priced goods are high.

The key challenge was, and remains integration across the range of requirements for sustainable production and growth. The integration requirements become more complex with greater differentiation in markets, products, and skills to take advantage of the more creative ways that exist to build the value chains. With emphasis on bringing the welfare benefits to the informal sector workers, this is an added dimension to integration for artisans. The key players in developing the backward linkages are the smaller entrepreneurs who have traditionally served the artisans and the NGOs, along with

the member-based organizations that they have helped to develop. The key player in financing this sector to enable this integration is the government. The key players in the forward links in the chain (retailers, exporters) have expanded with the market but they are still evolving in their understanding of fair and progressive practices in sustainable production and consumption, including artisan employment and income generation. The issues relating to these players are discussed below.

The handicraft sector thrives on the dynamism of small-scale agents, entrepreneurs and enterprises. Though the specifics vary in different sub-sectors of handicrafts, entry and exit barriers are probably the lowest at the stage of the village agent or thekedar. In the hand embroidery subsector in Western Rajasthan, for example, since the money investment is not huge for a thekedar, quitting the sector is relatively easy if business does not go as planned. On the other hand, a referral from a relative and very small capital to pay off one to two months wages is all that is required to enter the sector and become a small thekedar. While such thekedars are at the lowest rung of the value chain, they perform an important service of enabling employment for the artisans. Many thekedars are from artisan families themselves and also poor and not educated. However, lack of accessible, graduated financial support, as well as business skills consistent with accessing upscale and diverse markets, prevents thekedars from getting into manufacturing where the real value addition happens

and the margins are the highest. This is hampering handicrafts from realizing their true potential and growing formally and with greater transparency and accountability all along the value chain.

NGOs have for long supported the art isan sector and done pioneering work to build up membership-based organizations of artisans such as cooperatives and producer companies. But financial and capacity gaps in both the artisan organizations and NGOs have prevented them from helping to widen the scope and scale of artisan products and employment. The level of integration required to enable this (from product design, input supplies, business process, finance and marketing not to mention persistent community intermediation to ensure quality and timeliness) even for smaller numbers of artisans to get enhanced incomes, is daunting for such institutions. The focus on weeding out the thekedars who are not fair wage providers, building capacity among artisans themselves to do a variety of tasks for artisan enterprises beyond production such as marketing and technical assistance as well as on building member organizations to ensure their ownership and control, has motivated a few NGOs in India to develop such integration internally. They have created value chains that build on existing resources and skills to develop products and take them to the market. However, such examples are few and not all of them are able to scale up.

The opening up of the retail sector, which has created a diversified market for a variety

YOJANA May 2011 7

of products at various price points, offers an opportunity for individual entrepreneurs as well as institutions representing and working for artisans for enhancing employment and accommodating artisans with varying skill levels. These opportunities have not, however, been matched with a business and supply capacity. The retail sector requires an organized and well-controlled supply chain and the lack of integration capabilty mentioned earlier is hampering traditional and new artisans from taking advantage of the market opportunities. The inefficiencies persist in large measure and the withdrawal of orders from the market due to delays in supply and quality inconsistencies severely hinders growth and sustained motivation to comply with market requirements. Though the informalization along most value chains helps local entrepreneurs (thekedars and small manufacturers) to manage the asymmetries in the handicrafts sector, it shortchanges artisans expecting regular employment and steady income.

Service institutions in the non-profit space are now emerging to do the integration and provide turnkey services combining at least skill development, design and marketing to artisan member organizations and NGOs. Some of them have used e-commerce marketing platforms for artisan products. Finance, however, is generally not included in this group of services, for the unfortunate reason that it remains difficult to access despite so much focus and funding going into microfinance

and the financial institutions, government and non-government. While this is a market opportunity for service organizations to take advantage of the growth of the handicrafts sector, the impact of this integration to push up artisan incomes and employment consistently is likely to be limited without finance being integrated into the package. Advice and linkages to social protection are also not services generally included in this package offered by service institutions for artisans.

Additionally, the vast number of local entrepreneurs, especially those operating as thekedars, is, however, not the primary clientele of these integrated services despite the value they have created for artisan employment. They are less able to effect integration than the NGOs and artisan organizations because they are viewed with suspicion. Their capacity to survive and ability to maneuver in the informal economy needs to receive greater attention and they need to be enabled to channel these skills to strengthen, standardize and sustain the supply and services at relevant points in the chain. Downstream are the firms of exporters and retailers most of whom deal with artisans at “arms length” and respond better to regulations that will directly impact their profits (such as those related to use of chemical dyes and discharge of effluents) than to calls for better margins for artisans. They are organized in their own associations and interest formations which are well knit to promote their interests but have not yet progressed to consistently engage with artisans or artisan associations or NGOs

working with them in a sensitive and effective manner.

The financial support for developing more organized value chains in rural areas in the aspects of skill improvement, design and product development, infrastructure, business capacity, market exposure, and working capital provision are not effectively consolidated in government schemes or disbursed sensitively or flexibly to improve chain viability, artisan incomes and welfare as well as their empowerment for market negotiations. There are also aspects that are either not covered or inadequate, such as transportation. Government schemes are actually quite expensive (in terms of human resources and logistics) for artisan-support institutions/NGOs to service/execute in rural areas. They invariably require flexible donor (often foreign) financing to fund the real costs of executing government schemes to reach them to the artisans, especially during the start-up and strengthening phase of developing the chain, including for working capital. Such donor financing is now shrinking for growth countries like India. How this will impact NGO support to the handicraft sector is still to be known but it is clear that integration for growth is an imperative that only the government can finance on the scale required. Government programs need to be more creatively designed to accommodate the various players, various stages of growth of handicraft enterprises, and the various subsectors that have their own value chain dynamics. q

(E-mail:vanitaviswanath@udyogini.org)

8 YOJANA May 2011

NDIA IS a land of h a n d i c r a f t s a n d handlooms. At the end of the tenth five year plan, the handicrafts

sector employed 67.70 lakh persons. Again, with about 35 lakh handlooms, the handloom sector provided employment to 65 lakh persons, of which, 61 per cent were women, and 35 per cent belonged to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Thus handlooms and handicrafts sectors are not only employment intensive, being second only to agriculture, but also have huge social importance, in view of the fact that they cater to the economically as well as socially weaker sections.

Interes t ingly, a lmost the entire handicrafts and handlooms sector are situated in geographic concentrations, called clusters.

Artisanal Clusters: Towards A Brighter Future

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

Tamal Sarkar

aNalySiS

There is scope for policy intervention

for providing appropriate and sustained market intelligence and necessary supply conditions for a

sustained growth path of the artisans

Such clusters are at times centuries old consisting of mostly household units utilising both home based as also wage earners. Each such cluster is situated within a contiguous geographical area spanning over a few villages and/or a town and/or a city and its surrounding areas. Each cluster faces common opportunities and threats.

India is estimated to have around 2682 handicrafts and 491 handlooms clusters. In both cases around10 states cover around two-third of these clusters. Uttar Pradesh leads both in handlooms and handicrafts. Some of the other front ranking states include Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in handlooms; and Orissa, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh in handicrafts. The major products of handlooms include saree, dress material,

I

The Author is Director of the Foundation for MSME Clusters, New Delhi. This article provides his personal views and not necessarily that of the organization to which he belongs. The author was supported by his colleagues Ms Neha Kapur and Mr Amar Singh for all background support with data, graphs etc.

YOJANA May 2011 9

furnishings, dhoti, lungi, etc. The 2682 handicraft clusters belong to 24 product groups, covering 292 products. These include 548 textiles, 418 basketry, 298 woodwork, 251 metal ware and 203 earthenware related handicrafts products.

Artisanal clusters face a variety of challenges. Firstly, majority of the clusters perform in a “market based value chain”. Here both the artisans and their buyers are plenty in number and there is no one-to-one relationship among the buyers and artisans. Also in many cases the artisans have got disengaged from the buyers. This has been a slow but steady process over the past few decades. Firstly mechanisation thinned and nearly

eroded the local market of the artisans. Their market shifted to the urban centres. Thereafter the changing market need at the far away urban markets made the existing market knowledge of the artisans irrelevant.

As a result the sector witnessed a natural advent of a ‘high-tech artisan product handlers, mostly people of urban origin, who started providing the artisans the neo-market intelligence and the market as well. Thus slowly the artisans, who have already lost their rural roots, having lost their comparative advantage – the market intelligence, slowly became suppliers of low cost labour of “artisan” products.

Several attempts have been made in this regard by various s c h e m a t i c a p p r o a c h e s o f participation in trade fairs, buyer seller meets, design support, etc., but given the sheer volume of artisans and the time requirement for striking business linkage, these schemes have natural limitations. Firstly, these are mostly restricted/irregular attempts for an artisan. Also, given the huge number, there is hardly any scope to cover all the artisans on a regular basis. While sincere attempts are also being made to provide the artisans with appropriate design inputs, but the element of continuity, that is required to make such attempts successful in the long run, is naturally missing, given the huge number and the repeated attempts that need such coverage.

A possible solution to such chronic challenge is to get linked to natural market facilitator, with a long run strategy. Here again, a basic trouble is the absence of a network of artisans. At an individual level an artisan does not provide any substantial volume for direct linkage with the new generation ‘informed’ buyers. However, once grouped optimally, artisans can get directly linked to such informed buyers, who can provide them with critical market intelligence. Over time as such relations mature and critical level of knowledge transfers take place, the artisan groups mature to get linked to the market directly and thereby move up the value chain,

Distribution of Handloom Clusters in India

Distribution of Handicraft Clusters in India

10 YOJANA May 2011

now with higher knowledge level, a “network based value chain”.

This process will need some initial development support to go for creation of groups of artisans and provision of initial linkage of such groups to higher order value chain partners, often referred to as “middlemen”, an area still cautiously treaded by the development fraternity. However, in the medium and long run, this market led system will in itself guide the entire process of training the artisans and sharing with them the market intelligence and thereby creating their capability to shift to

higher order value chain system themselves.

It must be stressed here that such linkage with private sector will require strong handholding support by independent agencies. Firstly, this is the time when there is need for creating systems among the artisan groups, which needs lot of negotiations and understanding from their side and lots of conflict resolution exercise that emerges in this process. Also there is need to create negotiation power among the artisan groups, as else, they are often at the risk of getting raw deals.

Availability of finance will also be a critical issue at this juncture. Artisans have very less holding capacity and they need payment immediately on delivery of products. Anything less than that may/will cause them to shift to alternative options. This is more so whenever there is availability of such alternative or the artisans are operating in a multiple livelihood scenario. Hence, tailor made group financing mechanism will be required at this stage. Unlike small and medium enterprises, the household units are often not in a position to even buy the raw material for producing. Hence they will need a financial product in the form of “Order Discounting”, wherein order is received by a legal entity (having at least an account with a bank) of the artisans from a registered entity, can be discounted by the bank. At the least such facility must be available for bill discounting. Alternatively revolving fund may be provided to the artisans’ group for quick reimbursement of wages and raw material cost to the artisans.

Technology is also an important issue. At times it becomes a real challenge to provide the appropriate technology that can replace routine and yet keep the artisanal dexterity untouched. This is becoming a challenge, as else, the modern generation artisans are feeling less interested to stick around the tradition. Such technology changes must be significant, should not

Private Sector Provides Crucial Market Link to Chanderi

Hand loom based weaving in Chanderi (Madhya Pradesh) is a centuries old activity. The cluster is known for its ethnic product with high design value. In 2003, Chanderi had 11000 weavers working in 3000 looms. Around 150 odd weavers got together to create an entity – Bunkar Vibhas Sansthan (BVS). Fab India is an established handicraft retail outlet with branches all over India. In July 2004 the core buying team of Fab India visited Chanderi to explore the possibilities of bulk purchase. After initial discussions and assessment of BVS, Fab India decided to open its own office in Chanderi and also signed an MOU with BVS. The MOU with Fab India ensured BVS an assured order of Rs. 5 million in the first year with an estimated increase of Rs. 2.5 million every year. BVS was given the responsibility of managing the production of its SHG and through them with other SHGs in the cluster. The CEO of BVS was entrusted with the responsibility of managing the entire show and simultaneously creating a system and do all conflict resolution during this growth period. Actual sales to Fab India were estimated at Rs 2.7 million in 2004 and Rs 4.24 million in 2005. The figure reached an estimated value of Rs 7 million in the year 2006. A point to point analysis suggested that the average wage rate for BVS increased by an estimated 50 per cent from Rs 85 to Rs 128 during the period 2004 and 2006.

YOJANA May 2011 11

tamper with the critical dexterity items, i.e. the core of the handicrafts, and should be affordable. Thus there is need for serious R&D, which can lead to innovative technology.

Simultaneously there is also need for critical infrastructure. But true to the spirit of decentralised home based production, there is need for multiple critical infrastructure as compared to high value large infrastructure, which may be viewed as remote when an artisan tries to balance it out with her family commitments.

Also in this process one needs to take care of the poorest of the poor artisans. While implementation, as it happens in many cases, the comparatively better endowed artisans – be it in the form of

dexterity and recognition, gender or social standing, etc. are the most expressive and get to understand the benefits fast. Hence as a natural process, there is a crowding out of the less endowed, ‘socially challenged’ and women artisans. Thus special care needs to be taken to strike a balance between spontaneity of demand from the artisans and special drive to include the weaker sections. Else implementation may become non-inclusive and lead to enhanced relative poverty in this process.

Here the role of design inputs is also a crucial ingredient. As mentioned earlier, the process of mechanization and the distancing of market from local to national and international, has made the

artisans, who were traditionally the design creators as design takers. The development agencies have responded to this problem by providing occasional design inputs. But this process is not programmed to make the artisans permanent design creators. They get new designs, but cannot create new ones. Hence serious and targeted efforts need to go into creating designers from the artisan category and give them back their prime – the pride of being an artisan.

Thus there i s scope for policy intervention for providing appropriate and sustained market intelligence and necessary supply conditions for a sustained growth path of the artisans. q

(E-mail : tamalsarkar3@gmail.com)

Handloom CensusThe number of Handloom weavers and allied workers as per the Second Census of Handlooms of India (1995-96)

and Third Handloom Census of India (2009-10) are:

Sr. No. Census Number of Handloom Weavers and Allied Workers (in lakhs)1 Second Census (1995-96) 65.502 Third Census (2009-10) 43.31

Factors identified for the decline of Handloom Sector, inter alia, include, (i) competition with mechanized sector such as mill and powerloom Sectors, (ii) decline of handloom corporations/Apex Cooperative Societies (iii) high cost of credit & low disbursement of credit for the handloom weavers, (iv) Choking of cooperative credit lines due to debt over-dues and (v) marketing problems etc.

Although, the number of handloom weavers and allied workers has declined, yet improvement in various other parameters has also been reported in 2009-10 Census over 1995-96 Census. The details are as under :

Sr. No. Indicator 2009-10 Census 1995-96 Census 1. Man days worked per weaver per annum (days) 234 197 2. Share of full time weavers to total weavers 64% 44% 3. Share of weaver households reporting less than a metre production 46% 68% 4. Share of Idle looms 4% 10%

For the development of Handloom Sector and welfare of Handloom weavers, five Schemes are under implementation, which are (i) Integrated Handlooms Development Scheme, (ii) Handloom Weavers’ Comprehensive Welfare Scheme (iii) Marketing & Export Promotion Scheme (iv) Mill Gate Price Scheme and (v) Diversified Handloom Development Scheme

12 YOJANA May 2011

NLIKE THE previous t w o h a n d l o o m censuses conducted in 1987-88 and 1995-96 which focused on the

economic aspects of the handloom industry, the latest handloom census (2009-10) provides data on the socio-economic indicators of the handloom workers as well, including gender, age composition, social groupings, poverty and education levels, etc. These data would be very useful for policy formulation which is gradually attaining a welfare orientation in addition to promotion of the handloom industry. The current focus on inclusive growth also mandates the holistic upliftment of the handloom workers rather than providing a few incentives for increasing handloom production and improving marketing. In this context, this article analyses the socio-economic conditions of the handloom workers in India,

Socio-Economic Condition of Handloom workers in India

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

N D George

OVERViEW

The real incomes of handloom workers have declined over the years instead of increasing in tandem with the

growth of the economy. This calls for policy changes both at the Centre

and State levels

mainly based on the results of the Handloom Census 2009-10 and puts forward some policy options for improving the welfare of the handloom workers. Direct comparison with the results of the earlier censuses was not possible as those censuses did not canvass data on the social indicators of handloom workers.

As per the Handloom Census (2009-10) , there are 27 .83 handloom households and 43.31 lakh handloom workers in India. The average household size is 4.59 and the average number of workers per household is 1.56, the work participation rate being 33.9 per cent. Handloom is pre-dominently a rural activity with 36.33 lakh (83.88%) workers living in rural areas and 6.98 lakh (16.12%) in urban areas. Of the 43.4 lakh handloom workers, 50% i.e. 21.6 lakh belong to the North Eastern states and the remaining 21.8 lakh are distributed among other states,

u

The author is Economic Adviser, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. The views are personal.

YOJANA May 2011 13

the major being West Bengal 7.8 lakh (17.9%), Tamil Nadu, 3.5 lakh (8.3%), Andhra Pradesh, 3.6 lakh (8%), Uttar Pradesh, 2.6 lakh (5.6%), Orissa, 1.1 lakh ( 2.5%), Karnataka, 0.9 lakh ( 2%) and other states, 2.3 lakh ( 5.3%).

The handloom work force is predominantly female, constituting 77.4 per cent of the total work force. The age composition of the handloom workers show that 49.1 per cent belong to the 18-35 age group and 11.2 per cent fall within the less than 18 years category. The majority of handloom workers belong to the adult age group of 18-60 years. Workers above 60 years constitute only 4 per cent. The handloom work force is pre-dominantly young.

Poverty

The Handloom Census (2009-10) has captured valuable information on the poverty levels of the

handloom workers by asking a few simple questions relating to the type of ration cards they possessed. The relevant information is summarised in the following table:

As seen from Table-1, 9.7% of the handloom workers belong to the poorest of the poor category and 36.9% belong to the BPL category. Only 34.5 % of the workers hold APL cards. It is well-known that many households belonging to the APL category quite often slip back to poverty due to various income shocks arising from loss of work, health expanses, expenses for marriage etc. A sizeable number of the handloom workers (18.9%) do not hold any ration card. It is likely that many households belonging to the ‘No Ration card category’ may be very poor. It is evident that as compared to the national average poverty level of 27.5% as per Planning Commission’s estimate for 2004-05 (which is expected to decline further by 2009-10), the

incidence of poverty among the handloom workers is much higher at more than 46.4%.

It is evident from the higher rates of incidence of poverty among handloom workers that though it generates some additional income for the households, handloom production is not sufficiently remunerative to lift the households out of poverty.

Social Groups

Closely linked to the incidence of poverty among handloom workers is their social group status. As represented in Table-2, a vast majority of the handloom weavers (73.4%) belong to socially disadvantaged groups such as OBCs (45.2%), STs (18.1%) and SCs (10.1%). Most of the ST handloom workers belong to the North Eastern States where handloom production is mainly for domestic consumption.

Table 1 Distribution of handloom households by type of ration cardsType of ration card Number of households Per cent distribution

Rural urban Total Rural urban Total Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) card 253,110 17805 270915 10.5 4.9 9.7Below poverty line (BPL) card 843,040 183656 1026696 34.8 50.7 36.9Above poverty line (APL) card 844,656 114631 959287 34.9 31.7 34.5No Ration card 480,311 46062 526373 19.8 12.7 18.9Total 2,421,117 362154 2783271 100.0 100.0 100.0

Source: “Handloom Census of India 2009-10”, NCAER, New Delhi.

Table-2 Distribution of adult (18 years and above) handloom workers by social groupsSocial Groups Number of workers Per cent distribution

Rural urban Total Rural urban Total Scheduled Castes (SCs) 331,994 58,439 390,433 10.3 9.5 10.1Scheduled Tribes (STs) 678,165 18,767 390,433 21.0 3.1 18.1Other backward Castes (OBCs) 1,359,355 378,188 1,737,543 42.1 61.5 45.2Others 862,711 159,216 1,021,927 26.7 25.9 26.6Total 3,232,225 614,610 3,846,835 100.0 100.0 100.0

Source: “Handloom Census of India 2009-10”, NCAER, New Delhi.

14 YOJANA May 2011

under-age workers There are a total of 11.2 lakh

handloom workers who are below 18 years of age. The reasons for existence of large number of under-age handloom workers may be found in the large scale incidence of poverty among the handloom worker households, the by and large domestic nature of handloom production, and the low-level of educational attainments among the handloom households. However, it is an issue we should be concerned about.

House ownershipOne of the basic requirements

for human well-being is to have a roof over one’s head, either owned or rented. The type of dwelling units of handloom house-holds are

represented in Table-3. The vast majority of handloom workers i.e. 85.3%, live in semi-pucca or kuchha dwellings. The semi-pucca houses, are mostly in urban areas. Only 14.7% of the handloom households have pucca houses. About 91% of the dwelling units are owned by the handloom workers. Only 5.2% of the units are rented.

EducationEducation is one of the principal

means of breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. The educational levels of handloom workers are presented in Table-4 :

As seen from the table, 29.4 per cent of the handloom workers have never attended school and 12.7 percent have below primary level education. A vast majority of them,

i.e. 82.9 per cent have educational level of middle school and below.

Employment, production and income

On an average, the handloom workers are employed for 191 days a year. While weavers get 183 days of work, the allied workers get work for 217 days. There is also marked difference in the number of days worked in rural and urban areas. While the weavers in rural areas work for 173 days, those in urban areas work for 248 days. The allied workers in rural areas work for 210 days and those in urban areas work for 241 days.

The available information regarding productivity of handloom households i s presented in Table 5.

Table- 3 Distribution of handloom worker households by type of dwelling unit

Type of dwelling untis Number of workers Per cent distribution

Rural urban Total Rural urban Total

Kuchha 1,441,473 77,159 1,518,632 59.5 21.3 54.6

Semi-pucca 678,024 177,554 855,578 28.0 49.0 30.7

Pucca 301,620 107,441 409,061 12.5 29.7 14.7

Total 2,421,117 362,154 2,783,271 100.0 100.0 100.0

Source: “Handloom Census of India 2009-10”, NCAER, New Delhi.

Table -4 Distribution of adult (18 years and above) handloom workers by level of education Level of education Number of workers Per Cent Distribution

Rural urban Total Rural urban Total Never attended School 931,324 199,121 1,130,445 28.5 32.4 29.4

Below primary 402,961 84,754 487,715 12.5 13.8 12.7

Primary 574,365 127,244 701,609 17.8 20.7 18.2

Middle 782,295 100,248 882,543 24.2 16.3 22.9

High school and above 328,493 63,347 391,840 10.2 10.3 16.8

Source: “Handloom Census of India 2009-10”, NCAER, New Delhi.

YOJANA May 2011 15

Information in the above table pertains to only those weavers who had a working loom on their premises. As seen from the table-5, 78.2 per cent of the households produce 2 or less metres of fabric per days, only 11.2 per cent of the households produce fabrics measuring 3 metres or more.

In the North Eastern states, 52 per cent of the households produced less than 1 metre per day, the corresponding percentage for the rest of India is 31.3. per cent. A rough conclusion that can be reached from the above analysis is that the per weaver productivity of fabrics, by and large remain very low at less than 2 metres per day. It is true that the average productivity will be higher if we exclude the North-Eastern states where production is mainly for domestic use.

Average incomes of handloom households from all sources as per the 1996-97 and 2009-10 Censuses are as follows:

As seen from the table-6, though the average earnings of handloom

households have doubled in nominal terms since 1995-96. However, in real terms, the average earnings have come down. Assuming an annual inflation of 6.5 per cent per year since 1995-96, the average annual income of handloom households should have grown to Rs. 42,250 in 2009-10 to keep parity with the real income levels of 1996-97. The real income has thus actually declined.

There are wide inter-state variations in the earnings of handloom households. While Assam has the lowest earnings of Rs. 8393, Haryana has the highest income of Rs. 36,096.

The share of income from purely handloom activities is 30.2 per cent across all handloom households. While it is 51 per cent for urban households, the rural households have a share of 27.5 per cent. In the North-Eastern states, the share of handloom income is only 18.8 per cent across all households. The sources of other income are broadly agriculture and non-agriculture. It is obvious that if we exclude the North Eastern states, the share of handloom income will be much higher for the rest of India.

N a t u r e o f G o v e r n m e n t interventions and policy options

Both the Central and State Governments are currently active in the handloom sector, providing a number of incentives for handloom production and marketing. The Central Government, through the Ministry of Textiles, Office of the Development Commissioner (Handlooms), implements a number of schemes such as Integrated Handloom Development Scheme, Scheme for supplying hank yarn at mill gate prices, marketing and design support, health and life insurance schemes etc. The State Governments are also implementing various schemes for the benefit of the handloom workers. The Plan allocation of the Ministry of Textiles for handloom schemes is Rs. 460 crores for 2011-12.

However, in spite of these, we have seen that the real incomes of

Table 5 : Distribution of weaver households by average length of fabrics

Length (metres) Number of weaver households (Lakh)

Distribution of weaver households (%)

Less than 1 8.27 45.91-2 5.81 32.32-3 1.91 10.63-4 0.85 4.74 & above 1.17 6.5Total 18.01 100.0

Source: “Handloom Census of India 2009-10”, NCAER, New Delhi.

Table- 6 : Average incomes of handloom households from

all sources (Rs.)

Category Average annual earning of handloom

households from all sources (Rs.)

1995-96 2009-2010

All India 17,496 36,498

Rural N.A. 37,167

Urban N.A. 32,030

Sources : Handloom Censuses 1995-96 and 2009-10.

16 YOJANA May 2011

handloom workers have declined over the years instead of increasing in tandem with the growth of the economy. This calls for policy changes both at the Centre and State levels. There is also a need for scaling up and intensifying both the Central and State Government’s interventions in the handloom sector.

At the Central Government level, instead of designing Schemes of pan-India nature, it may be desirable to design separate schemes for the North East and the rest of India, taking into consideration the State-specific and region specific special requirements. The development schemes should have adequate flexibility. In the North Eastern states other than Assam, where handloom production is mainly for domestic use, the Government interventions may focus on organising the handloom workers into SHGs and encouraging setting up of handloom units of appropriate size which are commercially viable. Assam, which has a very large

number of handloom units with very low average productivity, may be made a focus state for future interventions. The Government interventions in the North Eastern states should basically focus on group formation, input supply, loom up-grada t ion , c lus te r development and marketing. The established retail chains should also come forward and collaborate with government agencies to assist in product development and marketing. The banks should provide adequate credit for such activities.

The schemes that the Ministry of Textiles currently implement rightly focus on cluster development, health and life insurance coverage of the handloom workers and input and marketing support. Mega-clusters of handlooms are also being developed. However, there is need for scaling up such efforts and improving the effectiveness and outcome of such interventions. There is also need for better co-ordination of the efforts of the

Central and State Governments. Involvement of NGOs and the Corporates, especially those that are active in textiles and apparel, also need to be encouraged. We may also experiment with development models in Public-Private Partnership wherever feasible.

As handloom production is a supplementary activity for most households, it is necessary to provide alternate avenues of employment for the handloom households. Special attention needs to be given to such households in the form of educational and health assistance, income support to the most vulnerable households in the form of cash or food coupons etc. As benefits of higher economic growth is not reaching the handloom workers, it is the responsibility of not only the Governments but also the corporate sector, NGOs etc. to give a helping hand to them in the form of development and welfare interventions. q

(E-mail : ndgeorge@nic.in)

Health Insurance for weavers

Government of India is providing a Health Insurance Scheme for weavers for access to healthcare facilities from 2007-08 onwards and till the end of 11th Plan. The annual cover per family is Rs.15,000/- . Out of this, substantial provision of Rs.7,500/- has been kept for OPD. The process of filing claims is simple. The claims can be filed with the Cluster Coordinator of the Insurance Company or the representative office of the Insurance Company or TPA.

YOJANA May 2011 17

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18 YOJANA May 2011

COMPREHENSIVE insight into the existing scenario of informal s e c t o r w o r k e r s (including handloom

and handicraft workers) in India explicably brings out the lack of understanding of occupational health and safety issues, frail legal and policy provisions protecting the worker and non-implementation of laws. The Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984, considered to be the world’s worst industrial catastrophe was the turning point for policy making in India on issues of occupational health and safety. Significant amendments were made in the Indian Factory Act (1987) after the tragedy focusing on hazardous industries. However, the necessity of basic minimum standards encompassing

Promoting Occupational Health and Safety

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

Nupur Bahl

fOCuS

Key remedial measures need to

focus on gathering relevant data from

various sub-sectors, capacity building and dissemination of information to

sensitize employers, workers and policy

makers

workers in the informal sector has not been a priority area for policy makers in India.

The handloom and handicraft sector in India is estimated to employ over 13.5 million skilled craftworkers, who play a significant role in the Indian economy in terms of its share in employment, c o n t r i b u t i o n t o G D P a n d preservation of cultural heritage. A large skilled workforce has been engaged in traditional forms of craft in India for several hundred years; however, the occupational risks and hazards involved in these craft processes have not been researched and documented for relevant policy formation for the sector. Since majority of craftworkers in India are home based or work in small units not employing more than 10-

A

The author works on policy issues in handlooms and handicrafts with All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association

YOJANA May 2011 19

12 workers, they are not covered under the provisions of labour laws in India.

In India, the enforcement of the legal and policy provisions regarding occupational health and safety is extremely weak. This may be largely due to the fact that occupational health is the mandate of Ministry of Labour and not the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The Government of India declared a ‘National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace’ on 20 February 2009. This policy seeks to protect workers’ right to a safe working environment in all units in the organized as well as informal sector. However, at the enforcement level, it is not likely to bring about the desired compliance to health and safety rules at workplace for the unorganized sector.

This article briefly analyses the occupational health hazards in the handloom and handicraft sector of India and suggests that policy reforms need to focus on gathering relevant data, creating minimum safety standards relevant to the sector, disseminating information and bu i ld ing ne tworks fo r establishing efficient enforcement mechanisms.

Occupational Health and Safety of Handloom and Handicraft workers in India

Occupational health risks are one of the leading causes of morbidity

and mortality in India. Lack of awareness about occupational safety and environmental hazards severely affect the vulnerable and marginalized working population. Major i ty o f handloom and handicraft artisans in India are not aware of occupational health risks partly because they are self-employed, unorganized and partly because they accept the risk of injury or damage as being a part of traditional occupation. Over a period of time, craftworkers learn to ‘adapt’ to the hazards (using masks, mixers, protective gears etc) involved in the craft, unaware of the long term impact.

Trad i t iona l ly, handmade products in India were made using simple tools and natural resources available in the local environment. Rapid economic growth, market demand and competition from industries have resulted in changes in the traditional production processes. The old techniques are being replaced by machines, synthetic material, chemicals that reduce the cost of material and labour. This transformation has resulted in increased insecurity and risks to the workers.

With the changes in production processes, the associated hazards also change. The exposure to hazardous chemicals cannot only lead to incidents of acute toxicity

but also have chronic impacts over time. Ergonomic hazards also increase with the use of new equipments and tools. Studies have indicated that majority of health impacts caused in the handicraft and handloom industries have chronic/long term effects caused by repeated exposure. Chronic diseases are difficult to diagnose and usually the symptoms are hardly noticeable until severe permanent damage has occurred. For instance, exposure to small amounts of spray-solvents during a lifetime by craftworkers may produce skin damage (dermatitis), chronic liver, kidney failure, brain damage etc.

N u m e r o u s s t u d i e s a n d reports have raised concern over occupational health and safety issues of workers in India. About a decade ago, Leigh et al. (1999) estimated an annual incidence of occupational disease between 924,700 and 1,902,300 cases and 121,000 deaths in India. Studies on many industries including the leather tanning industry, textiles and metalware have found that workers in these industries work in inhuman physical conditions for very long hours.

Nalvarangkul, 2006 showed that 63% of women engaged in carpet making had respiratory problems such as asthma due to cotton dust,

20 YOJANA May 2011

or respiratory irritation due to inhalation of chemicals used to bleach silk and cotton. The Second National Commission on Labour (2002) has pointed to the high incidence of lung diseases in bangle industries due to inhalation of toxic fumes, smokes and dust. The commission also found that dyes and chemicals used in textiles block printing and poor physical working conditions such as improper ventilation have caused serious health hazards to workers. 60 Weavers in Ramanagaram district, Karnataka, in 2010 reported eye injuries and blindness after handling chemically treated silk yarn.

Under the SWITCH Asia Project, looking at environment, health and safety issues in the craft sector, a baseline study was conducted by the Hazards Centre, Delhi to look at the steps that need to be taken to make production processes safe for the health of the producers and the environment. The study was conducted in five clusters- block printing (Rajasthan), leather (Rajasthan), blue pottery (Rajasthan), dhokra (Orissa), bell metal (Orissa), ikat-tie and dye weaving (Pochampally, Andhra Pradesh). The study surveyed 100 artisans in each cluster and documented the product ion processes, current health status of workers, and the impact on the environment.

Unlike the commonly held notion, it is easy to measure the occupational health status of workers with the simple and inexpensive tools that can be handled by almost anybody and does not require sophisticated training. The hazards were studied under the following categories:

Body Mass Index (BMI) - BMI indicates general physical well-being of a person and is dependent on patterns of food consumption, living-working conditions, nature and duration of physical work. The results of the survey indicated that the processes that involve chemicals, leather and metal have a greater adverse health impact on the worker over time. The study also pointed out that regular work reflects better health for workers as compared to short term contractual work.

Pulmonary Function Test (PFT): The measurement of PFT revealed an alarming health condition of workers across the clusters. The workers exposed to vapours, gases, fibres, and particles in a work atmosphere that is not conducive to pulmonary health, display a marked tendency towards chronic bronchitis as they spent more years in the job. Absence of adequate safety measures to metallic fumes and high temperatures in the

work environment is hazardous and unfavorable for the health of the artisans.

Hand Grip Meter Test (HGM): Majority of artisans tested reported below-normal grip strength in the HGM. Low level of strength in the hand grip meter test is directly related to repetitive and strenuous work that the workers have to do with very little movement and minimum breaks.

Eyesight: Apart from the effects of work on the body, lungs and muscle tone, repetitive work and continuous visual attention to detail also seems to have impacted the eyes of the workers. Eyes are mostly affected due to direct impact of chemical agents like metallic fumes and physical agents like dirt, dust, particles etc. Even poor lighting in the workplace often creates strain in the eyes which leads to watering and damage to eyesight.

Pains, accidents, injury and other health problems: Across different crafts groups, large number of artisans reported muscular pains in the back, joints and lower abdomen. Some visible impacts that were inspected include callus, hardness, spots, cuts, burns, tremors and skin problems. Other common complaints included hern ia and h igh/ low blood

YOJANA May 2011 21

pressure, low appetite and sleep, weakness, stomach upset, gastric and vomiting, and may be related to the strenuous work environment with irregular food intake. Low appetite, problems in sleeping, and weakness are mainly due to long working hours.

Most of the workers were found to have a case history of fever and typhoid due to consumption of contaminated water and no proper sanitation facility. This is further compounded by the fact that the majority of the workers are not permanently employed and only 13% reported having access to facilities such as Employees State Insurance and Provident Fund. Few facilities were observed to be provided to the workers at the work-site, including toilets, rooms for resting and eating, washing places, natural or artificial exhaust systems for circulation of fresh air, adequate lighting, and first-aid facilities. A few good practices were observed, such as provision of cold drinking water, placer strings for positioning the blocks, cut-out patterns, registration dowels on the blocks, safety guards on moving parts, and separate storage and mixing rooms with containers clearly marked. But these were few and far between with awareness and implementation of safety

measures being poor across the board.

Recommendations

There is a need to raise awareness on occupational health and safety issues among craftworkers across the country and suggest safety gears/methods to protect them. Such a task is hampered by two factors: firstly, there has been very little research done to document the hazards, secondly, there is a wide diversity of production processes, materials, tools used because of differences in culture and region. All these production processes need to be studied in detail and the safety measures need to be documented. Furthermore, prevention of the occupational health and safety hazards require mainly a change in the mindsets of the employers as the preventive measures do not demand much in terms of resources. It must be ensured, however, that the preventive measures provided to the workers are both worker-friendly and work-friendly.

T h e r e i s a n e e d f o r a comprehensive legislation on occupational health and safety for the informal sector (particularly for handlooms and handicrafts). Key remedial measures need to focus on gathering relevant data from various sub-sectors, capacity

bui ld ing and disseminat ion of informat ion to sens i t ize employers, workers and policy makers. Legislation targeting improvements in OHS for informal sectors will need to rely on creating norms, raising awareness and providing capacity building services to help small-scale units and workers to meet safety standards. Awareness-raising is particularly important for home-based workers, who would fall outside the preview of any enforcement mechanism, but nevertheless would suffer from basic issues such as lack of safety equipment and proper lighting and ventilation. Basic norms on work practices that improve OHS need to be publicized through partnerships with industry associations and trade networks to raise awareness of both small-scale units as well as the workers.

The rapidly changing economic scenario threatens the health and livelihoods of handloom and handicraft workers in India. The Government and Industry need to play a proactive role in generating awareness on the hazards involved in the production processes and in creating a set of sector wide basic minimum standards protecting the worker. q

(E-mail :n.bahl@aiacaonline.org)

22 YOJANA May 2011

ONG BEFORE the Mahatma discovered it, Khadi had already entered the roots of Indian civilization.

During the Vedic period, Aryans produced their own clothes which were hand woven and handspun. Young brides were presented with charkha at the time of their marriage. Khadi is also referred to in Rigveda; “Spin yarn and dye it with most dazzling dye, weave the yarn without any knot and enlighten your descendants by constantly developing the process”.

T h e S a i n t p o e t K a b i r immortalized khadi in one of his famous Doha – “Ashta Kamala ka charkha banaya panch tattva ki puni nava dasa masa banana ko lage murakha maili kinhi” (From the eight lotuses was made the spinning wheel that used the five elements to make the sheet (the body). It takes nine or ten months to complete this sheet. Only fools get it soiled).

Development of Khadi as a Brand

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

Kumud Joshi

OVERViEW

KVIC has taken the first steps for brand building and revitalizing the khadi sector,

which will definitely bring cheers to

the lives of lakhs of khadi spinners

and weavers in the country

Bapu discovered khadi in 1908 when he was in London, when he went there in a delegation from South Africa. This chance discovery provided him the most important tool which he used for self dignity and self rule or Swarajya in his future years. Khadi also symbolized for him Indian traditional occupation and revival of its glorious past.

During the non cooperation movement khadi became a symbol of the Indo-British battle over the looms of Manchester and a bid for a modern Indian identity. So deep rooted was the sentiment attached to this fabric that Pandit Nehru wove for his daughter Indira a wedding sari in pink khadi while he was in jail. This sari is still worn by women of the Nehru Gandhi family on their wedding day.

Formal shape to khadi activities was given with the setting up of All India Spinners Associations / Akhil Bhartiya Charkha Sangh in

L

The author is Chairperson, Khadi and Village Industries Commission

YOJANA May 2011 23

1925 followed by All India Village Industries Association in 1935. This was succeeded by All India Khadi and Village Industries Board in 1953 and finally Khadi and Village Industries Commission came into being by an act of Parliament in April, 1957.

Khadi has traveled a long way from pre-independence days. Khadi production, including cotton, silk and woolen varieties has touched Rs.628.98 crores and the industry provides employment opportunities to 9.8l lakhs persons in rural areas.

With the passage of time, the technology of khadi production has also evolved. The four spindle wooden charkha developed by Ekambernath in 1961 gave way to the eight spindle charkha, and now KVIC even boasts of e-charkha where, on a 2 spindle NMC charkha, the spinner rotates an armature / dynamo and charges battery which can be used for lighting, running a transistor and recharging of cell phones.

The present Commission which is the policy making body of KVIC has also approved introduction of solar charkha to remove human drudgery and increase the wages and productivity of the khadi artisans. This will use freely available natural solar energy to increase productivity, and it is expected to enable earning of around Rs.150.0 per day wages as against the maximum of Rs.60.00 per day being earned by them today.

Khadi Brand

Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest brand ambassador of the

brand khadi, which he created during pre-independence era. Khadi has a very unique and exclusive quality which gives it tremendous brand potential. Being hand woven and handspun, each khadi fabric is distinct and exclusive. Further it has the added advantage of staying cool in summer and warm in winter, which is a rare quality among fabrics. Khadi also grows softer on each wash, and due to its hand woven structure, is comfortable and skin friendly. Muslin khadi, which is also known as Dhaka muslin is one of the wonder products in khadi with as high as 500 counts, which no textile mill can produce or reach. Such excellent muslin was being produced during pre-independence period and has now been revived by KVIC. Silk khadi is one more exotic fabric of khadi product range, which is rich in lustre and has found a place among the elite and rich. Munga silk which has a natural golden colour is a specialty of Assam and has great market potential. Katia Silk or Ahimsak Khadi wherein the silk worm is permitted to escape, is a unique variety which is a favorite among peace groups the world over. Ponduru khadi is a famous variety of Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh where naturally coloured cotton is carded manually by skilled artisans using fish jaw bones. It is a very fine variety of cotton and is used for making exclusive dhoties, shirts etc.

Concerted efforts for brand building were taken up in 2001 when the Government announced the launching of an umbrella brand to market khadi and village industries products. Accordingly,

KVIC carried out brand exercise by developing 3 brands for Khadi and V.I. products. i. Khadi Brand – This was to cover

high fashion design garments of khadi and exclusive herbal and cosmetics products to cater to high end of the market.

ii. Sarvodaya Brand – This brand was to cover FMCG products like soap, pickles, agarbattis, honey etc. for mass consumption market.

iii. Desi Aahar – This brand involves products which are natural and organic in nature like jaggery, dalia, spices etc.

These brands were launched during 2002-03. The logo design of Khadi brand was developed by National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and has been registered with Trade Mark Authorities.

Professional designers have been invited for designing and promoting khadi and leading designers like Rohit Bal, Malini Ramani, Jatin Kochar, Devika Bhojanani etc., have contributed to the rise of khadi as fashion fabric. Khadi brand today covers not only garments but also health food, natural and herbal products. Khadi brand is registered by KVIC and supplying institutions are enlisted after ascertaining the quality and production infrastructure and given common packaging and brand. Khadi branded products are being sold through the Departmental Sales outlets of KVIC including the prestigious Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan, Regal Building, New Delhi as well as the 7040 outlets run by khadi institutions. In addition, Khadi branded products are being

24 YOJANA May 2011

supplied to malls and private showrooms like Shoppers Stops, Big Bazar etc. Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan, KVIC, New Delhi has recently launched a mobile sales van for promoting khadi and village industries products including the branded products. In addition, KVIC organizes around 200 exhibitions in the country, where branded products are also sold alongwith other products. The sale of khadi brand products during the last 4 years is as detailed below:

(Rs. in lakhs)

Sr.No.

Year Designer wear

Khadi Brand

1. 2007-08 39.05 80.41

2. 2008-09 49.95 88.48

3. 2009-10 48.29 88.28

4. 1010-11 (upto 26.03.2011)

90.94 111.30

Total 228.23 368.47

Of course, it must be admitted that the institutions supplying under the brand are quite few compared to the total number of institutions under KVI sector. However, KVIC has t aken the following initiatives for strengthening the khadi sector :

l KVIC has decided to start production of khadi using naturally colored cotton developed by University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharward (VAS) Karnataka. A full-fledged project is being developed to take-up naturally colored cotton khadi activity in collaboration with UAS Dharwad initially associating the local institutions and gradual ly expanding to institutions working outside Karnataka.

l Product Development Design Intervention and Packaging (PRODDIP) – A scheme has been launched for engaging of designers in khadi by khadi institutions with a grant assistance of 75% from KVIC and 25% as own contribution from the production institutions with a project ceiling of Rs.2.00 lakhs. Designers are expected to provide designs at weaving stage, dyeing stage as well as readymade fashion garments.

l U n d e r t h e s c h e m e f o r strengthening of marketing infrastructure, renovation and modernisation of sales outlets has been targeted for the outlets of KVIC and Khadi Institutions in a phased manner. This will enable the Khadi Bhavans and Khadi Bhandars to have trendy interiors and proper product display systems and visual merchandising.

l For the purpose of identification of products vis-à-vis the producer an attachment has been developed in the form of Dobby on the looms. The monitoring of the quality is thus assured.

l K h a d i R e f o r m a n d Development Programme (KRDP), with the assistance of Asian Development Bank is a major initiative to make the khadi sector vibrant and market oriented. This involves a grant fund of $ 150 million (Rs.720.00 crores). The thrust areas for reform package include artisan earnings and empowerment, khadi mark development, raw material

procurement and production, market ing organizat ion, market-linked pricing and introduction of benefit chart, production incentives, reforms at khadi institution level. Development of khadi mark and setting up of professional marketing organization under Public Private Partnership mode is the major initiative proposed under this package. The KRDP package is to be implemented in a period of three years from February, 2010 to February, 2013. The objectives of the marketing organization would be to facilitate radical re-positioning of khadi textiles and village industry products, improve sales & create a demand pull from the market both within India and abroad, help khadi compete on its product attributes and sell in the market keeping in mind the evolving customer requirements, help the Khadi institutions to become economically viable through market linked pricing for products, understand consumer preferences and produce products that the customer is willing to buy and attract, retain and enhance the skill set of the Khadi artisans.

”The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step” (Lao Tzu). Accordingly, KVIC has taken the first steps for brand building and revitalizing the khadi sector, which will definitely bring cheers to the lives of lakhs of khadi spinners and weavers in the country. q

(E-mail:chairperson@kvic.gov.in)

YOJANA May 2011 25

HE UNORGANIZED sector plays a significant role in the planning and policy agenda of the country. According

to the definition of National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), the unorganized sector consists of all unincorporated private enterprises owned by individuals or households engaged in the sale and production of goods and services operated on a proprietary or partnership basis and with less than ten total workers. Unorganized workers consist of persons working in unorganized en te rp r i ses o r househo lds , excluding regular workers with social security benefits and the workers in the formal sector, without any employment/ social security benefits provided by the employers.

I n I n d i a , t h e t h r u s t o n unorganized enterprises emerged

Employment in Handloom and Handicrafts Sectors

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

P M Mathew

OVERViEW

The challenge is to ensure minimum

and sustained livelihood security

to the poor self-employed and

wage employed workers

as part of a historical process. The history of freedom movement in the country was based on a constructive programme of development of the unorganized sector as a political weapon against colonial rule. In Independent India, this political legacy was translated into a massive livelihood promotion programme. Today, under globalization and liberalization, this agenda has undergone a significant change, with growing stress on entrepreneurial approach rather than direct support by the government.

Employment, Livel ihoods, Enterprise.

The t e rms emp loymen t , livelihoods, and enterprise are often interchangeably used as we discuss unorganized sector issues. But each has a distinct meaning, and should be understood in its specific context. The NCEUS recognizes that livelihood promotion is the

T

The author is Director, Institute of Small Enterprises and Development.

26 YOJANA May 2011

only route through which we can address issues of poverty and working conditions of the self-employed. Given the empirical reality that the self employed largely consist of own-account workers with or without assistance from family labour, the notion of ‘livelihood promotion’ takes a broader meaning than ‘enterprise promotion’. Own account workers are workers as well as micro entrepreneurs because both these characteristics merge into one. Their conditions of work are similar to those of wage workers (e.g. a street vendor or a rickshaw puller pulling his own vehicle). They often resort to ‘self exploitation’ through lengthening the working day. However, they also need to employ the skills of an entrepreneur in sourcing inputs and selling their products. Moreover, for the wage workers too, especially those working in the unorganized sector, the conditions of work cannot be divorced from the conditions of the small enterprises (usually run by the self-employed) in which they are employed. Hence, the promotion of livelihoods and the growth of enterprises have relevance for them as well.

Capabilities, access to assets and entitlements as well as opportunities for income generation are central to livelihood related issues. The fact that the self-employed form the majority of workers in the Indian economy has not, so we feel, sufficiently dawned on popular consciousness. Outside agriculture,

the self-employed constitute around 63 per cent in the unorganized sector. This includes the own- account workers, assisted by the family workers (also referred to as unpaid) and those who employ one to nine workers. The challenge is to ensure minimum and sustained livelihood security to the poor self-employed and wage employed workers. The NCEUS has taken the position that the conditions of work including a minimum of social security should be an entitlement backed by national legislation. For promoting livelihood there should be a public programme with a dedicated national fund and an institutional mechanism to monitor, review and further develop it from time to time.

Key Sectors

While the unorganized sector is a vast ocean of a myriad of activities, from the point of view of planning and programme implementation, it is necessary to focus on particular sub sectors . Handloom and handicrafts are two such sub sectors with great potential. Development of handlooms and handicrafts today play a vital role in the agenda of livelihood promotion in the country. Therefore it is crucial to understand their employment potential.

Handlooms

In the last 100 years the handloom sector has accommodated many socio-economic changes in its fold, and has been able to provide employment to lakhs of families in India. Handlooms form the

second-largest economic activity in India after agriculture, and a means of survival for close to 65 lakh persons of which 60.40 per cent are women. The participation of SC/ST communities in this subsector is around 35 per cent. India is the only country to produce handlooms on a large, commercial scale. The Census of Handlooms in India is the only comprehensive database on this subsector. The latest in the series, Handloom Census of India (2009-10), has brought out some important results relating to production and employment conditions in the subsector. The production structure form broadly two types: 1) independent workers or those working under master weavers ; and 2) those working under institutional structures such as cooperatives and KVIC units . Independent workers account for 61.6 % of the total work force. Employment under institutions is only a small percentage (5.1 %) of the total work force.

Despite its wide spread across the country, there is significant under utilization of capacity in the sub sector. The total number of idle looms (household and non household) is 2.31 lakhs, ie, one out of every ten looms.

T h e s u b s e c t o r , w h i l e contributing significant employment opportunities and production, has not been able to ensure enhanced earnings and well being of the workers. The average annual earnings of handloom households in the country is Rs. 36,498/-. The

YOJANA May 2011 27

Census has also noted that the share of annual income to household income is only 30.2 % across all handloom households in the country. There are 3.06 lakh (11.0 %) indebted households in this subsector. As a natural consequence of all these, only 25.3 % of the households were positive about their children continuing in this trade.

Handloom has been facing threat from the powerlooms and the mill sector. Production of handlooms has registered a decline from 6677 m.sq.mts to 3956 m.sq.mts in 2009-10. The provisional results for 2010-11 also indicate decline (3770 m.sq.mts). While there is a general trend of power looms displacing handlooms, the trend in production of this subsector also shows a mixed picture. Production by power looms has increased marginally from 21,699 m.sq.mts in the previous year to 22,677 m.sq.mts in the year 2010-11.

Despite the above picture the potential of handlooms is significant. The Rs 50, 000 crores per year turnover in this sector is impressive. There is a promise of near about Rs.1 lakh crores market demand. Despite constraints, a large number of households are dependent on this sector for their livelihoods. A proper emphasis on imparting skills to weavers, developing conditions for absorbing them in productive employment and expanding investments would give a major fillip to the sector.

Publ ic programmes have addressed these issues in various forms. The Integrated Handloom Cluster Development Scheme of the Ministry of Textiles aims at the development of handloom clusters in an inclusive and holistic manner to build their capacity to meet the challenges of the market and global competition in a sustainable and self-reliant manner. The key features of the scheme are:

l C o l l e c t i v i z a t i o n o f hand loom weave r s and service providers to take up input p r o c u r e m e n t , production, marketing and other support activities.

l P r o v i s i o n o f c o m m o n infrastructure and services in a viable format in the cluster

l Creation of environment of empowered and participative decision making a m o n g weavers

l Convergence of schematic assistance and support services from various schemes and programmes of various government and other agencies in the cluster to optimize for betterment of the livelihood and quality of life of handloom weavers.

For promotion of handloom textile exports, the Government of India has announced the Marketing & Export Promotion Scheme for implementation in the country during the 11th Plan. The Scheme provides financial assistance to handloom agencies

for development of exportable handloom textile products and domestic as well as international marketing thereof. The other schemes of the Ministry include Integrated Handloom Development Scheme, Diversified Handloom Development Scheme, Handloom Weavers Comprehensive Welfare Scheme, Mill Gate Price Scheme and Restructuring/Categorization of Primary Handloom Weavers Cooperative Societies (PHWCSs) as viable, potentially viable and non-viable units.

The Ministry of Textiles has initiated the development of Handloom Export Zones (HEZ) at various handloom clusters in India to create supply hubs for the export market with an upgraded infrastructure and trained weavers. In Tamil Nadu, the HEZs have been planned at Virudhunagar, Nagercoil, Thiruvannamalai, Kancheepuram and Nagapatinam. These HEZs would benefit the weavers by increasing their income scale from the present Rs.50 to Rs.100 – 150 per day. Among the above projects, the HEZ at Nagercoil, at a cost of Rs.61.09 lakh will focus on providing employment for those displaced by the tsunami, while the Thiruvannamalai HEZ is a one-of-a kind HEZ for women SHG members.

In 2008, a High level Committee looked into the problems of high cost of working capital and choking of credit lines in the handloom sector and made the following recommendations:

28 YOJANA May 2011

l Cleansing of the balance sheet of Apex and Primary Weavers Cooperative Societies (viable and potentially viable) with adequate fund support from Government.

l Organization of weavers outside the cooperative fold/members of non-viable/defunct PWCSs/Weavers in areas of weak cooperative structure into Handloom Weavers Group (HWGs) in handloom clusters adopting the concept of Joint Liability Group.

l Waiver of overdue interest and overdue loans of Weavers/PWCSs/Apex Societies as on 31st March, 2006.

l Financing the credit needs of handloom weavers/ societies at 7% rate of interest with interest subvention to NABARD and banks from Government of India.

l Establishment of a “Handloom Development and Equity Fund (HDEF)” in NABARD

l An MOU is to be signed by the major stake holders, viz, Government of India, State Governments and NABARD. The total financial package as recommended by the Committee is estimated to cost Rs.1295 crores. Out of this, the Central Governments’ share will be Rs. 1155 crores, while State Government’s contribution will be Rs.130

c r o r e , a n d N A B A R D ’s contribution will be Rs. 10 crores.

A new scheme, namely the ‘Integrated Skill Development Scheme’ for the textiles and apparel sector including jute & handicrafts, was launched on 5 August 2010 with the objective of capacity building of institutions providing skill development and training for workers in the textiles sector. The Scheme envisages an investment of Rs 272 crore, of which the Government contribution would be Rs 229 crore during 2010-11 and 2011-12 with a target of 2.56 lakh persons to be trained.

Handicrafts

Handicrafts is a labour- intensive sub sector with high potential of employment for poorer section of the society in rural areas. It is economically important because of the low capital investment, high value addition, negotiable import content and high potential for export earnings. India is one of the important suppliers of handicrafts to the world market. Although export of handicrafts appear to be sizable, India’s share in world imports is very small. Despite the existence of production base and a large number of craftsmen, India has not been able to cash upon existing opportunities.

The subsector has suffered due to its being unorganized, with the additional constraints of lack of education, low capital, poor exposure to new technologies,

absence of market intelligence, and a poor institutional framework. In spite of these constraints, the sector has witnessed a significant growth of 3% annually. The total employment in the sector as at the end of 10th plan is estimated to be 67.70 lakhs, which at the beginning of the 10th plan was 60.16 lakhs, showing an annual growth rate of about 3%. If this growth rate continues, employment in the sector would reach 80 lakhs by the end of 11th Plan.

Handicrafts activity being a state subject, its development and promotion are the primary responsibility of every State Government. However, the Central Government is supplementing their efforts by implementing various developmental schemes. The Plan expenditure for the sector has grown from Rs.71.65 crores in 2002-03 to Rs.220.00 crores in 2009-10. Efforts are being augmented during the 11th Five Year plan on core areas for the development of the sector which include :

l Providing Infrastructural support for production and exports;

l Improve quality and product diversification with more awareness for both stakeholders and consumers

l A greater role for NGOs as implementing partners and participation of private resources, both human and financial.

YOJANA May 2011 29

During the Eleventh Plan, the Government of India has implemented several generic schemes in the central sector for holistic growth and development of handicrafts sector in the country. These are

l B a b a S a h e b A m b e d k a r Hastshilp Vikas Yojana

l Social interventions

l Technological interventions

l Marketing interventions

l Financial interventions

l Cluster specific infrastructure related interventions

l Design & Technical Up-gradation

l Skill up-gradation

l Assistance for Design and Technology Upgradation

l Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana- the first ever health insurance initiative for

the artisans in the country, covering artisan, spouse and two children.

l Bima Yojana for Handicrafts Artisans

The Challenges of Productivity and Employment Generation

Despite its vast potential and the initiatives by the government, the achievements of the unorganized sector of the industry, including the handloom and handicrafts sectors leave much to be desired. Poor working conditions is a key area of concern. Studies by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, on Chanderi Handloom Cluster, has documented unsatisfactory labour conditions. In many parts of the country, elements of the traditional feudal relations have crippled public programmes for handloom and handicrafts development. A study on SGSY by the Institute of Small Enterprises

and Development in Varanasi and Chameli have demonstrated this. The ‘rural’ focus of most of the programmes have become increasingly irrelevant in a context of enhanced globalization and urbanization. This demands an alternative Enterprise Ecosystem Approach, to programme design and implementation,as advocated by ISED(2011).

Gone are the days of the yojanas of the traditional variety. Unless public programmes transform themse lves in to in tegra ted programmes, the unorganized sector wil l f ind i t diff icul t to contribute to sustainable development. The paradigm shift in enterprise development with an enhanced thrust on value chains, would necessitate the unorganized sector of the industry to focus increasingly on principles of ‘responsible competitiveness’. q

(E-mail : director@isedonline.org.)

Mega Handloom Clusters

Government has set up four mega handloom clusters at Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Sivasagar (Assam), Virudhunagar (Tamilnadu) and Murshidabad (West Bengal).

Each mega handloom cluster has at least 25,000 handlooms and will be developed in a time period of 5 years with an upper Central Government share of Rs.70.00 crore. Two handloom clusters at Chirala and Madhvaram in Andhra Pradesh, each covering about 5000 handlooms have been taken up in 2006-07 for their integrated and holistic development and are under implementation. In addition, 52 handloom clusters, each covering 300-500 handlooms have been taken up in Andhra Pradesh under the Integrated Handlooms Development Scheme during the period 2007-08 to 2010-11. Further, 262 Group Approach Projects have been taken up in the State of Andhra Pradesh from 2008-09 to 2010-11.

30 YOJANA May 2011

DO yOu KNOW?

what is Integrated Coastal Zone Management?

The In tegra ted Coas ta l Management Programme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests aims to safeguard and strengthen the ecological security of coastal areas and the livelihood security of coastal communities. The programme will give attention to both the landward and seaward sides of the coast.

why was the programme necessary ?

Our coastal ecology is under a lot of pressure due to various reasons. There is pollution, discharge from ships, dredging, sand mining, excessive fishing etc. In addition there is the impending effect of climate change. All this has made our coastal ecology fragile , putt ing at r isk al l communities that survive on it.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests issued the Coastal R e g u l a t i o n Z o n e ( C R Z ) Notification on 19.2.1991 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to provide comprehensive measures for the protection of our coastal environment. However, over the last two decades the CRZ Notification, 1991 has been amended almost about 25 times. The new notification was issued after taking into consideration

INTEGRATED COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT

the requests made by various State Governments, Central Ministries and NGOs.

The tsunami of December 26,2004 was a wake up call. The coping capacity of our coastal communit ies needed to be strengthened to withstand the impact of such severe natural calamities.

what are the objectives of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011.?

l To ensure livelihood security to the fishing communities and other local communities living in the coastal areas.

l To conserve and protect coastal stretches, and

l To promote development in a sustainable manner based on scientific principles, taking into account the dangers of natural hazards in the coastal areas and sea level rise due to global warming.

H o w a r e c o a s t a l z o n e s classified?

In the 1991 Notification the CRZ area was classified as CRZ-I (ecological sensitive), CRZ-II (built-up area), CRZ-III (rural area), and CRZ-IV (water area). In the 2011 Notification the above classification is retained. The only

change is that the CRZ-IV, includes the water areas up to the territorial waters and the tidal-influenced water bodies.

For the very first time, a separate draft Island Protection Zone Notification has been issued for protection of the islands of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

what are the provisions to benefit the fisher-folk communities?

l Wa t e r a r e a u p t o 1 2 nautical miles and the tidal influenced water bodies have been included under the Coastal Regulation Zone areas in order to-control the discharge of untreated sewage, effluents and the disposal of solid wastes as such activities endanger the fish and their ecosystem, conserve and protect habitats in the marine area such as corals and coral reefs and associated biodiversity, marine sanctuaries and biosphere reserves, sea grass beds etc. which act as spawning, nursery and rearing grounds for fish and fisheries, regulate activities in the marine and coastal waters such as dredging, sand mining,

YOJANA May 2011 31

discharge of waste from ships, construction like breakwaters, etc. including reclamation which have serious impacts on fishing and allied activities, enable studies of the coastal and marine waters with regard to the impact of climate change and the occurrence of disasters which have serious impacts on the life and property of the fisher folk communities

l Development of manmade foreshore activities shall be regulated after identifying and demarcating the coast as falling in the high eroding category, the medium eroding category or the stable sites category.

l While preparing the Coastal Zone Management Plans the infrastructure essential for fishing communities are to be clearly demarcated and fishing zones in the water bodies and the fish breeding areas shall also be clearly marked

l The Notification requires the Coastal Zone Management Authorities to invite comments on the draft Coastal Zone Management P lan f rom stakeholders. It also allows infrastructural facilities for the local fishing communities to be constructed in the CRZ-III area.

l Reconstruction, repair works of dwelling units of local c o m m u n i t i e s i n c l u d i n g fisheries in accordance with local Town and Country

Planning Regulations has been made permissible.

what is the Jurisdiction of the Coastal Regulation Zone?

The CRZ Notification, 2011 includes not only the area covered under CRZ Notification, 1991, i.e. 500 mts from the high tide line on the landward side including the intertidal area on the sea front and 100 mts or width of the creek whichever is less from the high tide line on the landward side along the tidal influenced water bodies. It also includes the land area which falls in the hazard zone beyond 500 mts and also the aquatic area up to 123 nautical miles in the territorial waters and the tidal influenced water bodies are also included. q

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32 YOJANA May 2011

NE OF the paradoxes of a nation full of paradoxes is India’s attitude to its crafts and craftspeople. For

most foreigners they are one of the glories of India, something that makes us distinctive and different, and whose loss other countries, especially the West, lament as they review their own two century cycle of industrialisation and mass production. The Chinese have long had their eyes on our craft skills and have been importing Indian craftspeople – from Kolhapuri chappal makers and Saharanpur wood workers to Kanchipuram saree weavers and stone carvers - for over a decade to teach their own craftspeople their skills. Always a savvy march ahead of other Asian countries, the Chinese realise that in

Indian Crafts in the Age of Technology

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

Laila Tyabji

OPiNiON

Craftspeople need what all market professionals

require: education, investment, R and D, modern technology, design and product development, credit

facilities, proper workplaces, market access and – most

importantly – social acceptance and

status

any globalised consumer economy, the country that holds all the cards is one that has both an industrialised and a handcraft base. They know that consumers in international markets, as they become more sophisticated and demanding, want exclusive one-of-a-kind products rather than run-of-the-mill high-street brands, and that these can only be made by hand.

Increasingly, other Asian countries too – Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, even the Philippines have realised that indigenous crafts can give them an international edge. That crafts and craftspeople, part of a country’s heritage and history, made of natural materials and hand crafted in uniquely local traditions, and picturesquely practiced in exotic locales, have an appeal both as

O

The author is Chairperson of Dastkar, a Society for crafts & crafts people. A version of this article appeared in Indian Builder.

YOJANA May 2011 33

merchandise and as a part of the new eco-tourism boom.

Only India views its 10 million-plus craftspeople as a liability rather than an asset with enormous potential! It was scarily referred to as a “sunset industry” and instead of investing in it, the general wisdom is to prop it up with subsidies until it disappears all together. And slowly but surely, it is disappearing. Few craftspeople want their children to be craftspeople, and we lose over 10% of our craftspeople every decade. Nevertheless (and here is another paradox!) crafts sales, both domestically and export, are increasing at 15-20% each year. Hardly a setting sun, except in its vibrant colour and beauty!! It is not dwindling markets or low earnings, but the inferior social status accorded to craftspeople that makes more and more of them want other career options for their children.

For the first 25 years of independence, the bridge between Indian craftspeople and their urban consumers was either the Government (in the shape of CCIC and HHEC, the State Handicrafts Corporation Emporia, and KVIC’s gloomy Khadi Bhandars) or commercial traders and exporters. Both sections of this rather rickety and unreliable bridge had their own short-term agendas and mindsets, and were seldom sensitive to the craftspeople’s needs and potential. (Gurjari in the 70s and early 80s

was a shining exception.) In the early 70s, a new player emerged.

NGO’s, working in grass-roots India, on issues as un-craf ty as educat ion, heal th or animal husbandry, be it in Bastar, Barmer, Kutch, or the North-East, discovered that local communities, poor in every other respect, had extraordinary and rich hand-skills. They found that craft, properly developed, was a wonderful catalyst for earning and empowerment. Each tribal community in the Bani desert, for instance, sometimes only a couple of miles distant from each other, had a unique and distinctive style of hand embroidery, and its own directory of motifs, colours and designs. Building on this and bringing it to the market, could transform lives – especially those of previously housebound, dependent women. This was the start of dozens of organisations that mushroomed all over India – Shrujjan, Tilonia, the Sewa’s, Urmul, Sandur Kushal Kendra, Adithi, Kala Raksha, Anwesha, Pradan, Avani, Berozgar Mahila Samiti, Kumbham, Rehwa, to name but a few. The 80s were their heyday.

Other organisations - Sasha, Das tka r, S ipa , Pa rampar ik Karigar, the Crafts Councils, - also emerged - to give design, product development, design, marketing, and other supports to the grassroots organisations.

Design Schools like NID, NIFT and SHRISHTI started giving space in their curriculum to craftspeople and indigenous craft techniques. Under the aegis of Pupul Jayakar, high-profile exhibitions like Martand Singh’s Vishwakarma and Rajeev Sethi’s Aditi and Golden Eye, brought Indian craft and design into the national and international spotlight.

Though marred by outbreaks of jingoistic fundamentalism, communal violence, and sectarian uprisings, reaching a nadir with the Babri Masjid demolition, the 80s and 90s were a period of India’s re-discovery of its cultural and historic identity and its increasing national self-confidence. For crafts it was a golden time. There were wonderful revivals of Mangalgiri, Maheshwar, zardozi, chikan, kantha and mirrorwork embroidery, bandini and laheria tie-dye, ajrak, khari, and bagh block printing. Tussar and muga weaving, Madhubani painting, lost wax dhokra metal casting, Kangra rumals, tribal jewellery. White and gold angavastras, Bhujodi weaves, and Naga and Kulu shawls sprouted on page 3 shoulders. People started using Shekhavati chairs, chiks, urlis, pattara chests, bell metal, Barmer patchwork appliqué, and panja durries as decor instead of chandeliers, carpets, velvet, and cut-glass. The Taj Hotels, under Elizabeth Kerkar’s discriminating eye, were a shining example of craft

34 YOJANA May 2011

used in contemporary, functional, brilliantly creative ways. Their current look is a paradigm of how India lost the plot, craft and design-wise, at the start of the 21st century – building on its weaknesses rather than its strengths. It stuns me that our architectural crafts - stone carving, inlay work, wood turnery, marble, terracotta, mural painting, and tileware - the glory of Indian buildings through the centuries, find no place in contemporary public architecture or interiors.

T h e l i b e r a l i s a t i o n a n d globalisation of the last 2 decades have brought widespread economic benefits but have sadly made consumers look westwards once more for their style icons and status symbols. International brands and ‘fashion forecasts’ now dictate how Indian’s burgeoning new middle class dress and live. How extraordinary that there are pubs and discos where one can be refused admission if one is wearing a sari! And no one raises an outcry. The message has even trickled down into rural India.

Hopefully, there will be a swing back in another decade or so, from the same depressingly identical stores and branded imitative products in each equally identical mall to one-of-a-kind, exclusive pieces. It has to - how long will people be happy being clones when India can still make individual, and appropriate hand crafted merchandise at half the price of the industrialized,

mass-produced ones? Like most life style messages, this will probably come from abroad. Just as the West has taught us to re-value natural dyes, herbal cosmetics, organic foodstuffs, ayurveda, and yoga!

Already, there are signs of hope, with young designers discovering wonderful almost lost techniques –theyva jewellery, bidri, mata ni pacheri kalamkari, Gond painting, sanji papercuts, marquetry - and using them in imaginative, innovatively creative ways. And craftspeople themselves are becoming more self-confident, using the tools of the internet, lasercut technology, and computers to explore new horizons and interact directly with the new market. At a recent Government meeting, an elderly craftsman waved his Nokia phone and exclaimed, “This mobile has given more benefit to me than decades of Government subsidies and schemes…” At the Dastkar Nature Bazaar last October, young craftspeople, alumni of Judy Frater’s design school in Kutch and the Craft Design Institute, Srinagar, exhibited exciting work - contemporary market-led designs that still strongly reflected the cultural identity and individual skills of the makers. Buyers responded with enthusiasm. Delightful to see today’s urban young, happily integrating Indian craft into their eclectic lifestyles with elan, and obviously enjoying it. “Hey, this is cool,” said one, wrapping a psychedelic belt, heavy

with cowries, silver bells and mirrors round her Levi-clad hips, and trying the look of a twisted tie-dyed scarf over her T-shirt.

Despite the persistent doom merchants and media pundits, the problem with crafts and craftspeople today is not dwindling market demand, or even access to a globalised market. As I said earlier, it is our own attitudes to craftspeople. Moving on and changing ourselves, we condemn them to remain in the same spaces they occupied previously. We continue to look at them as picturesque but inferior exhibits of the past, rather than market professionals and equals. Even craftspeople themselves don’t respect their own skills and traditions. Which middleclass matron would accept a craftsperson, even a National Awardee, as a son-in-law? Or think him the equal of a government clerk or customer care executive. Nor are craftspeople recognized as creative artists. Indian Art prices are breaking the stratosphere, but craftspeople are not part of the party.

A few years ago India celebrated the “Golden Jubilee Year of the Resurgence of Indian Handicrafts.” Major movers and shakers of Indian handicrafts from all over India – both Government and non-government, were in a three-day seminar that was part of the celebrations. Its theme was the “Status Of Master Craftspeople & Sustainable Development”. It

YOJANA May 2011 35

honoured and included ten Master Craftspeople to whom the President presented the newly instituted title of Shilp Guru.

While the names of all of us speakers, moderators and rapporteurs were listed in the programme, the names of the Shilp Gurus and Shilpajna in whose honour the seminar was held were not listed – they were clubbed together, as craftspeople always are – seen as one unified entity – undoubtedly culturally interesting and picturesque, but without individual personalities, needs or voices.

It also seemed significant that when they did break out and express their (sometimes critical) views –and tell their (often sad) stories, that the wish list of these extraordinary, fast vanishing repositories of creativity and culture was not some transcendental new Millennium for craftspeople, but such small things – railway passes, a pension, respect (rather than requests for

bribes) from clerks in Government offices, free entry to the museums that store their work… That what they most remembered in their lives was not some landmark leap of craftsmanship or international recognition but the warmth of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya’s smile 50 years ago. It tells us so much about their current status – their perceived value of themselves. “I have received many awards, but I still work on the footpath,” said one.

Though craftspeople themselves make few demands, they need what all market professionals require: education, investment, R and D, modern technology, design and product development, credit facilities, proper workplaces, market access and – most importantly – social acceptance and status.

A recent excise tax on textile and garment producers, including many thousands of small artisan groups working in the rural and unorganised sector, is another

instance of the inability of Indian planners to comprehend the sector. Coupled with crippling compliance regulations that make a mockery of the reality of their lives – it is a source of great hardship and harassment. We talk of inclusive growth while further excluding the already marginalised! A handloom weaver in Bengal, faced with an excise inspector’s demand to produce a bonded warehouse as part of the compliance requirements, wryly showed them his home – family, loom, workplace, raw material and finished goods - all in one kutcha room!

The future of Indian crafts lies in our own heads, in our ability to recognize that our unique heritage and the ten million living practitioners are an enormous strength rather than a weakness, and also in recognizing that they require encouragement and investment.

Only time will tell whether these wonderful skills and traditions end up a triumphant success story or a tragically lost opportunity. q

(E-mail :lailatyabji@gmail.com)

YOJANAForthcoming

IssuesJune 2011

Aadhar

July 2011 Census 2011

June 2011&

July 2011

36 YOJANA May 2011

YE-

9/20

11

YOJANA May 2011 37

AT I S H D E B o f Bhilai has devised a technology that can rejuvenate the almost dead and obsolete

treadle printing presses and convert them into screen printing presses.

Genesis

The year was 1996 and Satish was in class twelve, preparing for his engineering entrance exams. An uncertain future closed in on him when due to certain problems, his father’s company did not pay his salary for many months. The income from their small printing press was irregular and meager and they began to live off their small savings.

A dream died. Satish abandoned his plans of becoming an engineer, discontinued his studies and joined the family business of printing. The family possessed a treadle press, but times had changed with the arrival of computers.

Motek Treadle Press: Reviving the old letter printing press

SHODH yaTRa

The retrofitting increases output of conventional

treadle press from 12,000 sheets/day to 70,000 sheets/day. Baby-offset

printers can print about 5,000-10,000

impressions/day

There were new print ing t e c h n o l o g i e s , w h i c h w e r e comparatively simple to operate and produced output of far better quality in colour. The treadle presses, using letterpress types based on the ‘Platen & Bed’ theory, were slower and produced poorer quality printing.

In his spare time, Satish started thinking about ways to revive their treadle press and increase the family’s income His lack of knowledge, training or experience did not deter him as he went about painstakingly developing the Motek printing press, conceiving and optimizing all components. In 1997, it occurred to him how he could convert his treadle press to deliver offset class output. He spent an entire frustrating year developing his novel kit, searching in local markets and incessantly trying out different chemicals and polymer sheets to deliver the desired quality.

S

38 YOJANA May 2011

He tested the product and also tried out impressions on paper, board and plastic. Finally, he succeeded in 1998 when he standardized its parts and working.

He incubated his product for another year (1998-99) for further testing and simultaneously applied for patent. His first patent (No. 189882) was granted on March 10, 1999 and till now he has five patents for various versions of his machine.

Innovation

Motek India printing technology is a low cost, cutting-edge, upgradation tool for most printing machines, which use conventional treadle press and are unable to deliver quality output. A number of devices and techniques have evolved since the invention of printing. US patent No 7021213- April 2006 describes a printing method which comprises mounting an underlay sheet on a plate cylinder of a printing press, , a printing plate material with a plastic sheet support on the underlay sheet, and a hydrophilic layer, an image formation layer and a backing layer on the underlay sheet.

In this Motek India printing technology, the innovation lies in the unique technique of registering computer printed images using an exposure unit onto a screen unit. Printing material is pressed by an inked custom-built polymer sheet holder, fitted into existing treadle press. It enables printing on various

media by impact action. Mono or multicolour half tone output can be generated using existing treadle press inks.

The attachment kit is convenient, user-friendly, requires very little maintenance and can be added to any working treadle-printing machine to get results comparable to desktop publishing up to the range of 300 to 450 dpi. The cost per print is also lower than screen-printing and offset processes. Other important features are that it can be operated by pedal or motor, can handle any paper size and can also be used to print on plastic surfaces such as polybags.

This kit also offers multifunction facility i.e. one can use both letterpress types as well as Motek India printing kit at the same time. Another important feature is that a single operator can get all the jobs done on the machine.The Motek treadle printing press uses ‘butter paper’ as the image-carrying medium against the ‘polymaster’ being used in baby-offset printers. This is what lowers printing cost i.e. Rs 1.50/- per sheet as against Rs. 15/- per sheet for baby offset printing.

The cost of the retrofitted Motek India Treadle press kit is about Rs 25,000 against Rs 1, 25,000, cost for installing offset printing press. The retrofitting increases output of conventional treadle press from 12,000 sheets/day to 70,000 sheets/

day. Baby-offset printers can print about 5,000-10,000 impressions/day.

The technology of this kit has been approved and certified by The Northern Regional Institute of Printing Technology, Allahabad (U.P.), which is India’s first and premier printing technology institute. NIF, through its regional cell, GIAN NE, has facilitated a distribution license for the Motek kit in Assam. Since 2005, a large number of unit sales of this kit have been through this dealership, which forms a substantial part of their small income. He was also supported under the MVIF scheme for the diffusion of his technologies in four printing clusters of India, which elicited a very good response from the market. Satish was invited by NIF to the Inventors of India Workshop at IIM, Ahmedabad in October 2006 to give a presentation about his technology to fellow innovators. An article on his Motek treadle Press, published by Enadu daily, Hyderabad in October 2006, was very well received and generated many product inquiries. Lots of market enquiries are still pouring in from different parts of the country. Presently, he is developing an automated version of the machine, filing additional patents and arranging finances for capacity expansion to deliver to the exploding demand for this product. q

(E-mail : campaign@nifindia.org, www.nifindia.org)

YOJANA May 2011 39

E x T I L E PRODUCTION in our country is organized through large mills, small power loom units and handlooms.

The handloom industry in India is crucial for rural development as it remains the second largest rural employer in the country even today. This is a fact that is at variance with the decreasing investment by the State and increasing disengagement from the customer. Activity in this sector has been largely carried out by entrepreneur traders and weavers. While the growing distance from the market physically has had an adverse effect on the sector, it is also a fact that this is the only sector which has successfully seized opportunities from distant export markets in its chequered history.

In textile production, there is a particular problem when handloom fabric competes with mill made fabric. In terms of productivity, since the outputs are vastly different, the labour costs paid in

Stopping migration from villages: Challenges for the handloom sector

HaNDlOOM- HaNDiCRafTS

Syama Sundari

OPiNiON

The urgent need is to strengthen the co-operative

institutions in the handloom sector.

There is great potential in this

sector to absorb new weavers

handloom look high as compared to those in the mill industry. The price of mill made fabric is almost 30% less than handloom, and in an open undifferentiated market, handloom always loses out to power loom or mill made textiles. The unequal positioning of handloom with powerloom and mill and the imitation of handloom by mill and powerloom are the main reasons for the inability of the handloom product to demand competitive prices.

This price differential leaves the weaver vulnerable in many ways. There is a serious threat to his livelihood when the market fluctuates, since he is not stable enough to ride out any decrease in income. On an average the family earning can fall by up to Rs.600 per month. If this happens frequently enough the weaver will abandon weaving and look for options usually through migration. Again, as he is a small buyer, negotiation with raw material suppliers is almost negligible, and any fluctuation in yarn price directly

T

The author is Treasurer, Dastkar, Andhra Pradesh.

40 YOJANA May 2011

impacts the weaver’s income. The 1990’s witnessed starvation deaths of weavers due to lack of business, and suicides by cotton farmers because of insurmountably high debts.

The local weaver co-operative therefore becomes the only institution that can protect the weaver to some extent against these fluctuations, if they have built the capability to service the market efficiently, and provide enough work. On the scale of income, a cotton handloom weaver family today on an average earns between Rs.800 to Rs. 1200 a month. With support from the co-operative, this can be pushed up to Rs. 3500. This jump is possible through two major interventions, one is technical and the other is marketing. If we push the weaver higher up the value chain, and teach him to service a more discerning market, both the product cost as well as the income to the weaver substantially increases. But this movement is possible only through acquiring of certain technical skills, some by the weaver, and some by the local aggregating body, the co-operative.

It has also to be kept in mind that when we are dealing with a daily use cotton product, price of the end product, unlike that of silk or a high end cotton product, cannot be increased beyond a certain limit. It is evident that unlike in the case of mainstream market products, increase in demand for handloom does not automatically imply a positive impact on the price of the product. It is clear that a straight forward demand supply theory does not apply to handloom products. The issue is more complex as the consumer wants the product only at a slightly higher price or preferably at the same price as mill

or powerloom product. There is a need to distinguish handloom from powerloom in order to establish the actual demand or lack of it for handloom. Quantifying the existing demand helps in deciding the proportionate investment for the sector.

Economists can argue that a better option for the consumers is to buy powerloom or mill products. It can be countered by arguing that supporting the handloom sector strengthens our effort at improving rural livelihoods, continuing a traditional skill, encouraging environment friendly production processes and retaining the option of a skill based occupation in the society, and thus improving our overall human development index. The reasons cited above make business sense and provide the market logic for protecting our handloom and handicraft sectors. With low investment expenses for creating and maintaining the infrastructure, these sectors offer a range of qualitative and quantitative benefits. We should keep in mind that we are not talking about a mainstream product but a skill based production which does not need any investment for technical training and skill upgradation while offering a ready marketable product.

The challenge of globalisation is not different or special in the case of the handloom industry. It is obvious that the loss of validation of the hand made in our country happened a few decades before globalisation became a comprehensive agenda of nations across the world. Handloom faced criticisms, skepticism and indifference from different agencies much before globalisation became the byword. The new challenge of course lies in the battle for resources like raw material for

production, with growing emphasis on export of the same for better returns. The push towards export may seem natural and there may be diversion of funds of the sector to service this segment. When availability of raw material itself becomes a question mark, quality takes a back seat affecting the demand for the product in the export markets. In the absence of support for accessing raw material and for improving infrastructure, handlooms will be left behind in the race. The fundamental lack of commitment to the hand made process, which seems outmoded compared to the mechanical, lies behind the half hearted measures of support. In the context of the legitimacy of globalisation agenda, even the token need for an apology is wiped out. This demands a fresh burst of energy from us to pitch the agenda for handlooms differently.

One of the measures taken up by the government to encourage the handloom industry is the ‘Handloom Reservation Act, 1985’. Under this Act, 22 (later reduced to 11) textile items have been reserved for the exclusive production by handlooms. However, the Act has never been implemented effectively. Its non- implementation has allowed powerloom imitations to flourish in the market. The Act has become a stick to beat the sector, branding it as non competitive and dependent on protection for survival. However, this charge of low market demand and vibrancy in the sector is adequately countered by the business worth crores of rupees that is being done both through co-operatives and master weavers. If reservation is meant to counter powerloom imitations, it would be helpful to brand the products of powerloom, especially, the varieties usually imitated, as

YOJANA May 2011 41

they are selling in many markets in the name of handloom. This will be useful since there are no fool proof methods of certifying handloom. The Act, if implemented strictly would directly benefit hundreds of low to medium skilled weavers producing for the middle market which is highly price sensitive.

Coming to the issue of subsidies, the allocation of budget for this sector is varied across the different states and is woefully inadequate in most, with a few exceptions like Tamil Nadu. The inadequate allocations also go towards schemes that do not contribute to growth or help promote the sector. Lack of marketing and design innovation are identified as major problems and most schemes – old and new - try to address these routinely through t ra inings , designer consultancy and buyer seller meets. That these issues are complex and need more unpacking to identify the real obstacles to growth are not considered as there is hardly any reflection or reviewing of the implementation of the schemes. The absence of serious research into the issues affecting the production and marketing of handlooms has resulted in repetition of schemes for the sector in new formats with little variation in content.

For instance, the scheme of ‘Handloom Mark’ introduced with lot of publicity and at a great cost has failed to kindle new enthusiasm in the consumers. It has also not been able to put an end to imitations from powerloom. Prestigious schemes like cluster development launched for business promotion have not managed to accelerate growth in the clusters beyond a certain limit. In the present scheme of things there is no concrete information of the scale of impact (number of weavers benefited, increase in turnover

etc.) apart from information on the initial successes of the pilot. The design of schemes has to be intelligent to decide where small centralizations are needed and where decentralized processes need to be kept intact. The wholesale adaptation of mainstream schemes will not benefit the sector.

There has been a neglect of investment in infrastructure in the industry for decades and the support institutions like Weavers Service Centre, Apex Marketing bodies and Primary Co-operatives have failed to deliver the benefits to weavers. There is very little monitoring of these bodies and the Department of Handlooms, inspite of a strong presence at the district and village level, fails to check on the proper functioning of these bodies. There has to be a restructuring of the mechanisms of delivery from the state department to the primary co-operative to the weaver and proper sharing of resources and information between the State level bodies and the offices at the Centre.

Today holding contradictory mul t ip le agendas wi th in a single organization looks at best impractical, and at worst inefficient. Most notions of market say that organizations that take on both welfare and business functions are inefficient in both. But some organizations working in areas of economic vulnerability demonstrate that it can be done, and very well, even in a quiet rural setup. The continuing success of some of the Co-operatives prove that if organizations are efficient in their ability to produce and market, they are usually also efficient in supporting poor weavers by successfully accessing state welfare measures. Handloom weaving in a Primary Handloom Weavers Co-

operative is a centuries old caste and kinship based economic activity within a 20th century democratic and political co-operative structure. The urgent need is to strengthen the co-operative institutions in the handloom sector. There is great potential in this sector to absorb new weavers as the current demand for handloom products is not being met by the existing weaver base.

Given the cur rent c r i s i s in agriculture, there have been large-scale migrations of youth out of villages. This correlates to the rising number of migrant workers in construction work, which is emerging as the largest urban livelihood. While formal education and movement upwards into the urban economy is still possible for those with access to education, it becomes imperative not to create a parallel second rural economy, which is moving into a steep downward spiral. Handloom weaving, till now seen as a craft based, cottage industry still employs a large number of rural families, second only to agriculture. But the perception of the industry only as a traditional craft has masked the trajectory of middle level weavers who succeeded in using it to achieve a reasonable livelihood, and moved their next generation into mainstream livelihoods. Urban India struggles to manage a growing populations’ infrastructure needs and the vulnerability of a fast changing polarized society. It is still a challenge that neither policy nor the market has been able to rise to in any scale. Handloom can offer a hope to our villages, if it can be established as a viable livelihood for the next generation which faces threat of large-scale migrations into urban slums. q

(E-mail : shyama_b@rediffmail.com dastkarandhra@gmail.com)

42 YOJANA May 2011

YE-

12/2

011

YOJANA May 2011 43

H E T H R E A D o f Swaraj, envisioned by Gandhi j i gave prominence to the village and cottage

industries in India. Weaving in essence became a symbol of our forefather’s fight for independence. Millions of Indians have for generations spun their livelihoods out of handlooms. Yet this very symbol was forgotten in the era of the power-looms and is now having to fight for its resurgence, along with countless other art, craft, treasured skills of India.

Those associated closely with the Indian handloom and handicraft industry can sense a strong revival, hence are pushing hard for it. Demand in the West has been growing with customer

Weaving A Thread of Swaraj

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

Mallikarjuna Iytha

PERSPECTiVE

Fair Trade is about giving marginalized producers a chance to succeed at the market place that generally excludes them and using the

purchasing power of consumers as a tool for real social and economic change

centric movements such as Fair Trade, having a deep impact on how we view our own produce and producers. Fair Trade is a market led solution to poverty which aims to use trade, not aid, to improve livelihoods of disadvantaged farmers and artisans and promote sustainability. The parallels between the Fair Trade movement and Khadi are striking - self-reliance, empowerment and emancipation.

In the early 1940s Fair Trade began as a consumer driven movement in Europe and the US; handicrafts were sold in NGO shops in support of disadvantaged communities more as a token for donation received. Over the next two decades, Alternative Trading Organisations (ATOs)

T

The author is Executive Director, Fair Trade Forum-India

“If we have the ‘khadi spirit’ in us, we would surround ourselves with simplicity in every walk of life. The ‘khadi spirit’ means illimitable patience. For those who know anything about the production of khadi know how patiently the spinners and the weavers have to toil at their trade, and even so must we have patience while we are spinning ‘the thread of Swaraj’.”

– Mahatma Gandhi.

44 YOJANA May 2011

were launched and NGOs, such as Oxfam in the UK, began selling handicraf ts purchased from producer co-operatives. India has a long association with this movement, with over 50 producer organisations exporting products under fair trade terms to Europe for over 25 years.

The wor ld Fa ir Trade Organization (wFTO) was created in 1989 to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged producers by promoting and connecting fair trade organisations. Today, the WFTO is a global association of 324 organisations, including fair trade producer associations, producer marketing companies, retailers, fair trade networks and support organisations in over 60 countries. In India, Fair Trade Forum- India (FTF-I) is the representative body of WFTO. Established in 2000, it has been working to sensitise the consumer as a tool to strengthen the producer. A national network of over 80 Fair Trade Organisations, the forum organises workshops, lectures, talks in schools, colleges, shopping complexes using producer group case-studies and documentaries to provide soul stirring insights. The forum evolved as an inclusive, sustainable development model for the marginalised with the values of people & environment as core

aspects. Presently these 80 small and medium organisations work with more than 3500 producer groups all over India with an outreach to almost 1 lakh artisans and farmers. FTF-I members registered a combined turnover of approximately 250 crores in the year 2010-2011. 80 percent of this comes from exports to various countries.

As poverty is the major cause for marginalisation of people, the integral part of any strategy to check exploitation should be to create opportunities for sustainable income. FTF-I works to ensure that key actors, including consumers, buyers, partner organizations, artisans, farmers, producers and others will together demonstrate ways in which trade can help alleviate poverty, reduce inequality, and create opportunities for people to help themselves.

Marginalised Groups Impacted by Fair Trade activity in India inc lude women, smal l and marginal farmers, differently abled persons, cured leprosy patients, victims of natural and industrial disasters, slum dwellers, seasonal labourers, refugees, displaced tribal communities, minorities, landless persons, artisans and cultural groups. The silent movement in India has been linked to the Fair Trade movement internationally.

While implementing Fair Trade Principles, members use innovative techniques to come up with stylized new-age products. Natural fiber like banana fiber, screw-pine, jute, palm, bamboo, sabai grass, golden-grass and many more have been used extensively by groups such as Child and Social Welfare Society (Medinipur), EMA (Calcutta), Orupa (Orissa), Share (Vellore), Evangelical Social Action Forum (Thrissur), Kottapuram Integrated Development Society (Thrissur) to make bags, lamps, home-décor, even packaging material for well known brands.

Traditional craftsmen use wood, metal, stone, leather to make interesting products for home, offices, institutions and personal use. Noah’s Ark (Moradabad), Tara Projects (Delhi), Asha Handicrafts Association (Mumbai), JKSMS (Jaipur), Pushpanjali (Agra) organized local crafts clusters and trained them to cater to foreign styles. Fashion jewelry industry has derived a lot from the intricate work found in India with most groups specializing in some jewelry making skill- tribal styles are made by the Anwesha Group (Orissa), Sabala (Bijapur), Shilpa (Bangalore), Federation of Tibetan Co-operatives in India & Tara Projects (Delhi) are some of the other groups that specialize

YOJANA May 2011 45

Table- I Fair Trade principles accepted worldwide and glimpse of impact in India:

Fair Trade Principle Impact

Creating opportunities for the economically disadvantaged producers

The social responsibility of uplifting the marginalized comes as the prime objective for FTOs where as in the mainstream SMEs the present efforts to ensure ‘social responsibility’ most often turn out to be cosmetic exercises

Transparency and Accountability Since most organisations are producer group driven almost 75 % of the producers are involved in the policy decision and equal percentage of producers are aware about consumer end price. (fair trade study, 2008)

Trading Practices Long-term trading relations are emphasised to nurture artisans and farmers- Buyers (International) work closely with the Fair Trade Organisations that in turn are knitted into the Producer Group activties.

Payment of a Fair Price In a study conducted in 2008 to see the impact of Fair Trade on workers, artisans it was seen that the present wage rate for Fair Trade producers is much above the National average wage rate.

Child Labour and Forced Labour In comparison to other SMEs’, FTOs’ are effectively addressing the challenges of child labour at workplace. Almost all FTOs’ run both educational as well as vocational schools and take up campaigns for child labour abolition at work place.

Non Discrimination, Gender Equity and Freedom of Association

An estimated 60%-65% of the producer group members are women; around 47% of the FTO’s have women CEO’s even the fair Trade Forum- India board has a representation of 4 women board members out of the total 7. Even while hiring for work groups are encouraged to provide opportunities to the disadvantaged.

Working Conditions Fair Trade producers are getting support systems such as free health insurance, health check ups, education for children, training & capacity building, interest free loans and in some cases seed money to new producer groups etc. Close to 80% of the workshops are well ventilated, around 40% of the groups take care of health-insurance additionally 42% of them organise regular health-checks, 58% of the members undertake pollution control measures.

Capacity Building Three-fold approach is adopted for FTO’s and Producer Groups- product development, market development, skill and leadership development.

Promotion of Fair Trade Inter-regional support among Fair Trade members is encouraging with shops keeping fair trade products from across the country to provide a wider choice to consumer

Environment Fair Trade has already made commitment to eco-friendly products & processes as its determining factors. With 65% members using eco-friendly materials, 38% recycling waste; 32% organizing tree plantation drives; 64% members using eco-friendly dyes it’s an encouraging picture. Affluent treatment plants due to their high nature of investment have been adopted by only 11% members with more underway.

*This data is from a 2008 study to understand the impact of Fair Trade on SMEs; * SMEs- Small and Medium Enterprises; FTOs’- Fair Trade Organisations (represents the producer groups that work with them)

in various kinds of fashion jewellry. Seed and recycled paper

jewellry have found a new wave of consumers.

Reviving age-old and sometimes dying art is also achieved, with

46 YOJANA May 2011

many groups nurturing such skills. Women at Sabala picked up a special kind of embroidery ‘Kasauti’; MESH (Delhi) has worked very hard with the leprosy afflicted handloom weavers by using their cloth to make bags, table-cloths, cushion covers, upholstery. Creative Handicrafts (Mumbai) sell their apparel to many international brands catering to modern design sensibilities. Many groups employ women to do elegant embroidery between their chores; Pardada Pardadi Educational society (Bulandshehr), Sewa-Lucknow are famous for ‘Chicken-Kari’, Sasha (Calcutta) produces ‘Kantha’ stitch work, Sadhna (Udaipur) is strong on appliqué technique. CRC exports (Kolkata) specializes in designer led products, Pondicherry and many groups down south have strengthened skills for making incense, natural personal care and spa products which are in high demand both in India as well as outside. Silence, a Calcutta based group is famous for providing livelihood to the hearing and speech impaired, their candles stand-out for the sheer quality of craftsmanship.

F a i r Tr a d e g r o u p s a l s o demonstrate great concern for the environment with many of them catering to recycling wasteful products. Literacy India uses

newspapers to make stationary, export fabric to make high-end designer bags; Conserve India (Delhi) has grouped together rag pickers to make stylish bags and accessories out of waste plastic bags. Regions such as Kashmir and North-East which have witnessed huge opportunity losses in the past are also being revived with many Kashmiri artisans associating themselves to Fair Trade groups. Ants Craft Trust (Assam) sources from the north-eastern groups; ‘ahimsa/non-violent’ silk and black-pottery are among the many crafts they have popularized.

Empowering grassroots artisans and weavers through Fair Trade

Some of the major challenges in promoting Fair Trade and sustainable consumption in India are as follows:

Indian consumers are not sufficiently aware of fair trade and its social and environmental benefit

Indian consumers are unaware that by choosing fair trade products they can support development of socially and environmentally sustainable supply chains and thus improve the livelihoods of producers and preserve the environment. As a result, despite the market potential there is currently low market demand for fair trade products.

To counter this with the active support from European Commission, HiVOS & FTF-I joined hands with IRFT and Shop for Change to launch the Pro-Sustain campaign aimed at promoting sustainable consumption. Pro-Sustain activities are carried out across schools, university campuses, corporate houses, exhibitions regularly along with Fair Trade retail shops.

Despite ample production of Indian fair trade products for export they are not readily available on domestic retail shelves.

Though a handful of fair trade outlets exist in India, there is neither a single dedicated shop brand for fair trade products nor a way for consumers to identify fair trade products in mainstream retail outlets. As a result, fair trade products are not widely available to potential fair trade consumers.

An “I Support Fair Trade” campaign has been launched in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Agra and is being spread across the country with the aim to increase consumption of fairly traded products. People from all walks of life have pledged support to the campaign. Simultaneously, to tackle the lack of recognition, Fair Trade communication is being developed which will be adopted

YOJANA May 2011 47

by all member shops as well as new retail formats. On the eve of World Fair Trade Day celebrated the world over on 14th May, 2011, an umbrella brand for network of Fair Trade shops will be introduced throughout India. At present 40 Fair Trade shops are operated by member organizations such as Mother Earth, Karigar, Sasha, Green Shop, Prerna Lifestyle, The Ant Shop, Hansiba-by Sewa, Kala Aprajita, Mesh, Indha, Nomads, and Sahaj.

The Government has not adopted a policy of promoting fair trade as an effective means to catalyse socially and environmentally sustainable production.

Various government agencies are involved in the promotion of agricultural produce, textiles and handicrafts. Yet, because of a lack of knowledge of fair trade, using it as a tool to promote sustainable supply chains has not featured in promotional activities of agencies like the Ministries of

Textile, Commerce, Agriculture, and MSMEs. Policy workshops and consensus building to lobby with various government agencies is one of the core focus work areas. Policies related to informal sector workers and sustainable consumption is being worked upon.

Tremendous challenges faced by the producer groups in terms of training, capacity building, various other cultural and business issues

Rural and semi-urban life is crippled by daily life struggles- power connections, internet connections, boundaries for women. But the market place is competitive; producers have to deliver on time and good quality. Further once they reach a certain scale it is tough to increase capacities especially with labour intensive work.

Fair Trade Forum- India assists members with capacity building by assessing business requirement, helping to mobilize funds, training as well as connecting with other members for sharing of knowledge. Fair Trade also works to strengthen the entire supply chain. For example, for Fair Trade apparel the cotton supply chain has to be Fair Trade; farmers in Yavatmal and mills in Tirupur have been enveloped by

the Fair Trade cotton project to ensure adherence to Fair Trade principles.

Fair Trade is about giving marginalized producers a chance to succeed at the market place that generally excludes them and using the purchasing power of consumers as a tool for real social and economic change needed for inclusive growth.

As always, there is more to do. The Fair Trade actions need to translate into improved quality of life, to conscious consumerism, to more just and sustainable terms for international trade. Growing commitment to Fair Trade is making a big difference. Sales of Fair Trade products are growing every year. Every purchase, action, and event supporting Fair Trade is a seed that cultivates a stronger and more cohesive movement. To realize the fruits of this movement in India, the role of various stake-holders like conscious consumer, youth, academicians, media, civil society organizations etc is going to be very crucial. The real power to make change in the world comes from the people whose voices, votes, and values can influence decision makers to ensure a fairer set of rules in favour of the weak and the marginalized. q

(E-mail:mallik@fairtradeforum.org)

Fig 1 The Fair Trade logo

48 YOJANA May 2011

NDIAN HAND woven fabrics and handlooms have been known since time immemorial. It is said that poets of the Mughal durbar likened

our muslins to baft hawa (woven air), abe rawan (running water) and shabnam (morning dew). A tale runs that Emperor Aurangzeb had a fit of rage when he one day saw his daughter, princess Zeb-un-Nissa clad in almost nothing. On being severely rebuked, the princess explained that she had not one but seven jamahs (dresses) on her body. Such was the fineness of the hand woven fabrics.

Handlooms are an important craft product and comprise the largest cottage industry of the country. Millions of looms across the country are engaged in weaving cotton, silk and other natural fibres. There is hardly a village where weavers do not exist, each weaving out the traditional beauty of India’s own precious heritage.

Design Innovation in the Handloom Sector

HaNDlOOM-HaNDiCRafTS

Sarvamangala

fOCuS

Apart from providing the weaver with a

regular income, design innovation

has brought many skilled

artisans together to conceptualize & create new

products

In the world of handlooms, there are Chettinads & Kanjeevarams from Tamil Nadu, Ikats , Gadwals, U p p a d a s , M a n g a l a g i r i s & Kalamkaris from Andhra Pradesh , Tie and Dye from Gujarat, Orissa and Rajasthan, Brocades from Benaras, Paithanis from Maharashtra, Maheshwaris & Chanderis from Madhya Pradesh, Jacquards form Uttar Pradesh, Daccai & Tangail from West Bengal, and Phulkari from Punjab. Yet, despite this regional distinction there has been a great deal of technical and stylistic exchange.

Going back to the history of handlooms, the famed Coimbatore saris were developed while imitating the Chanderi pattern of Madhya Pradesh. Daccai saris are now woven in West Bengal. The Surat Tanchoi based on a technique of satin weaving with the extra weft floats that are absorbed in the fabric itself has been reproduced in Varanasi. Besides its own traditional weaves, there is hardly any style of weaving that Varanasi cannot

I

The author is a first generation woman entrepreneur, and promotes ethnic Indian handlooms and handicrafts at her store ANAGHA in Hyderabad.

YOJANA May 2011 49

reproduce. The Baluchar technique of plain woven fabric brocaded with untwisted silk thread, which began in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, has taken root in Varanasi. Their craftsmen have also borrowed the Jamdani technique.

Woolen weaves are no less subtle. The Kashmiri weaver is known the world over for his Pashmina and Shahtoosh shawls. The shawls are unbelievably light and warm.

Assam is the home of eri and muga silk. Muga is durable and its natural tones of golden yellow and rare sheen becomes more lustrous with every wash. The designs used in Assam, Tripura and Manipur are mostly stylized symbols, cross borders and the galaxy of stars. Assamese weavers produce beautiful designs on the borders of their mekhla, chaddar, riha (traditional garments used by the women) and gamosa (towel). It is customary in Assamese society for a young woman to weave a silk bihuan (cloth draped over the chest) for her beloved as a token of love on Bohag Bihu (new year’s eve).

From Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Gujarat come the ikats. The ikat technique in India is commonly known as patola in Gujarat, bandha in Orissa, pagdu bandhu, buddavasi and chitki in Andhra Pradesh. In the ikat tie and dye process, the designs in various colors are formed on the fabric either by the warp threads or the weft threads or by both. The threads forming the design are tied and dyed separately to bring in the desired color and the simple interlacement of the threads produces, the most intricate designs, that appear only in the finished weaving. The Orissa ikat is a much older tradition that Andhra

Pradesh or Gujarat, and their more popular motifs as such are a stylized fish and the rudraksh bead. Here the color is built up thread by thread. In fact, Orissa ikat is known now as yarn tie and dye. In Andhra Pradesh, they bunch some threads together and tie and dye and they also have total freedom of design.

Even as far as 40 years ago, handlooms were woven for the use of the local customer. Transportation & communication were very slow and this did not give a chance for weavers to travel and be exposed to the different kinds of weaving in the rest of the country. Hence, the traditional weave & craft survived due to local patrons. Kashmiri weavers wove Pashmina shawls and carpets which were (and still are) required for the cold weather conditions of the state almost throughout the year. Similarly, Kerala, which is lush green all year round had white predominating in all handwoven fabric. On the other hand, Rajasthan & Gujarat compensated for the lack of colour in their landscape by weaving the most colourful fabric and then printing or dyeing it to add to the allure.

Times have changed now. With a revolution in the means of communication & computers available to the weavers & their families, weavers in remote villages know what is in vogue and change their designs & colour schemes as per the market requirement. Designers working with weavers do a colour forecast and get them to weave the colours of the season. You now find chikankari on every conceivable fabric - mangalagiris, chanderis, bengal cottons & maheshwaris to name a few. Madhubani artists beautify Tussar & Cotton sarees and dupattas with

their paintings. They can be found on bedcovers too!

Embroidery and hand block printing, which till recently, were seen only in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karanataka & West Bengal have come in to focus. They have become more visible now and add style to traditional fabrics. Maheshwari Sarees, Dupattas & Yardage look even more alluring with prints on them. Kasuti embroidery adds elegance to almost all kinds of Sarees - Cottons, Polycots, Silks & Tussars. Kalamkari, both the hand painted & block print variety, has become very popular. It is used on products as diverse as garments to handbags, lampshades, dhurries to desktop items.

Bandhni from Gujarat is seen on Paithanis & Kotas. Kalamkari motifs are appl iqued on to Kanjeevaram silks and cholies. The combinations are innumerable. Design innovation is required to keep alive the handloom industry. Value addition is the name of the game. Customers now want something new everytime they go out shopping. It is this need that the weavers are addressing and cashing in on.

Apart from providing the weaver with a regular income, design innovation has brought many skilled artisans together to conceptualize & create new products. Thus are born sarees woven in Karaikudi (famous for the Chettinads) with pallus hand painted by award winning Kalamkari artists of Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh. It has helped weavers & artisans hone their skills and give the end customer a highly stylish, yet traditional, product. This has been well received in the Indian market as well as abroad. q(E-mail : sarvamangalap@gmail.com)

50 YOJANA May 2011

MUDDY LANE in Hardshura village on the Srinagar Gulmarg highway in Kashmir leads to the single

storied mud and wood house of Ghulam Nabi Malik. On the threshold, Malik’s three daughters sit working with nimble fingers on shawls spread across their laps. Malik and his wife are old sozni embroiders. Being in the craft for 30 years, they have now passed it on to their daughters. The craft, prized the world over, is unique to Kashmir. Sozni involves the making of beautiful intricate colourful patterns using a needle and thread on a shawl, stole or a garment. Sozni brings alive a shawl or a garment and increases its value in the market manifold.

Ironically, though the shawls embroidered by Malik have made to global showrooms bringing fortunes for its traders, he only managed to make ends meet. That

too with immense hardships. Malik and artisans like him work for meagre wages, that rarely come in time. The systems within the industry were and continue to be in most cases, arbitrary. The trader the Malik family worked for would pay him according to his whims, often delaying payments. Further, if he did not like the work he had commissioned, the trader would simply not pay up. Or Malik would have to pay a penalty, which in effect meant that he would have to share the cost of raw material which was supposed to be from the traders’ coffers entirely. “If I resisted or refused to bear the cost of the raw material, he would ask us to sell it ourselves,” Malik rued.

Life was difficult, but the worst was yet to come. The crashing of the global economy strained Malik’s prospects further. Kashmir ’s handicrafts which have a huge market in Europe, USA and Middle East were hit by the recession. With

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vanishing buyers, exporters and traders felt the heat as their stocks piled up. They stopped procuring more stocks. As a result, fresh work for craftsmen also dried up. This was devastating for Malik and some 180 families and around 1000 inhabitants engaged in crafts like Sozni and carpet weaving in his village alone.

Still amidst the panic and gloom of global recession, a small ray of hope was beginning to shine. This was a small initiative by the J&K Bank Dastkar Finance scheme. This specialized scheme aims at extending the benefits of banking to the neglected segments of society. The scheme is geared towards artisans like carpet weavers, shawl embroiders and kani shawl weavers, with the objective to promote, professionalize and institutionalize the arts and crafts of Kashmir.

The scheme provides a fixed capital for loom, tools and design plus working capital for raw material, wages and others. The disbursement is phased in quarterly installments subject to verification of the status of work in progress. This is not all. Moving beyond its conventional contours, the bank has promised to help in marketing the products made by the artisans. The bank is prioritizing Direct and Micro lending with the aim of doing away with the trade middlemen. The chain goes even further with the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries agreeing to be the buyers of the products, as a last

resort. This is philanthropy coupled with hard-nosed finance!

T h e M a l i k f a m i l y n o w embroiders shawls and stoles owned by them and also gives out work to other artisans. They manage to make a neat profit. “My monthly income has doubled” said Malik, taking it from Rs.5000/- to Rs.10000/- With their hearth fires burning, Malik, father of five has taken steps to ensure education of all his children, something he was denied because he had to earn a livelihood early in his life. His eldest daughter Rifat, 20, is in the final year of her graduation. Her expenses and education are funded by the craft she engages in. The second daughter Afroza, 18, also finds satisfaction in being able to finance her own education and helping her family too.

The J&K Bank finance scheme is changing many lives in the region, lives which are talented, full of promise but without the means to translate them into productive activity. Malik’s neighbour Manzoor Ahmad Parray, 25, has also benefited from Dastkar Finance. Like Malik, Manzoor also had to leave his schooling midway. Things were tough for him and his family, which includes parents and two sisters, all involved in sozni. His father, a daily wager in the floriculture department, would embroider in spare time to make ends meet. With the finance, Parray has moved from being a wage earner to being his own master. Today he not only embroiders

shawls and stoles but is engaged in their sale as well. Earlier, even after the entire family worked hard they managed to earn just 3000 rupees per month. Now their income has tripled with the promise of further increase. There is a glow of obvious pride in him today, “My shawls are sold in Mumbai, Calcutta, and Himachal Pradesh. My shawls are also bought by a trader who exports them to foreign lands. I want to export shawls on my own one day” he says, acknowledging that timely finance provided wings to his dreams.

Zahoor Ahmad Malik, 27, has a similar story to tell. A carpet weaver, Zahoor slogged with his family; his parents and two siblings Rafiqa (19), Hilal Ahmad (25) on the loom, yet was unable to make two ends meet. The trader for whom Zahoor worked would pay him peanuts. “I could not do anything about it as I did not have the resources to start my own work” says Zahoor who grabbed the opportunity of being financed by J&K Bank.

With a deep sense of fulfillment he says “Now I know that the carpet on the loom is mine” , adding that he also has the right to sell it to the highest bidder. Zahoor too is highly appreciative of the finance scheme which came as manna from heaven. Yet he believes it is the effort and talent of the craftspersons who are using this as a launching pad and creating something of lasting value for themselves, their families and the craft itself.

Charkha Features

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