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offbeat
VOL 1 ISSUE 6
JAN - MAR 2011
Handmade for India
Selling a culture without
selling your soul
A new market for crafts is
emerging, one where profit is
won responsibly.
Young hands and silk
'Behind every silk saree is a
child's labour' , reveals an
Offbeat investigation.
Sustainable chic!
Meet the designers who went
back to their roots to
re-imagine fashion
Uzramma on why India
needs to get her 'hands
dirty' and go back to
looms.
FOREFRONT
Selling a culture without selling your soul
Editor’s Note
Sustainable chic
Investigation
The soft hands behind your silk saree
A positive spin
Gaming gets a desi hand
Weaving using the World Wide Web
Feature
The Kanchipuram Silk Route
Primer
How Handmade is your product?
OFFBEAT CELEBRITY
Changemakers
“It’s not just an art, it is an important
part of life”
DIVERSECITY
Event
In the Market? Of the market? OR against
the market?
EDITORIAL
Expert Speak
The looms that can lead India
Guest Column
Can tourism help craft?
‘It is ridiculous to even say
that handloom is dying’
A tryst with Baliapal
CREDITS
Managing Editor
Aarti Mohan
Copy Editing
Vani Sreekanta
Supriya Khandekar
Design and Layout
Angeline Bhavya
Special thanks to
Uzramma
Malkha Project team
Mayank Mansingh Kaul
Gouthami
Sindhuja (Kutch photographs)
OFFBEAT
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#444, 13th Cross, Indiranagar 2nd Stage,
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Making a decision between that gorgeous green leather tote from HiDesign
and the heavily embroidered, ethnic looking Kutchi bag has me torn. I am
caught forever: classy evergreen appeal of Athangudi tiles or the nouveau
modern allure of minimalist Zen? Antique looking carved rosewood table or
the understated elegance of a beechwood chest of drawers? Traditional
Kancheevaram sari or one of those hip silk numbers? For most of us who
have grown up living amidst colourful traditional arts and crafts that are so
uniquely Indian, negotiating the space of fashion and design aesthetic in a
contemporary globalised world is sticky. While handmade products evoke a
sense of belonging and pride, you are afraid of appearing like a ‘blast from
the past’, especially in cities with shiny skyscrapers and the humdrum of
industry.
Value, and not just the monetary kind, is one of the biggest problems that the
entire handloom and handicraft sector grapples with today, stuck as it is with
tags like ‘past legacy’, ‘rich tradition’ and ‘sunset industry’. Are indigenous
handcrafted products then relevant for a contemporary hungry-to-consume
yet spoilt-for-choice modern India? Or are they the stuff of quaint museums,
subjects for passionate debates on “protection” and de rigeur lifestyle only in
our traditional villages?
Everything and some more is what we find in this Offbeat edition on the great
Indian Handmade Story. We find new markets and entrepreneurs who are
helping creative clusters become sustainable, passionate designers who are
doing some exciting work to help artisans innovate and contemporise, and
remarkable efforts to bring art into an everyday life - from education to our
drawing rooms. There are huge holes that need to be darned in this fabric
as well - children still toil secretly to make second grade silk in Ramanagara;
poverty is forcing craftsmen to take jobs as security guards and cleaners in
huge factories; and powerloom is pushing handloom to the brink, spurred as
it is by huge profits from exports.
We are grateful to have experts like Uzramma explain to us why we need to
factor in social and environmental costs as well in the move towards mechanisation. Gouthami from Travel Another India highlights how our growing
tourism industry can be the biggest supporter of craft, and Pooja of Kadam
narrates the poignant story of craft helping in conflict ridden zones.
As for value, it lies completely in the intangibles. The story- of a person,
place, history and legacy- behind every keychain, toy and fabric you buy.
That every piece seems like it has been handcrafted for you, and there is no
other exactly like it. And hidden in all that riot of colour is a little extra something – an identity, a soul and a belonging that can only be felt when held as
your own.
I rest my case, whispers Athangudi tiles to minimalist Zen.
Offbeat is an eZine which looks at mainstream issues through an impact lens.
The quarterly magazine is produced by The Alternative, an online publication
that seeks to chronicle and support social development.
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offbeat |forefront|Cover Story
Selling a culture
without
selling your soul
Swathi Shivanand
Is this commoditisation of culture a viable
path for preserving the traditional in the
globalising world? Does it help the art form
innovate or does it reduce it to a mere
product determined by trends?
Fair Fashion: Anita Dongre’s collection using
Shop For Change certified cotton. Pic courtesy: AND
As prosperity settles in on some parts of the world, the market
has opened up for ‘culture’ to be translated into a commodity that
can be traded, consumed and experienced. Leveraging on the
consumer preference for things beautiful and historical and not
factory-produced, entrepreneurs and states of the ‘developing’
world have managed to profit by offering heritage tours, selling
handicrafts and handloom or showcasing folk arts.
Is this commoditisation of culture a viable path for preserving the
traditional in the globalising world? Does it help the art form
innovate or does it reduce it to a mere product determined by
trends?
In India, of the 14 million craftspeople, most are struggling to earn
a living even as the market for their products has gone global.
Would it be wise to then focus on making these crafts economically viable? Pupul Jayakar, founder of National Crafts Museum
and INTACH once remarked that craft was an economic activity
before it was a cultural activity. But how should this economic
activity be designed? Does the answer lie in government
intervention or giving a free reign to the growing private sector?
A healthy public-private sector tie-up at various levels, from
creation to distribution of handicrafts is the solution, recommends
Jaya Jaitly, founder and president of Dastkari Haat Samithi. “The
government has the money and the NGOs have personal relationships with artisan communities that they have cultivated over the
years. We can collaborate with the government which otherwise
cannot think imaginatively,” she says.
Lack of numbers
However, the biggest hurdle policy-makers and advocates face
in evolving strategies for the handicrafts sector is the lack of data.
There are no accurate numbers on the extent of craft forms that
exist in the country, the number of people employed or the
income generated for artisan households, says Nupur Bahl, Head
of Policy and Advocacy group at All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association (AIACA).
Broad consensus exists though – handicraft is the second largest
employer after agriculture in the country. Artisans forms part of
the large, unorganised sector that accounts for 92 percent of the
country’s workforce and suffer from low, gender-discriminatory
wages and exploitative work conditions.
Journey from charity to profits
Interventions to improve the lot of artisans have always existed
but they have taken the form of providing protection, instead of
creating market spaces. ‘Governments provided the artisans
subsidies at various levels of production and distribution. They
even paid them travel and dearness allowances to be able to
come to government held exhibitions. For the artisans then,
costing their products appropriately and marketing them were not
valid concerns at all,’ says Jaitly.
Further, artisans could only sell their products through exporters
or at government outlets. High standards of export quality and
exorbitant prices marked for the products were disincentives for
artisans and domestic consumers respectively.
offbeat |forefront|Cover Story
Selling the Story: The Aporv site
Discussions at Dilli Haat. Pic: Meenakshi Madhavan under CC license
Market and its intimate connection with handicrafts and
artisans
Post the economic liberalisation, one of the first initiatives to reach
out to the public outside craft emporiums was introduced by the
government itself. “Dilli Haat was designed to be a permanent
crafts bazaar where artisans rented space to sell their wares for
about two weeks”, says Jaitly, who has been credited with the
concept of Dilli Haat.
A marketplace where artisans met their contemporaries and
learnt and drew from each other’s skills, a platform for artisans to
meet their urban elite consumers and innovate according to the
needs and demands of the market, says Jaitly. Dilli Haat moved
away from the strategy of subsidising artisans to making them
entrepreneurs – they pay a rent of ` 250, look after their own
travel costs but keep all profits they make. Good sales then
become imperative for the artisan.
Dilli Haat’s success - Since its start, over 50,000 small artisans
have managed sales over ` 600 crore, is a small indication of the
potential that the domestic market holds1. While there are no
figures to ascertain the size of the domestic handicrafts market,
the Export Promotion Council of Handicrafts has shown that
exports have grown by over `1,000 crore in the last decade,
reaching a peak of `17,288 crore in 2006-20072.
Tapping into this growing interest are also a set of social enterprises whose target is the ‘educated consumer’ who would buy
(perhaps pay more for) products that are not created in exploitative and unfair conditions. These enterprises are reaching out to
artisans and consumers in innovative ways.
The Internet
Premising their business strategy on the belief that given an
opportunity, people would make educated purchases,
Aporv, an online handicrafts marketing company, gives its
customers the ‘story’ rather than the ‘product'. Sudip Dutta,
CEO of the company, told Offbeat in an email interview, "We
bring to our appreciators the story on how the product is
made, where it is made and the history of the products
which add intrinsic value and provide them with the tools to
make an educated buy."
1.Source: http://www.india-seminar.com/2005/553/553%20jaya%20jaitly.htm
2. Source : http://www.epch.in/hed.htm
For this, the primary medium the company has adopted is the
Internet which, Dutta says, has not only helped gain a wider
audience but also enabled partnering with artisans who have
internet access to check on products they have created. “It
brings about transparency in the model, because now they
know they price their product is being sold at and at the same
time they know that they are not being cheated,” Dutta says.
The website has received over 90,000 page views in the first 6
months from over 90 countries, numerous individual custom
ers, repeat orders from Infosys and a possible international
launch in the next month, adds Dutta.
Certification
Several companies and brands dealing in the handicrafts and
handloom sector have cashed in on buzzwords such as ‘ecofriendly’ and ‘organic’. “We have found in our studies that most of
these are self-claims by the company. There is no certification
from an external agency,” says Bahl.
An increasingly discerning audience, particularly in the West,
however require that products being imported be made under fair
trade practices, thus opening up a new market possibility where
companies can now offer certification services.
The Shop For Change mark helps
indicate fair trade in cotton.
Certified farmers get their due for their produce.
Pic: Dinesh Madhavan
offbeat | forefront | Cover Story
Fruit of labour: Kutch artisans looking at their work being exhibited.
Pic: Kala Raksha
Sharpening the saw: A Kala Raksha training session
Shop for Change, a company that offers certification services,
works with farmers’ organisations in four states: reaching out to
7,000 cotton farmers whose produce is bought at fair prices and
supplied to professional designers. The supply-chain is closely
monitored to ensure that fair trade practices are applied at all
stages – including a healthy and safe environment for workers,
fair wages, and environmentally sustainable practices.
Those with the Shop for Change mark will differentiate themselves from other similar products because they can be
marketed as ethical products, says Seth Petchers, CEO of the
company. The company sustains itself through annual licensing
fees charged to farmers’ organisations, producer organisations
and end buyers of raw materials. Shop for Change has tied up
with designers such as Anita Dongre who uses cotton procured
through the company’s supply chain for her fashion clothing.
The Vidyalaya draws its resources from the very market it trains
artisans for. Pitching itself as a design education provider, it
currently sustains on fees charged to the artisans – Rs. 10,000 for
men artisans, while encouraging women artisans with a stipend
provision.
These organisations are examples of the many private-sector
initiatives that have sought to enact the now-popular mantra of
inclusive growth. Are they effective? Have they made a dent in
the market? Only time will tell. Or when macro level data is
collected for the sector. But what they represent is a way of
conducting business that seems to be gaining traction — making
the markets work for the poor artisan.
Contacts:
Aporv – www.aporv.com
Shop For Change - www.shopforchange.com
Training
For-profit and non-profit companies apart, some organisations
choose to intervene differently - by focussing on training artisans.
Kala-Raksha, located in the Kutch region, helps train working
artisans at its Vidyalaya by exposing them to basic design
principles that they can use to make more varied products and
innovate within their own traditions. Judy Frater, project director
of Kala-Raksha Vidyalaya, says the school was started to counter
the trend within the handicrafts sector where ‘professional design’
dictates artisans’ work and in the process turns them into mere
workers.
Through the process, Kala-Raksha intends to further strengthen
artisans’ capacities and confidence. Frater narrates an instance
when one of the women who went through the training wanted to
price her work higher than usual despite much dissuasion. “A
visiting international designer actually affirmed her sense of price.
That is when we realised that we in the handicrafts sector are also
reluctant to price products appropriately because we think it
might be too high”.
Kala Raksha - http://www.kala-raksha.org/
Lachhuben's stole goes on the ramp.
offbeat |forefront|Feature
Tradition goes ‘vogue’, grassroot
artisans get a new lease of life, and
handlooms spin anew. Meet the
young designers who went back to
their roots to re-imagine fashion.
The story goes that a young Japanese girl on a visit to LA spots a
McDonald’s outlet and gleefully exclaims, “Look, mama, they
have a Mac-a-doodoo here as well”. The pressures of globalisation enforce a certain homogeneity; a monochromatic world is
anathema to culture and human development. This is perhaps
why it is important to ensure the continued existence and betterment of indigenous arts and crafts. Thankfully the age of revival
seems to be on us and we see many returning to disappearing
times and places to find what was ours and bring it back in
fashion! Their motives are as varied as the colours on the spectrum.
Waste Art for a living
Dakshayini Gowda runs a travelling museum which aims at
educating rural children, an initiative she conceived of during her
journeys to Kutch as a research student. She felt that the kids of
these village craftsmen who still made pots and decorative
beads, and block printed textiles using techniques that harked
back to the Indus Valley Civilisation, could do with some exposure.
The problem she came up against while planning this museum
was, no points for guessing, funding. As somebody who did not
want to wait for donors or grants, she thought of a creative way to
cross-fund the museum, empower rural women and recycle old
fabric all at one go. Gowda employed five rural women and
started to train them to make hand make jewellery from excess
material lying waste on the floor of a tailor shop. Every piece
became a work of art.
In her workshop at Gownipalli, a village hundred kilometres from
Bangalore, women gather to brainstorm on design, learn new
skills, and develop their collective business venture. Even women
who can’t leave their homes due to societal pressures can
participate as Gowda visits their homes to train them and pick up
ready products. The women are currently learning embroidery to
facilitate product line expansion while also developing ready to
wear garments and bed linen. They earn upwards of three
thousand rupees a month, a win-win both for income and creative
satisfaction.
From Dakshayini’s Indus Valley museum collection
Lend an ear to fashion out of scrap! :
Sanchali jewellery.
Sustainable chic
Vani Sreekanta
World bazaar for village craft
Prof. Vibha Pingle dropped the title, dropped out of academia
and went to work with rural Indian women – and Ubuntu At Work,
a truly capitalist idea with heart was born.
The US based organisation, in partnership with local NGOs,
attempts to provide global markets for rural women entrepreneurs
living in poverty. Imagine a small time village tailor. Her clientele
is her immediate neighbourhood. She knows what their requirements are, what their tastes are. This is her market and in spite of
her efforts she remains within her economic class. Every village
has scores of such women.
Enter Ubuntu. The organisation not only makes available training
but also provides them with fresh markets. Be it designers or
marketing professionals, Ubuntu volunteers elsewhere in the
world use the power of social networking to work together and
connect the women to a larger world.
Given that Ubuntu works on fair trade principles, the women earn
fair trade prices. Dr. Pingle stresses that Ubuntu’s goal is not to
help the women earn but to empower them to aspire for more.
Towards this end, the organisation goes into villages and builds
‘Baobab’ workspaces, micro-entreprise cells. Ubuntu classifies
the women into three groups. Beginners perfecting their skills and
building confidence; an intermediary level where they make
basic, large volume, low skill products such as jute bags; and an
advanced group that makes low volume, high priced, high skilled
products. So far they are in five villages. Some of the products on
offer are truly innovative. Take for instance an embroidered
Macbook sleeve made of silk and old saris.
offbeat |forefront|Feature
Sutradhar has an annual Sale with up to 25% discount from
March 2nd to 5th at their Indiranagar office.
One of the major achievements of The Malkha Project is that it
has infused fresh blood into a traditional craft on the decline. Mr.
D’Ascoli believes it’s imperative that we ensure the continuity of
these crafts for three reasons. One, to ensure we sustain the
immense diversity to combat uniformity; a concern that this
article stemmed from. Two, preserving and reviving crafts helps
increase rural employment. Three, hand crafted products are
usually produced using natural, sustainable methods.
D’Ascoli passionately asserts that there is a movement towards
the handmade.
Perhaps, he is right. Perhaps people are looking for that
connection, the connection that comes from knowing that
somebody somewhere made what it is that people are wearing
on their body, holding in their hands, keeping in their homes.
Perhaps the allure is that each piece is unique and has its own
story.
Learn more at:
http://www.malkha.in/ and http://malkhaindia.blogspot.com/
Empowering rural Sitas: Nina Paley with her Sita sings the Blues bag.
All pics courtesy the designers.
Dr. Pingle recounts an anecdote highlighting how quickly the
world is shrinking. Nina Paley, Copyleft hero and celebrated
filmmaker of “Sita Sings The Blues“ approached Ubuntu to supply
her with a hundred pieces of Sita dolls (film merchandise).
Research suggested that it would be a logistical nightmare as the
licensing requirements connected to import of the poly-fill were
wound in red tape. Consequently when Dr. Pingle called Paley
declining the offer, Paley suggested that Ubuntu only provide her
with the sleeve of the doll and she would stuff them herself. Paley
invited all her friends to sit around in her apartment and fill the
Sita dolls with poly-fill. The globe is truly a village.
Log on to http://ubuntuatwork.org to order off their catalogue.
The freedom fabric
Malkha (a name that is created by the word Mulmul and Khadi) is
a soft cotton fabric that is hand spun using traditional methods,
free of heavy processing inherent to the factory model of textile
production. As things stand the cotton farmer sells his cotton to
factories which then produce yarn in mechanised looms; a model
that is neither friendly to the farmers nor small weavers. The
Malkha process, promoted by the Decentralized Cotton Yarn
Trust, focuses on improving the condition of the craftspeople and
small cotton farmers. Reintroducing the spinning wheel, the
Malkha way becomes an additional form of rural employment.
The fabric that breathes: Malkha being printed.
Add to this mix three urban, urbane designers - Mayank Mansingh Kaul, Aneet Arora (pero), & Peter D'Ascoli and you get the
Malkha project. The designers use their expertise to contemporise this fabric. D’Ascoli believes that it is his job, when he works
with craftspeople, to add value by bringing in insights into
customer requirement.
Hub for creation: Vibha Pingle at a Baobab workspace.
offbeat | forefront | Investigation
Hands at Work. Employees at a weaving
factory in Ramanagara.
The soft hands
behind your silk
saree
Supriya Khandekar
Pics: Supriya Khandekar
Child labour in silk? Absolutely not, declare NGOs, the industry and the government, in chorus. An Offbeat
investigation reveals quite a different story, in the heart of rocky country.
Javed, 10, turns around and looks at me with curiosity. I am at a
silk factory in Mehboobnagar, Ramanagara, the famed town
where the iconic “Sholay” was shot, in the outskirts of Bangalore.
The deafening roar of weaving machines makes it difficult for me
to hear him. “I am the leader of other boys who are under my age
here,” says Javed, in an attempt to impress me. His job is to treat
silk cocoons in boiling water in order to soften the filament for
easy unwinding during the subsequent reeling process. There are
two other boys younger than him who smile back at me - all three
of them are standing at the centre of the factory, next to three
small tanks with boiling water.
There are more than 1500 filature units in Mehboobnagar that employ child labour for soaking silk
cocoons. These children, who don’t attend school,
are paid a meagre wage of Rs 30 a day.
Take a walk down the narrow streets of this “silk city” of Karnataka and you can hear the sound of machines inside every
alternate home. There are more than 1500 filature units in
Mehboobnagar that employ child labour for soaking silk cocoons.
These children, who don’t attend school, are paid a meagre
wage of ` 30 a day and work in these units from 8 am to 6 pm.
Javed’s employer Mehboob Ali says that both his children are
studying in Pre-University. “They have more interest in working
with me but I insist that they finish their education first,” adds Ali
as he proudly shows me around his factory while holding a
bundle of silk thread.
Meanwhile, Javed jumps around me, barefoot on the wet floor,
while I take a look around. He does not like going to school; he
says he went once and got bored. His colleague Shaukat, 8,
smiles shyly and says he enjoys earning money. Both complain
that their employer does not let them go out even for a minute;
they have to wait long hours even to urinate.
offbeat | forefront | Investigation
Not quite eradicated. There are
atleast 2-3 children in each weaving
factory.
Javed, be nimble, Javed, be quick. At work.
Shaukat’s younger brother Shakeel ,6, dips his hands in hot water
fearlessly and runs around the machines wearing a torn shirt and
a taquiyah (muslim cap). His mother also works in the same
factory but does not wish to talk to me.
Ratna, a volunteer with Prajayatna (earlier known as Maya
Organic), an NGO, says that these children have skin problems
as their hands and feet are spoilt by being in water most of the
time. She claims that the situation is far better than what it was a
decade ago. “Earlier, the industry depended completely on child
labour, but now it can run without children too,” she adds.
Prajayatna has been working in this area since 1998 and was
among the first to take up the child labour issue. They have
worked with parents, communities, government and experts to
generate awareness. They run a number of schools in the area
now where children are brought in regularly. They have worked
with labour inspectors in the area to watch out for employers who
appoint children and fine them (Rs 20,000 every time one is
caught).
Meanwhile, a visit to another factory shows two more children
working on silk threads. This is not a filature unit, here the silk
threads are converted to cloth; children are employed to make
rolls out of silk thread. Shankar, 12, comes shyly and poses for a
picture when his employer insists. “I earn money and I have
brought my younger brother to work with me,” says Shankar
pulling along his younger brother, Ganesh, 10. They both
together earn around ` 60 a day. “If we go to school we will not
get this money,” says Ganesh almost mockingly.
Nanjunappa, the owner of this factory, proudly shows me around.
When I ask about the boys, he says that they are done with their
schooling and are over 14 years of age. There are more than 25
schools in the area and most of them are run by NGOs. There are
pre-schools too for children with working parents. Mohan, who
once worked in the factory and is now with Prajayatna, explains
that a lot of children were put into rehabilitation centres, vocational training units, and schools by his NGO.
Zaheera Begum,45, whose daughter worked in a factory earlier
said, “We were made to enroll her in school in 2003. My daughter
has finished schooling. She studied till eighth grade after which
we could not put her into higher studies as she was over-aged.
Now she works in a nearby garment factory. She has learnt
stitching and earns a decent pay”.
“Behind every silk saree there is a child’s labour.”
The state education department joins the league and claims
that there is a significant fall in the drop-out rate. Siddalingaiah,
Under Secretary, secondary education, says that from 14 per
cent in 2008 the drop-out rate has reached around 10 per cent in
2009-2010. “This is a significant improvement, the government is
working with the local NGOs and we make sure once a child is
enrolled he does not leave school,” he explains. Mohan admits
that inspite of best efforts, child labour still exists. It is still the
cheapest labour. Adult men are paid Rs 120 a day and women
Rs 100 a day. Also the work that children do is considered low
level and dirty work, thus elders have never done it.
Raghavendra, a silk farmer from the same region says any
attempt by the government to eradicate child labour in these
taluks has been limited to establishing schools and hostels;
raiding filature units; conducting meetings with the employers,
etc. However, none of these has fulfilled the motive of reducing
the number of children working in the industry, in his opinion.
Adding to this, Nagasimha G Rao, who works with Child Rights
Trust, a Bangalore-based NGO, explains that rehabilitation by
NGOs is mostly conducting non-formal education classes,
enrolling working children in hostels or formal schools, and
providing vocational training facilities to them.
But in the absence of quality government schools and
relevant education for children, sending them to the filature units
has almost become a culture and tradition in the villages and
slums in the areas of Channapatna and Ramanagara, he says.
“Behind every silk saree there is a child’s labour”, he adds. A
small survey around the area shows that on an average there are
two to three children working in each factory and a simple
calculation will tell us that approximately 3000 children are still
working as child labourers in the silk city.
Even though activists and volunteers have brought in some
significant change, thanks to failing infrastructure, inadequate
resources and institutional denial, sericulture and its processing
remain an industry that spins a smooth yarn at the cost of the
health, education and social opportunities of young children.
All information has been gleaned by visiting silk factories at
Ramanagaram while posing as sericulture researchers. Most
NGOs have tried to intervene here, but have not succeeded.
Earning on the edge: Shaukat works
with boiling water everyday.
offbeat |forefront|Profile
A Positive Spin
Every little urn, every piece of cloth in the ANTS
store tells the tale of a colourful culture and a
people we often forget are a part of India.
To many Indians elsewhere, North East India is a huge blur – the
people there are “Nepalis”, insurgents or tribals; they migrate to
metros to work in beauty parlours or as gurkhas. The ANTS store
in Indiranagar, Bangalore, gently chides one not to make such
pat judgements.
An oasis of cream, bamboo-brown, and black, located off the
commercially bustling 100-ft Road in Indiranagar, The Ants, at
first glance simply looks like a store with pleasant aesthetics. It
has Eri silk shawls, kauna reed mats, black pottery from the
Tangkhul Naga tribes of Manipur, baskets, trinkets and jewellery.
And then you notice the boards which highlight the different kinds
of weaves from each part of the North East- the extra warp in the
weaves of the Bodos, the red, yellow, green, and black colours of
the Mishing textiles of Assam, the leaf tips curling in a loop motif
of the Mizo textiles. Bright photos of people from the 7 sisters
adorn the walls. Little tidbits of the process and the people
behind the products are displayed around the shop.
Weighing out yarn in Chirag district. Pic: The ANT
Kalpana Aravamuthu
This is not a happy coincidence – it is part of a concerted effort
by The Ants to create a space which generates positive stories
about the North-East. Last year, they hosted twenty-five events
- a Manipuri food festival, discussions on the Naga peace
process, a discussion with Ramachandra Guha aptly titled
‘NorthEasting the Mainstream’, book readings by authors from
the North-East, and a Naga musical event. These evenings were
funded by FST (Foundation for Social Transformation) and run by
an intern hailing from Manipur named Thomas. The folks at The
Ants also build connections in smaller ways, like encouraging the
north-eastern students in Bangalore to include outsiders in their
cultural events and discussions, or helping an intern study the
experiences of north-easterners based in Bangalore.
The Ants store is an offshoot of ‘The ANT’ (The Action North East
Trust), a registered NGO based in the Chirang district of Assam.
The parent organisation works in over 90 villages in the newly
formed Bodo administered district, focusing on health, sustainability and empowerment of the community. They train barefoot
doctors, build awareness on RTI, ration cards and the like,
network NGOs of the northeast with mainstream NGOs, provide
microfinance for agriculture and focus on youth employability.
offbeat |forefront|Profile
The store owes its existence to Smitha Murthy and Pradeep
Krishnappa, who take care of the creative and management
aspects. A textile designer from the Srishti School of Art, Design
and Technology, Smitha first met the Bodo weavers during an
internship in 2002. The Bodo tribe then was in conflict with the
rest of the people and the women were the most affected. Smitha
started working with these women to give them a platform to earn
a living from their craft and also to counter negativity. Eventually,
Smitha quit her job with a Bangalore textile company, went back
to Assam, and started finance, marketing and counseling
services for the weavers there. 3 years into its existence, the 300
weaver strong ANTS then decided to set up shop in Bangalore.
A salesperson shows us around the Ants Store. Pic: Kalpana
Part of the charter is to turn the available skills of the most
resource-deprived, such as women and the landless, into
livelihood opportunities. The weaving program started with the
poor women of the Bodo tribe in 2002, involving more than a
hundred women weavers, 80% of whom were poor and debt
stricken when they entered the program.
A weaver administered Trust called the Aagor Daagra Afad
(design weavers group) was also formed, selling products under
the brand name Aagor. The women weavers work from home
rather than a central location – because weaving is seen as a
leisure activity, and is interwoven with their lives. No training is
required since every woman weaves; a proper selection mechanism however ensures that deserving BPL people are benefitted.
By March 2008, more than `15 million in sales had generated
wages of more than `5 million for the rural people! With the money
and stocks already transferred to the Trust, the plan is to slowly
transition to a model where the Trust functions independently.
The Ants’ barefoot designers work with artisans in the northeast
to provide marketing, costing, design-colour and style inputs.
The organisation has moved beyond a single point of sales stage
- products are sold at the store, supplied wholesale to FabIndia,
Keystone in Ooty and other like-minded organisations; or
exported. They are a fair trade organisation- artisans sign an
MOU that they will abide by fair-trade norms like no child labour,
minimum wages and so on. They are also a non-profit, so any
money that is made goes back to the artisans.
Smitha, also an Aagor trustee, is a fount of knowledge about the
North East. She shares little nuggets of information as I sit with
her in the sunlit café atop the store. The warp and weft, colours,
motifs of the shawls speak volumes about the wearer – is it a
woman? Is she married? Which tribe does she come from?
Tripura’s work is influenced by Dhaka, but the others do not have
much cross-border influences. The mug in front of me looks
glazed, but is actually created by rubbing with a seed. The mats
to our right were stuck at shipping for 6 months due to insurgency
issues, and created a “how to pay the supplier” problem.
When I leave the store, I buy a basket. I feel a sense of kinship
with the woman, who in the midst of taking care of her children
and family, made time to create a product and earn some money
out of it. This connection between buyer and seller is one of the
positive side-effects of the work of THE ANTS.
Contact:
Smitha Murthy, Pradeep Krishnappa
Tele: 080 41521742 / 41715639
Email: [email protected]
A day in the life of the
Bodo weavers.
Pics: The ANT
Every product at the store has a story – a positive one. Pic: Kalpana
offbeat |forefront|Profile
Gaming gets a
desi hand
Poornima Sivanandam
Kalamkari game of dice, Sutradhar. Pic: Poornima
How about some elephant poo lagori, channapatna handmade backgammon and palm
leaf lego to steal a little one’s gaze away from the computer?
Summers while growing up meant camping at thatha-patti’s
(grandparents in tamil) place with cousins who visited,
unrestricted visits to parks and of course games that only a
child’s imagination can conjure. Bonds were best strengthened
(broken as often) - amidst Rummy, Business, Snakes and
Ladders. Like dhayakattam (ludo), a ritual in itself. One would
draw the kattam on the red oxide floor with wet chalk; another
would hunt down the dhayakattai (stick dice) and coins; we’d
improvise using tamarind seeds, sozhi (cowrie shells) and
buttons. Each had his/her own superstitious set of playing coins.
Traditional handmade games and toys were truly the stuff of
warm family bonding, as much as they were the fetish of a now
lost childhood. Why this sudden trip down nostalgia street? A visit
to Kavade or Sutradhar – treasure troves of traditional Indian toys
and games, will more than explain.
Two years ago, when Sreeranjani hunted for Indian games
for her little ones, and found none, she decided to work with
craft clusters to fill the void. The result is a colourful array of
magic tops, gulli danda, nine men’s morris, lagori (wood,
elephant dung, palm leaf) and more at Kavade, traditional toy
hive. “Parama Pada Sopanam is the original Indian Snakes and
Ladders, extremely intricate to recreate”, says Sreeranjini,
pointing to an abridged version on a cloth. Courtesy and
concentration become ladders, Kumbakarna, Duryodhana
and more become snakes, and children become familiar with
stories and ideas unconsciously.
Colourful lagori ‘stones’ made of palm leaf grab attention next.
“Palm leaf is not easily available here. Getting close to nature this
way instills a sense of belonging in children. They start wondering
about where their toys come from”. So where do these come
from? From trees in Nagercoil. And then to Kanyakumari where
they are crafted and made suitable for play by a group of women
at Kanya Kumari Kalai Koodam (K4), a creative platform facilitated by CCD (The Covenant Center For Development).
K4 products do not come with a manual. “They are multi-purpose
and multi-dimensional, the use depends on each person’s
creativity”, says Nalini Jayaram, a freelance artist who was a
design consultant with K4, CCD, an NGO working with craftsmen
for over 4 years. To revive palm leaf weaving and to add
value to the craft, K4 started designing educational kits,
games, rattles (reviving designs that the older women had
played with when young). They now work with organisations
like Kavade in an informal way, taking inputs and updating
designs.
K4 products do not come with a manual. “They
are multi-purpose and multi-dimensional, the use
depends on each person’s creativity”
offbeat |forefront|Feature
Profile
Desi dominoes, Sutradhar.
Pic: Anshul Varma
Palm leaf star legos,
Kavade. Pic: Poornima
The colourful sutradhar store at indiranagar. Pic: Poornima
“There are not enough funds for retail outlets or stalls in exhibitions; the source now is mainly from sales, through word of
mouth. Beedi rolling factories pay well in Kanyakumari and are
taking over valuable skill away from the crafts”, rues Nalini, who
currently facilitates post-school art programs and workshops in
Valley School. Funds and good marketing is the only way to
sustain this remarkable effort.
At Kavade, Sreeranjini has more ideas in the pipeline. Handmade
doesn’t just mean sticking to traditional toys. She believes that
games can inspire an interest in science and learning as well.
“A game of pallanguzhi can teach math in a fun way, I really wish
teachers would use this in class”, she says.
Bringing the handmade world to the classroom is what Sutradhar
is trying to achieve. A resource center focused on early learning,
it promotes material for teachers and has a store full of toys
from NGOs and cooperatives. Between June and September
every year, Sutradhar holds workshops for teachers which enable
them to use puppetry, storytelling, and eurhythmics (music and
movement) and more to make learning fun.
Sutradhar designs new toys and kits which are then made by its
artisan network. The colourful store stocks wooden toys from
Chennapatna and Etikoppa, stuffed toys from Kodaikanal,
wooden acrobat folk toys from the north, board games in kalamkari from Kalahasti and palm leaf toys from Kanyakumari. “Many
parameters are kept in mind while sourcing material – safety,
utility, raw material and cultural links,” says Kamakshy who has
been with the organisation for 4 years.
“Sometimes there is disconnect between demand and what the
artisans are willing to make”, says Kamakshy, Director, Programs,
at Sutradhar. Another issue with handmade toys is difficulty in
ensuring uniform quality. Sutradhar and Kavade interact with
artisans mostly through NGOs or cooperatives and new creations
are discovered through exhibitions and meals. Design innovation
and finalisation often happen through phone or over the Internet
with skilled helpers.
“Only those concerned with aesthetics or those with a crafts
background are open to eco-friendly toys. People often want to
know about the life of these. I tell them they don’t last lifelong but
can live different lives in the 4-5 years,” says Nalini at K4. A rattle
could be a prop in a drill or drama, a tool in any activity you let it
be part of.
“The best thing is that kids play with another person instead of
staring at a screen or competing with a machine. For kids aged
6-7 the games are about strategizing; it tickles their brain to think
of solutions. As the games get bigger, so does the competitive
spirit but it’s all healthy and children know that they win some and
will lose some”, says Ranjini.
After endless browsing through blasts from the past, here are my
favourites:
Palm leaf star ‘lego’:
Imagine and build all you dream of with palm leaves and toothpicks.
Bird & Butterfly Dominoes:
Colourful wooden chips with the classic domino on one side and
birds and butterflies on the other.
Nine Men’s Morris, Aadu Huli Aata:
Strategising on these pleasantly designed boards is fun!
Rainstick:
A bamboo stick filled with pebbles and pins arranged along the
pipe. When the stick is upended it sounds like rain.
Contacts:
Sreeranjini, Kavade.
Email: [email protected]
Nalini Jayaram, K4.
Email: [email protected]
Kamakshy Mopuri, Sutradhar.
Email: [email protected]
Sutradhar has an annual Sale with up to 25% discount from
March 2nd to 5th at their Indiranagar office.
offbeat |forefront|Profile
Weaving using the
World Wide Web
Prerna Seth
Chanderi’s weavers now have a reason
to be computer savvy: they can design
“online”.
Tradition meets the digital age. DEF members with the weavers of Chanderi.
Aklem lives in a small town called Chanderi. He has been weaving
his entire life. His ancestors were also weavers. A few years back,
under the influence of some friends, Aklem left weaving and
started trading in shares. Soon, he had lost all his life's savings
and worked his way to bankruptcy. Aklem says he gave life a
fresh start two years back thanks to a ‘technology’ project called
Chanderiyaan.
Chanderi is a small town with a lot to offer – 300 monuments within
a 6km radius to beautiful hand woven sarees and apparel. But the
weavers’ lives aren’t as becoming. Of the 3,500 weaving families
in Chanderi, many don't own a loom and live a hand-to-mouth
existence through daily wages. Even though the town earns an
annual revenue of `70 crore, on average a weaving family earns
no more than ` 3,000 a month. The literacy level in the region is
low, and the younger generation are slowly drifting away from this
traditional source of livelihood.
At the same time, Chanderi also boasts of Wi-fi capability across
the entire town. The irony wasn’t lost on a Delhi based NGO, the
Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), who decided to put the
‘technology’ to ‘good’ use. The result was the much admired CWG
shawl that was presented to athletes the world over, designed in
this town by traditional designers on a computer!
Believing that ‘information poverty’ is the biggest barrier to
development, DEF has been using ICT and IT to bridge the
information gap on both sides of the spectrum and provide free
flowing information. In this case, DEF uses its expertise to
upgrade the skills of traditional artisans and designers while also
introducing the outside world to the wonders of Chanderi – from its
hand woven cloth to its forgotten heritage, history and culture.
Of the 3,500 weaving families in Chanderi, many
don't own a loom and live a hand-to-mouth existence through daily wages
Chanderi.. and more. Logo of the digitization effort.
Training session in progress.
offbeat |forefront|Profile
Osama Manzar, the founder of DEF says, "When we started work
in Chanderi two years back the initial survey showed a lack of
skills and low literacy levels amongst the population. 90% of the
population could not afford to buy raw material and did not own
their loom. Nor did they have the capability to design; they were
heavily dependent on master weavers. They did not possess the
skills to make finished items or apparel. All of this led to an
uneven distribution of income with majority of the earnings going
to the various middlemen involved in the process."
DEF started by setting up the Chanderi Weavers Information and
Communications Technology Resource Centre (CWICTRC).
They identified and trained the youth in the region with ICT,
basic computer and English language skills free of cost to
enable them to find employment for themselves. From not being
able to hold a pair of scissors, these weavers can now embroider, stitch and design apparel using a computer software
developed by Wonder Weaves Systems ! To eliminate middlemen in the process, DEF set up an e-commerce portal six
months back where the weavers can sell their produce and get
paid directly for their work.
The CWICTRC is the hub of all design work in Chanderi now.
Traditionally, designs were made manually by the designer,
while the weaver would sit idle waiting for him to finish. Many a
times the design made by hand would look different once woven
on cloth. The computer-based designing software cuts this
design time significantly . Designer Ashok Kumar says, “what
we used to design in one day can now be finished in one hour.
Before giving the design to the weaver, we see the layout of the
design on cloth, make the changes required and then send it to
the weaver.”
Visualisation using the computer decreases turnaround time a great
deal, helping weavers churn out designs faster and increase their
monthly income.
Designer Ashok Kumar says, “what we used to design in one
day can now be finished in one hour. Before giving the design
to the weaver, we see the layout of the design on cloth, make
the changes required and then send it to the weaver.”
"In the next two years, we want to train at least 20 master
designers capable of working independently with weavers
across the country. We want to scale up the e-commerce portal
and start a rural BPO so the youth being trained can find
employment in the town itself. In addition to this we are going to
start computer centres in all thirteen municipal schools in the
region to expose children to modern technology and teach them
the uses of the internet," says Osama about DEF's future plans in
Chanderi. The biggest challenge they face right now is to
manage the expectations of the community and at the same time
enable them to carry forward all the activities independently in
the course of time.
Aklem today has ten weavers working with him and is on the way
to becoming a master weaver. And more like him are “going
live”.
Contacts:
http://www.defindia.net/
Pics Courtesy: DEF.
offbeat |forefront|feature
The Kanchipuram silk route
Aarti Mohan
Bonded to the loom? Revathi bent over her silk saree.
Pic: Aarti
This is the quaint town where timeless 6-yard dreams are hand-woven.
Is the reality as magical?
Bollywood divas routinely use it to break clutter amidst snazzy
red-carpet gowns at festivals. It defines the world famous
“Chennai music season” as much as the music itself. It has
been the piece de resistance of every South Indian bride’s
trousseau for ages. And a symbol of auspiciousness in every
household south of the Vindhyas. If there ever was a piece of
tradition that has remained consistently iconic for as long as
living Indian memory, it is the “Kancheepuram pattu”.
Providing employment for over 80% of the people in the temple
town of Kanchipuram, 60 kms from Chennai, this celebrated silk
is characterised by its tightly twisted three-ply, high-denier
threads and pure zari in a double warp and weft patterning.
The lives of those weaving the fabric haven’t been as rocking
however.
The National award winning tamil movie “Kancheevaram”
brilliantly captured the pre-Independence struggle: desperate
poverty in the lives of the weavers who worked as bonded labour
and got paid abysmal wages while their masters lived in brazen
opulence. Co-operatives run by the Govt., SHGs, micro-credit
and a burgeoning free market have since then turned poverty
quite on its head.
Child labour became the next battle. A survey done in 1997
revealed that over 40,000 children worked in inhuman conditions
in the silk factories. Those as young as 5 worked for over 12
hours a day – burns and blisters due to constant contact with
boiling water, infections from dead silk worms, lung diseases
from factory fumes and cuts from guiding threads were everyday
fare. Kanchipuram is talked of today as a huge success story in
the eradication of child labour – barely 45-50 labourers exist
today, as per data from surveys carried out by NGOs running
bridge schools.
A perfect story? Bit too good to be true?
My visit to the weaver town of Kanchipuram in Feb 2011 was as
much an attempt to understand what worked, as it was to do a
reality check.
A survey done in 1997 revealed that over 40,000
children worked in inhuman conditions in the
silk factories.
offbeat |forefront|feature
No child at work
“We did a survey in 1997 on child labour and found that every
street had atleast a 100. Swarming like mosquitoes inside small
homes. Women even produced more children so that they could
help out with weaving”, says Jeyaraj, Director of RIDE – The Rural
Institute of Development Education, one of the first NGOs to take
the machinery head on. “Our volunteers stormed the streets in
protest; we had a music troupe singing songs, we created a
watch group that closely monitored the situation, we also put
pressure on officials”, he says, reminiscing about the years of
prolonged struggle. Bridge schools were created for rescued
child labour, facilities like toilets and teacher accountability
monitored in government schools, and medical camps and
regular check-ups conducted for those with health problems.
The situation is not perfect today. “Not all of them go to school
yet. You will find some children still loitering around. Politicians
also respond with knee-jerk solutions, like stationing four jeeps for
‘rescuing child labour’. A jeep alone does not change anything”,
he says. Political will, pressure from international and national
NGOs, media exposes and grassroot groups all seemed to have
played a role however in sending most children of Kanchipuram
to school.
Small holes in the big picture
Progress, on the other hand, has been a bag mixed for the
weavers. There have been many positives: computerised
Jacquard looms that have helped visualize designs ahead of time
and reduce painstaking manual effort; constant and growing
demand (1 retailer like Nalli has expanded from 1 shop and 1
loom in 1928 to over 10,000 looms in Tamil Nadu, 14 shops and
an annual turnover of 325 crores); and co-operatives that have
provided micro-credit, training and market services.
Yet, as I walk through the narrow modest lanes that house silk
weavers in “Little” Kanchipuram (main town is completely occupied by suppliers and retail giants), I realise that life for one
weaver hasn’t changed a helluva lot. I find Revathi still straining
over a loom in semi-darkness (electricity is sparse here), squinting to catch light from a tiny window, working as contract labour
in Madhavan’s home-she can’t afford her own loom. She and her
husband weave upto 6 sarees a month, earning `1500 for a
saree.
Venkatesh displaying his
father’s award winning
temple design. Pic: Aarti
Back to the Charaka. Handling
small tasks like winding and
preparing yarn is the chore of
those over 40. Madhavan spins.
Pic: Aarti
Madhavan supplies these in turn to a retailer, making about `5000
per saree. “We cannot run the looms during the monsoons, so
effectively we get about 8-9 months of weaving in a year. Silk
yarn prices have also gone up steeply, labour costs have
increased. We barely manage to save `2000 a month, despite
good demand”, says Madhavan. The career of a silk weaver ends
at 40, riddled with health problems like philaria in the leg and
deteriorating eyesight. They can at best prepare the yarn after
that. “We have been doing this for generations, what else can we
do now?”, asks a worried Madhavan.
Threatened by progress
Venkatesh, handloom cotton supplier, whose father won the
National Award for his famous “temple” design on Kanchi cotton,
rues the day “development” came to Kanchipuram. Scores of
factories have sprung up on the highway offering good daily
wages plus employee benefits. “My weavers are becoming
security guards and drivers at the Hyundai factory. If I give them
a saree to weave today, I may get it in 3 days, or may have to
wait more than a month”, he complains.
Alternate occupations also have a hand in dismantling the
traditional “family” role in weaving. The women are busy with
their SHGs, manufacturing phenyl or selling soap. With children
off the looms, labour costs have increased drastically, and
designs like the “Korvai” cannot even be produced. One cannot
count on children helping after school, says an unhappy
Venkatesh, thanks to the free ‘Government of TamilNadu TV’ in
every household.
To compound his problems, cotton yarn prices have increased
by over 20% in 2010. A lift on the ban of cotton exports has
brought prosperity to mills and powerlooms, but pushed handloom even deeper into a chasm. “We try and innovate on design.
But how much more would you pay for a cotton saree? It is
becoming increasingly unviable for us”, he says.
Balaji, a researcher working on a detailed study of handloom
weavers in South India, says the number of weavers has come
down by atleast 4-5 times. “They are competing on equal terms
with a powerloom. How is that going to work out?” Customers
don’t know the advantages of handmade cloth and retailers
don’t educate”, he says.
This mecca of hand weaving seems like a microcosm reflecting
the larger reality of the entire handloom and handicrafts industry.
Chronic troubles are no more, progress has helped, and yet, new
problems replace the old, and nothing is perfect. Except for the
silk.
offbeat | forefront | Primer
How handmade is your product?
Supriya Khandekar
What is it that tells you that the kurta you just picked up from a store is genuinely handmade? Here are a few things one should
keep in mind when shopping for handicrafts and handlooms. The government has some certificates and trademark labels that
distinguish the genuine from the fake.
The mark comes in two forms.
Domestic use: The word Handloom is written beneath the logo
International marketing: Same logo with the word ‘Hand woven in
India’ written beneath it.
Each label is coded on its backside. For example, DF followed
by a code number for fabrics for domestic sale, DM followed by
code number for readymades and garments for domestic sale.
Similarly, EF followed by code number for export fabrics and EM
followed by code number for export ready-mades and garments.
The Woolmark ensures pure wool. The Woolmark Company
(India/SE Asia) is the branch company of "Woolmark" under
Australian Wool Services -the world's leading wool fibre textile
authority with over 60 years experience. Having a Woolmark sign
on carpets and other apparel proves the use of unadulterated
wool. Presently, there are almost 300 million brands carrying the
Woolmark around the world.
The Silk Mark is a registered Trade Mark, introduced by Silk Mark
Organisation of India (SMOI), a registered society sponsored by
Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. It is
a paper hand tag on which a high security hologram is affixed.
The hologram contains a unique serial number which can be
identified for its authorised user and period use. The hand tag is
used on lot basis for silk yarn and small value items such as
stoles, scarves and cushion covers. For silk fabric roll, a paper
tag at one end is used.
The Seal of Cotton: As recently as 2010, the Cotton Gold Alliance
(CGA), in partnership with Cotton Council International and
Cotton Incorporated, promoted the Seal Of Cotton to identify 100
per cent quality cotton products for domestic consumers.
The Craftmark: It certifies that the particular product is ‘hand made
in India’. Under this initiative, the All India Artisans and Craft
workers Association (AIACA) licenses the Craftmark logo for use
by craft-based businesses, cooperatives and NGOs.
Caveat: These trademarks are given to people who pay and get
themselves registered to attain an authentication mark. A lot of
village-based craftsmen do not have any idea about these registrations, thus they never get the certificate. But that does not mean
these craftsmen are not genuine.
Fair Trade Norms: This is not a trademark with a logo but all
customers are entitled to know if the retailer is following fair trade
norms. Fair Trade is an organised social movement and marketbased approach to empowering developing country producers
and promoting sustainability.
Chinese fakes: There is a heavy influx of China manufactured craft
pieces. For example, there are Channapatna toys made in China!
There are no ways to differentiate between these Chinese lookalikes and genuine products. A lot of craftsmen are facing losses
because of this influx.
Almost three-fourths of the handloom market has been taken over by powerlooms. Finding authentic handloom is very difficult, even
an
expert eye cannot make out the difference. If you want to support genuine handloom and craft, try to purchase it directly from the
craftsmen or weavers, or buy it from established stores. Help the hands that make India what it uniquely is!
offbeat |Offbeat Celebrity|changemakers
“It’s not just an art, it is an
important part of life”
Vani Sreekanta
Ishwar Naik is not just one of the very few
men in a traditional art form practised by
women, he is also its biggest torch-bearer.
I meet the very busy Ishwar Naik at a workshop he is conducting
at a city women’s college. I enter late, hoping he hasn’t left
already, and spot him dressed in a green Khadi Kurta, looking at
a Chittara painting created by one of the girls; quietly instructing
her on how to rectify an error. Chittara is a form of intricate
painting done on walls using natural colours; indigenous to the
Malnad region of Karnataka and practiced mainly by tribal
women of the Deevaru community. The girls could not have
asked for a better instructor.
The unassuming Naik, honoured by the President of India, has
single-handedly revived this art form. Between research and
practice, Mr. Naik has over 20 years of experience and is considered by many as one of the foremost master-craftsmen in the
tribal and folk art tradition. “It was all around me. My mother is a
Chittara painter, I learnt from her. As a child I’d spent time at my
grandmother’s place - there were people all around and
traditional songs and adages aplenty. It was a festive atmosphere
all through the year. It’s a part of life in these parts. And because
these traditions, Chittara included, were so fundamental to life, it
had a deep impact on me. I was surrounded by it when I was
most impressionable”, he says, explaining how he grew up with
Chittara.
Speaking in crisp, almost lyrical Kannada native to his home town
Sagara, Naik waxes eloquent about all things Chittara. This art
form has been around ever since man began expressing himself
through images, he says. “When you observe the line properties
of this painting you see that they are similar to cave paintings”.
Between research and practice, Mr. Naik has over
20 years of experience and is considered by many
as one of the foremost master-craftsmen in the
tribal and folk art tradition.
The reviver: Ishwar Naik receiving an award from
the President.
Chittaras are drawn mainly during weddings, on a wall in the
house called ‘hassegode’, he explains. “Each painting symbolically depicts the important moments of the wedding and
marriage. The columns, for instance, signify the walls of a household.” These paintings are also drawn during other auspicious
times, on baskets, like a ‘poornima’ during harvest. “We primarily
use four colours – red, yellow, white and black. The colour red is
mud, the white is from rice paste, the black is from fried rice that
is then ground into a paste, and the yellow is from ‘gurugi hannu’
which is a wild fruit that is locally available. The brush is made of
‘pondi naru’; it’s hair like and lends itself naturally to painting.
What is interesting is that most of these products have medicinal
qualities. Like the mud we use was used to ease delivery when a
woman was going through a difficult pregnancy.”
And in the same breath, he passionately makes a case for its
revival with “it’s not just an art. It’s an important aspect of life. In
these parts, you associate with Chittara right from birth; most of
the auspicious rituals, like the naming ceremony of a child,
happen under the wall that has a Chittara paining. This art form
has documented how man evolved and became civilised. And it
will continue to do so”.
Like other tribal/ folk art, Chittara, too, has been on a decline.
“There is a gap between those who have mastered the art and
the younger generation. The educated youth have moved away
from it because they believe that there isn’t anything to these
traditions. It could be the influence of television or new media.
The elders tell them things like “my grandmother used to do it”,
but don’t explain the significance behind it. And if we don’t
understand the importance of it then we won’t care about it”,says
Naik.
offbeat |Offbeat Celebrity|changemakers
“I had to research it for five years consistently to find reasons
behind the use of colours and the lines. Keeping all this in mind I
painted my ‘Aradhana Chitra’ for which I won my national award.
In this picture I depicted everything I had learnt - respect, respect
for fellow humans, respect for nature, all things that are part of
life”, he says, explaining his motivation towards reviving Chittara.
Towards this end, Naik, has started a full-time school called
‘Chittara Chawadi’ in his home town, focused on training the next
generation of Chittara painters. The demographic of his students
vary vastly. While his workshops see both male and female
students, hobbyists and art lovers from all walks of life, students
at his school are primarily village rural women.
“You need at least a year to master the basics. Due to pressure
and demand I have now started short-term courses that last 6
months. This batch will conclude in March and after that we’ll
continue depending on sponsors”. Naik funded the school
himself initially and is currently supported by the government of
Karnataka. Chittara Chawadi will run out of financial support as of
March 3rd; Naik is attempting to generate capital inflow from the
government.
At the centre of life: Rendered in modern settings.
Wall art: Traditional Chittara painting.
While his workshops see both male and female
students, hobbyists and art lovers from all walks
of life, students at his school are primarily village
rural women.
Schools like these are important for Chittara, as they not only
create artists who can take forward the tradition but also provide
young women a means to earn a livelihood. “In these parts girls
are not allowed to step out without escort. But they can make
these paintings while sitting at home. We collect all their paintings
and give them the money generated”. To augment their income,
Naik has begun to offer these paintings on canvas and paper to
cater to the tourist market.
So, is it gaining interest? Yes, he says, the market is opening up.
A lot of his clientele are people who have seen his work at
somebody else’s place or through media write ups. There is an
interest among the corporate, too, who want him to paint an office
wall. He believes that they need to diversify and offer different
products. “And now that we paint on canvases and those are
easy to transport, there is growing interest even from the international markets.”
Naik makes as much as 25,000/- in a month through Chittara. He
charges 300/- to paint a square foot. Before you scream pricey,
stop to think that he needs a minimum of two and a half hours to
paint that area. And add to that the fact that he is the very best in
his field right now. Naik is invited to show at galleries all over the
world and you can find his works hanging in fine company in art
museums from Toronto to Washington DC. His client list includes
the President of India.
If you want to own an Ishwar Naik painting or contact him to paint your wall, write to him at
[email protected]
offbeat |DiverseCity
In the market? Of the market?
OR against the market?
Ashima Goyal Siraj
Pics Courtesy:Mumbai Smiles
Is fair trade even viable as an alternative market practice? The recently held Poverty
Conference brought to light complex issues that existed behind the simple ‘label’.
A mere 0.1% of the global market today is based on fair trade. Is
that enough to combat poverty? Are we doing it right? Shouldn’t
fair trade go beyond handicrafts and food? What do we mean by
fair wages?
This and more were discussed at panel discussions in a conference on ‘Combating Poverty in a market driven world’. The
conference marked the 25th anniversary of Creative Handicrafts,
a fair trade women’s cooperative working in the slums of
Mumbai, in partnership with Mumbai Smiles - an NGO, TISS, and
the Fair Trade Forum, India. . The conference looked at addressing the issues of profit making objectives of the market and social
development objectives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)
co-existing.
In the words of Carola Reintjes, CEO of the World Fair Trade
organization, Fair Trade is a value-based (environmental, social
and economic sustainability) and small producer focused
production and trade. It is a trading partnership based on equity,
transparency and fair trade terms which allow for sustainable
production, decent work and living wages.
Conventional Trade
Supply Chain
Fair Trade Supply Chain
Business for Development
Through a strategic alliance between producer organisation,
business community, governments and civil society, fair trade
works towards reducing the supply chain and thus a premium
price as well as a sustainable livelihood for the producer.
With an annual global growth rate of 40% despite the economic
downturn, Fair Trade is gaining attention as a market-based
instrument to ameliorate the market’s own negative social and
environmental impacts. With a success story of 7.5 million small
producers worldwide, WFTO claims that fair trade is a social
case and a business case.
To affirm and re-affirm the point were two panelists – Johny
Joseph of Creative Handicrafts, India, and Fredrick from Undugu
fair trade, Kenya.
For Creative Handicrafts, fair trade is not just about a fair price
but also about capacity building and enabling small producers to
take control of their lives.
offbeat |DiverseCity
Vulnerable to western tastes: While consumers in developed
countries are willing to pay a premium for these products, with
markets getting more and more competitive, the premium price
for fair trade is reducing. This creates a price pressure and a
consequent reduction in wages. Johny of CH mentioned that a
worker gets Rs 50 for a shirt that is sold for Rs. 1000. Is this
right? What do we mean by fair wages?
Too many questions, too few answers? The sessions saw a lot of healthy
debate.
To this effect CH trains unskilled women to produce and sell high
quality articles like soft toys, garments, textiles and handicrafts.
CH also runs community development initiatives such as credit
and saving schemes, balwadi programs for pre-school children,
sponsorship programs for education of children and crèches.
Fair trade labelling provides them access to markets as well
resources such as pre-financing, an assured fairer price, and
most importantly, reliable partners.
The Kenya story
Fredrick highlighted that one of the biggest challenges for small
producers in Africa is market access. Undugu provides marketing services to producers in Africa through sourcing for favourable market opportunities, building producer capacities and
continuing product research and development based on fair
trade principles.
Is fair trade in India doing enough? And is it doing it right?
Largely exported: Fair trade in India has largely been in the
handicraft sector. With a virtually non-existent domestic market,
all fair trade organisations largely depend on exports. Ram Bhat,
Founder, Options and Solutions Consultant, India, pointed out that
fair trade exports from India comprise only 2.5% of the total (1830
million USD) Indian handicraft export in 2009-10. On a global
scale, fair trade constitutes only 0.1% of the total market. Is that
enough to combat poverty? And to extend the argument, why
should fair trade be limited to handicraft and foods? Why not
have a fair trade offshore service industry for example?
Branding gimmick? Another recent criticism of fair-trade revolves
around the current strategy to promote Fair Trade as a more
‘mainstream’ label. Many companies have started sourcing fair
trade coffee or fair trade garments. But activists accuse firms of
merely paying lip-service - . fair trade to them is not a social
movement or a business ethic, but rather a public relations
opportunity and a profitable niche. One Fairtrade product can
make the whole brand seem socially responsible, even though
the corporation continues to buy a vast majority of its raw-material
from the conventional market. This presents the question of
should fair trade stay a niche market and thus be limited in its
impact, or scale up? Would scaling up inevitably result in “greenwashing” by major multinationals?
Many activists consider fair trade as a movement committed to
operating both “in and against the market,” aiming to use the
market to transform the market. However, one of the most
serious challenges of fair trade initiatives today is to be able to
pursue alternative values and objectives such as social justice
and environmental sustainability without being captured by the
market’s conventional logic, practices and dominant actors.
Many activists consider fair trade as a movement committed to
operating both “in and against the market,” aiming to use the
market to transform the market. However, one of the most
serious challenges of fair trade initiatives today is to be able to
pursue alternative values and objectives such as social justice
and environmental sustainability without being captured by the
market’s conventional logic, practices and dominant actors.
Being in the market, yet not quite of it would inevitably result in
tensions between the conventional and the alternative market
logic. However those tensions may become sources of
valuable innovations for both.
Contacts:
Aditi Seshadri, Mumbai Smiles:
[email protected]
Fair game: Creative Handicrafts trains unskilled women to produce and sell high quality articles.
offbeat | editorial | expert speak
Malkha weavers at Burgula.
Pic: Saravankumar, Ecotone
The looms that can lead India
Are we going the machine way when the more
sustainable, eco-sensitive and highly skilled Indian
hand weave stares us in the face?
How is cotton cloth made? How is the amazing cotton fibre,
lighter than air, converted into fabric that even today is the stuff of
half the fabric in the world? [If bread is the staff of life, cotton is
the stuff of life!]
From its original state of a ‘boll’ on the plant, the cotton is picked
and the seeds removed. The remaining lint – around 30% of the
content of the boll - is freed from trash, aligned and drawn down
in the carder, draw-frame and flyer-frame which make up the
pre-spinning stages; and spun into yarn which is finally woven
into fabric. Each step can be done either by hand or by machine.
Then to now: Indian cotton textiles, the prime industry for millennia, flourished peacefully, employing millions in the various
stages and making huge varieties. Tome Pires, a Portuguese
traveller wrote in 1515 describing ships that came from Gujarat
and the Coromandel coast as “worth eighty to ninety thousand
cruzados, carrying cloth of thirty different sorts”. Exports are
documented from India to the Roman Empire as early as in the
first century BCE, so much that the Roman historian Pliny is said
to have complained that India was draining Rome of her gold and
to Egypt from the 9th century1 . Indian cotton fabrics clothed
“everyone, from the Cape of Good Hope to China, man and
woman…from head to foot” as Pyrard de Laval says in the early
17th century.
1. ‘Fustat textiles’ 2. Cotton yafa
Uzramma
In the West, however, it was the technology of the industrial
revolution in the 19th century that propelled the growth of cotton
textile production. The success of the western cotton textile
industry was based on slave labour in the southern states of the
USA to pick cotton2 and child labour to run the machines3 . When
slavery and child labour became socially unacceptable they were
replaced by abysmally low paid work, and as this too became
socially unacceptable, the cotton textile industry in the West
either closed entirely or needed heavy subsidies.
Cotton textiles in India today: We grow our own cotton and we
also have all the necessary skills & technologies for textile
production. We can supply not only our own vast domestic
market but also many regions and segments of the export
market.
There are 4 ‘sectors’ of the textile industry that are officially
recognized by the State: mill, powerloom, handloom & khadi.
Spinning mills are included in the mill sector and it is taken for
granted that all weaving except Khadi uses yarn that is made in
mills.
Mills: Weaving mills today produce about 4% of the country’s
cloth. The first mills were set up in India in the mid 19th century
to export cotton cloth to England, and thrived during the
American Civil War. They continued production for a hundred
years, but the inherent unviability of mechanical weaving meant
that they could only pay low wages to the mill workers, which led
to strikes and unrest from 1928. In the 60s the advent of
‘powerlooms’4 sounded the death-knell of the mill sector.
3. ibid
4 In this context ‘powerloom’ refers to mechanized looms that are run by informal
agencies that do not follow the labour laws that apply to the mill sector
offbeat | editorial | expert speak
‘Powerloom’: Has taken over about 76% of the textile production
of India. Beginning with discarded machinery from mills, powerlooms now use sophisticated modern weaving machines and
outprice the mills by working around industrial labour laws of the
country, paying abysmally low wages. Most of the textile export
from India consists of the cheapest cotton ‘grey sheeting’ made
on powerlooms. Powerloom and hosiery centres such as
Bhiwandi, Ichalkaranji, and Malegaon in Maharashtra, Sircilla in
Andhra & Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu are notorious for the inhuman
working & living conditions5 of the workers and for industrial
pollution.
Handloom: The artisan weaving cotton textiles on the handloom
has been unfairly relegated to a peripheral status in the textile
industry. Not only does handloom still employ the largest number
of people in the country after agriculture, it still makes 12-13%6 of
India’s textiles and has tremendous potential in the future as a
low-energy, ecological way of making a vast array of textiles for
wear and household use. That there is a substantial market
demand for handloom cloth is proved by the fact that most
powerloom cotton fabric in the country is sold unlawfully as
handloom.
Khadi: Weighed down by the Khadi & Village Industries Commission, Khadi has drifted far from the local self-sufficiency of
Gandhi’s vision. Cotton lint is transported to 5 or 6 central sliver
plants which process it through high energy machines and
distribute the sliver to all the sansthas in the country. Khadi today
produces only 0.1% of our textile output.
Escaping the technology trap: The textile machinery in use today
is derived from the failed technology of the West. How do these
processes fare in an ecological, energy and social audit? Does
the higher productivity per unit of powerloom justify the starvation
wages of workers, pollution of the environment and high energy
cost?
We need to find a new direction for Indian textile technology that
would buttress our valuable large scale hand-weaving skills as
the basis of a cotton cloth industry relevant to today’s circumstances, with the least environmental, energy and social costs.
Doing this would possibly regain for the country the prime
position it held for millennia, and one which is lost – India’s textile
exports today account for just 3% of world textile trade.
Hand picking cotton.
Pic: Saravanakumar, Ecotone
The future: Ecology and energy are increasingly becoming a
cause for concern as the world faces global warming and ‘peak
oil’. As public opinion begins to focus on these issues, ecological
production processes are rapidly gaining in value. Viability is
increasingly assessed not just in monetary terms but also in
energy, ecological and social terms. Artisanal cloth making gets
high ratings here.
India is uniquely placed in this changing world in having a
substantial professional artisan textile production sector making
ordinary cloth for everyday use, whereas in other countries the
handloom has become a toy for the hobbyist.
Bureaucracy and the political class have long been bogged
down in thinking of artisanal textile production as a relic of the
past, an antithesis of their idea of ‘modernity’ and therefore
something to be discarded. On the contrary policy making should
be based on a rational prediction of the future, a post-industrial
age in which a dispersed, entirely indigenous, low-energy,
ecologically sustainable textile industry catering to both the
domestic and export markets will be worth its weight in gold.
In my opinion the State makes a grave mistake in devaluing the
low-energy textile process of the hand-weaving industry. The
hand-weaving industry provides social stability by anchoring
millions of family livelihoods to rural areas. It produces good cloth
by working on renewable human energy. Rather than doling out
huge subsidies to distribute the electricity consumed by powerloom, the State should bolster the physical energy of the weaver
family by assuring them of decent livelihoods - through a ready
supply of raw material, and access to finance & markets. Linked
to new post-industrial technologies, handweaving could usher in
a contemporary textile revolution.
Futsat textile.
Uzramma, founder of non-profit research centre Dastkar Andhra,
has been associated with the cotton textile industry of India since
1989. In 2005 Uzramma founded the Decentralized Cotton Yarn
Trust with small-scale units to process cotton to yarn at field
locations. She has been a member of policy groups for the handloom industry constituted by the Planning Commission and the
PMO, and has participated in seminars, given lectures & published
articles on cotton handloom weaving and natural dyeing.
Uzramma is committed to the cause of promoting the artisanal
mode of production as a mainstream economic activity.
5. “The manner in which textile workers spend their non-working hours can be seen from the fact three-quarters of them live in accommodation of less than 49 square feet; a quarter even has to make do with nine
square feet” Jan Breman (Working and Living Conditions 1984:84) 6. The remaining % of textile production in India is wool
offbeat | editorial | Guest Column
Can tourism help craft?
Gouthami
Pictures courtesy TAI
Legerdemain! It is fascinating to just watch what the skilled hand is capable of.
Each time I travel on holiday, I spend happy hours looking
for gifts for my family and friends. I search odd shops for
gifts that give a flavour of the place I am visiting. It is easy
enough to pick up the ubiquitous t-shirt that has the name
of the place printed on it or a spoon or a ceramic mug.
However, I usually look for something that will get people
talking – where is this from; how is it made; tell us more
about the trip; how do we go there – and when that
happens, I know I have been successful. That something is
usually handmade – cloth or craft – very unique to that area
– block prints from Ajrakhpur, lehariya from Udaipur,
woven mats from Pattamadai, towels from Guwahati, a
lacquered mini-houseboat from Srinagar; the list is endless
in India. And I am always curious – I pester the salesperson with questions about how it is made, raw materials,
processes, what are the problems, etc.
This thinking is what led the Ministry of Tourism and UNDP
to set up their Endogenous or Rural Tourism Project in
2004. They identified 36 craft villages across India and
facilitated the setting up of Rural Tourism Ventures. In each
village a Village Tourism Development Committee was
formed with representation from the Panchayat, craftspersons, interested individuals, etc. They then set up the
accommodation in either homestays or guest houses. They
were trained in managing guests, ensuring the environmental sustainability of the venture and managing the
venture. While the project ended in 2008, the communities
in at least six of these villages have continued to host
guests for a unique experience.
Travel Another India was born in one such craft village –
Hodka in Kutch. When we drew the craft map of Kutch, it
was so crowded that we had to make the map bigger! And
Hodka has its fair share – embroidery, leather work, mud
work, thatch making, weaving… and within a two-hour
radius you have the rare rogan work, lacquer work, pottery,
bandhini, silver work, etc.
While exhibitions, melas and haats do bring the craftspersons to the big cities, there is something about meeting
them on home ground that is special. One guest from Delhi
travelled with her family to Ajrakhpur (1 ½ hours out of
Delhi) to see how block printing was done. They chanced
upon Dr Ismailbhai Khatri, National Award winner in an
expansive mood. Once he realised that they had not come
to him to just buy his work, but to understand it, he took
them all around his work area and explained in great detail
each aspect of ajrakh or block print. They spent over two
hours there; the experience is best explained in the guest’s
words.
What can I offer you? Local crafts, like this store in Ladakh, get a fillip by being on a tour circuit.
offbeat | editorial | Guest Column
“I am now privileged to be wearing a sari printed by a
National Award winner. It is like meeting a Nobel Prize
winner – it is a great honour for us. And to find him to be
such a simple person even though he is obviously creative
and recognised was quite inspiring. I am sure that he has
come to the Dastakari Haat in Delhi – but there I would
have probably bargained with him over the price of the sari
without understanding why it is so valuable.”
Of course, if craftsmen are besieged by tourists, they are
not going to be so expansive each time. However, the
process can be structured so that the pressure is off while
retaining the thrill of the interaction. While not every
craftsperson is a national award winner, they all have a
special skill which is recognised less and less as time goes
by. Meeting with tourists also revives the pride in their work
and is a boost to their morale and confidence.
Tourism is not all rosy – it does have its fair share of
problems. There is a tendency to value everything in
money terms. While this means that revenues flow into
these villages, it also means that both guests and hosts
think that everything is for sale and all interactions can be
monetised. This could lead to a loss of quality in craft since
the craftpersons feel that they can sell greater volumes by
compromising on the time spent on their craft and hence
the quality. This could well lead to a loss of pride in their
work and the next generation discouraged from taking it
up. We have seen this repeatedly across the country –
especially in Rajasthan and Gujarat. For example embroidered pieces that were part of the dowry have been sold
off simply because a tourist has offered sufficient money.
The women have realised that visitors know very little about
quality and are quickly mass producing low quality pieces.
The women however have already realised that pride and
enjoyment in their work has significantly come down.
We have found that a process of dialogue where we
explain to the hosts that these guests are coming all the
way to see them – meaning that there is something special
and unique in the community - helps. While change is
inevitable, its pace needs to be decided internally rather
than pushed from outside.
Overall, tourism has a lot of potential to encourage craft
and boost the morale of the craftspersons. However, it
needs to be kept responsible – so that potential negative
aspects are anticipated and planned for.
Next time you travel, look beyond the routine and encourage the wide range of crafts that this country offers. You
will find yourself the centre of every conversation!
Gouthami (goes by one name) heads
Travel Another India, a responsible tourism company. She has over 18 years of work experience
with international and national development agencies such as ActionAid, Concern Worldwide,
Christian Aid, and Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan
(KMVS). At KMVS, she was part of the team that
set up the Shaam-e-Sarhad Rural Resort in Hodka
village, Kutch (www.hodka.in).
She was a consultant with the UNDP for their
Endogenous Tourism Project, implemented with
the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Government
of India (www.exploreruralindia.org), which
provided management support to projects in
Kerala and Karnataka.
[email protected]
www.travelanotherindia.com
This is how it is done! A craft workshop at Hodka.
Hodka village is built to showcase the diversity, craft
and culture of the Kutch region.
offbeat |editorial| On the Megaphone
‘It is ridiculous to
even say that
handloom is dying’
Mayank Mansingh Kaul
(as told to Aarti Mohan and Vani Sreekanta)
Mayank passionately debunks a lot of myths
about the state of the “handmade industry” in
India today.
Go to any village today. They wear cheap sarees: costing `200,
300, highly mechanised, made with toxic chemicals, and are
being transported from god knows where; local people are
choosing that because of a certain price advantage.
Tomorrow it is possible to provide handloom. We are not going
back in time if we propose it as fabric for the local markets. A
maid in Amedabad will wear printed synthetic sarees, but with
Bandhini dots. If you go south you’ll see powerloom sarees which
are cheaper but it’s still Pochampally. So somewhere our country,
this mass market, still has that aesthetic which is very Indian and
cultural. Otherwise you’d see these printed sarees with Picasso
designs or art deco prints.
Man being replaced by machine?
We’ve not giving handloom a chance. Look at Khadi policy, it is
absolutely defunct. For instance, the Khadi and village industries
commission has very ironically placed ‘technological development’ as its main aim. It’s ridiculous! While the intrinsic brand
value of a product is that it is handspun, at a policy level you are
favouring its technological development. The mandate has
completely shifted to simply providing employment at a village
level. No matter how! You can’t put Khadi which is sold by
‘appointment only’ in Paris, along with a transistor repair shop in
India. You can’t.
Is handloom dying?
Absolutely not. The handloom sector in Kutch, for example, is
very successful. They produce enough for themselves, their
families, the region and for export. They are not complaining
about loss of skill or prices. We have to see every region for what
it is providing. It is a disservice for handloom to start seeing it as
one industry, as one monolith. We have a form of manufacture
which is different from district to district. It is a layered issue.
Look at issues intrinsic to a cluster.
Why should these people move to the cities and
become unskilled manual labourers to build malls?
The problem is with this perception that faster technologies are
better. Let mechanised technology do what it is best suited for.
Why does it have to replace handloom? It is doing disservice by
imitating benarasi designs. It can do fabulous stuff, you have geo
textiles. You have architecture created out of mechanisation.
Look at technology instead as a relevant mode of production for
each culture. Handloom in India, even now, provides the second
largest source of livelihood in India, next to agriculture. There is
willingness among craftspeople to remain in their crafts if
provided a certain opportunity and economic viability.
Secondly, if you go to Uttaranchal, Uttarakand or many parts of
the country today, handloom has provided new livelihoods.
People have come into this space for employment. Why should
these people move to the cities and become unskilled manual
labourers to build malls? It’s a cultural question. You need to talk
about the nature of technology, what it does to human beings.
60% of Indian women today still get their own clothes made –
from buying their own fabric to going to their neighbourhood
tailor. It amounts to independent assertion in visual culture and
identity which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. When a
culture informs a nation’s story, it needs to also inform technology
that can be relevant.
offbeat |editorial| On the Megaphone
Is handloom relevant to today’s fashion sense?
It is a clear business case. There is tremendous appreciation for
the story. Countries and cultures that have lost handmade
products revere it immensely, and you can command prices
internationally that you can’t do in India. We are not just creating
fiction out of this handmade story. A product that is differentiated
should be able to give far more prices than mechanized fabric. I
think it is ridiculous to pose the question of whether it is relevant
or not.
And ensuring quality?
Let us not confuse quality with standardisation. How can one
have standardised quality when different weavers are making it?
How can every piece look the same? That’s the beauty of handloom. Finishing is quality, colour fastness is a quality. Standard is
not a value of hand technology.
But if you see, the entire luxury market has moved away from
creating standard products, to create something unique every
time. Business expresses concerns about wholesale availability.
Make that your marketing punchline, I’d say. ‘What you get today,
you may not get tomorrow’.
It’s a fascinating opportunity and we can rise to it if we are able
to understand that we can’t survive the quality as mechanised
fabrics can. And people get it. Louis Vuitton tied up with Bono
and his wife, for a brand called Eden where they source from
small producer groups, craft groups and self help groups from
around the world.
Is handloom viable in the domestic Indian market?
The domestic market has huge potential. The handloom sector
today does not make its own yarn – it sources from mills. To kill
handloom, mills would rather just burn yarn up, or consume it
within. The first problem to address is yarn, which is what Malkha
is doing for example – creating its own. It is made in a vertically
integrated, decentralised unit; everything is done in the village.
You are cutting down fuel, transport, retail, branding – all other
associated costs and giving the benefit to the weaver. Malkha
has shown that it can compete with mill made fabric.
Then why aren’t we seeing more of it?
Apart from FabIndia, there is no other major retail chain that sells
handloom. And even FabIndia has gone the powerloom way to
an extent. Business has to see the retail opportunity.
Take a brand like Anokhi. They have a craftmark, but the only
thing handmade is the block print, textile is mill made. The
problem is even with private players. Why can’t we do what
Sweden has done with IKEA or what Japan has done with Muji.
The intrinsic nature of handloom is that it is done in villages. The
businessman in Nariman Point or NCR has to go to the weavers.
The only attractive business to go out of India is handloom and
textiles. It isn’t unattractive because there is no remuneration or
business opportunity, it is unattractive because it takes effort.
Nowhere in the country has an organised effort to go work with
artisans in villages failed. Business needs to put its ear to the
ground, instead of superimposing paradigms.
Do consumers value handmade stuff?
Go to a Dastkar Bazaar in Delhi. You will see wives of clerks from
North Delhi as much as those in Mercs. People pick up
keychains, notebooks, little things - products that have become
unimaginative – craft gives them that extra. If you have those
wooden spoons in front you, you will start finding plastic spoons
not giving.
Imagine if such bazaars existed in every city, why will people not
buy? These are the things that you have grown up with. I am
amazed at the Indian wooden toys I am suddenly finding. You
need to bring these into an everyday lifestyle and take it forward.
We have lost a generation, I didn’t grow up with native toys, but
we cannot afford to lose another.
Kaul, Mayank Mansingh studied textile design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. His interest in Khadi and the
future of hand-technologies led him to a stint with the Planning Commission on the taskforce looking into Cultural and Creative
Industries. Determined to put his hand where his mouth is, he runs a successful business that makes handloom based
fashion and home products for urban Indian and European markets.
offbeat |editorial |postscript
Patra Famile: The Patra family weaves at their home
A tryst with Baliapal
As I unwind myself, in an effort to write about a journey to the
quaint adivasi village called Baliapal in the interiors of North
Orissa, I find myself on the bumpy road of medium, trying to ferry
meanings from one language to another, from one reality to
another - a process that denaturalizes and blends them.
It is a struggle to communicate this story – of the mixing of two
cultures; bewildering because I am trying to be a person of the
two worlds, trying to be at home in both of them.
Nowadays it is fashionable to talk of preserving tribal people,
their views, and their ways. But when we talk of preserving
another culture, haven’t we already turned it into an endangered
species? Shouldn’t it be but an effort to bring about some kind of
balance between the two worlds – a sort of coexistence?
It all began during one of my countless visits to Dilli Haat, a
Mecca for all those dabbling in crafts. While the whole market
place bustled with eager shoppers exchanging notes with even
more eager sellers, in a corner, in a dimly lit kiosk, two pairs of
blank eyes looked around, as if they gazed into nothing. I could
hear their silence loud and clear in spite of the pandemonium
around. There was a deep question, a drowning fear and an
uncomfortable silence in their gaze and it hypnotized me. Aarti
and Subal Patra, who hail from Baliapal in the interiors of North
Orissa, were trying hard and desperately to help realise their
dreams through their NGO, RAHAA. The Patras weaved bags
out of Sabai grass, a traditional craft skill which has become an
essential practice in North Orissa and some parts of West
Bengal.
Pooja Ratnakar
Pics: Pooja Ratnakar
The next thing I know, I am at Howrah railway station in Kolkata,
with my sister, Payal Nath, waiting anxiously to board the Puri
Express. We kick off our five hour long journey, not realizing this
would be the beginning of a life long journey. The train rolls up at
Basta station’s so-called platform. The halt is actually a 30
second slowing down, just enough to muster courage and jump
off the train with our belongings. From Basta, Baliapal village is
18 kms, an hour’s drive on a bumpy and dusty road. As we try to
balance in a quaint Ambassador, almost as if sitting atop an
elephant blaring Oriya music out of its trumpet, we pass through
villages dotted with lotus filled ponds, called pukhris. The entire
landscape is painted in multiple hues of just two colours – blue
and green.
After an hour of snaking between thatched huts, the car rolls up
in front of a shack, a recently opened telephone booth proudly
owned by “Dhruba”, our only connection to the outside world.
We get off the car and walk through a path where even the dust
smells of fish; and reach Patra’s house which when required
converts into the RAHAA office. It is a 3-room thatched structure
with mud floors and mud walls, and on a normal day accommodates eight members of Patra’s family, plus three cats, one dog,
two goats and a cow. I imagine myself shrinking in size when I
visualize this shack becoming the work place for twenty women
with their infants during the days of work ahead. Payal and I
spend the evening acclimatizing ourselves with the equally
decrepit Dak Bungalow that would house us.
offbeat |editorial |postscript
“As far as they are concerned, the bags are the
same size – “Gutte Haath”!!”
Our first day of work, and we are very ceremoniously driven to
RAHAA’s office in a thela. Aarti, popularly known as “Bo” by the
villagers, which means mother in Oriya, has gathered about thirty
women. We need to judge their skill, so we ask Aarti, the only
woman who manages to converse in broken Hindi. Each member
is handed sabaii grass to weave a bag. Aarti very diligently
measures the sample bag that needs to be copied and
announces in Oriya, “Gutte Haath” – arm’s length. And lo!
Everyone gets down to weaving the bag. By the end of the
second day, thirty bags are presented to us by gleaming and
proud faces. Much to our surprise, all bags are of different sizes,
ranging from 6 to 10 inches! The group has girls from the age of
twelve to fifty year old women, and so, the arm lengths are
different too. But as far as they are concerned, the bags are the
same size – “Gutte Haath”!!
First lesson therefore is to introduce them to a standard unit of
measurement, and give them tape measures and scales!!
The next day we visit two nearby villages, Ujjadda and Shirodia.
To welcome us, Patra has organised two chairs. The girls in the
village thought us “insane” to be taking the risk of sitting on the
chair. They fail to understand the logic of hanging so uncomfortably in the air and not coming down to earth.
Baliapal dyeing
Every time the truck loaded with cartons leaves
Baliapal, the villagers bid a misty eyed farewell.
Fourth day, and it’s hot and sunny. Payal sips from a bottle of
Coke that we have carried all the way from Kolkata. The girls are
mighty surprised. Two of them reach out to the glass of coke,
highly amused, not knowing what to do next and slowly bring
their ears close to the glass. The sound of tiny bubbles exploding
in a sparkling shower brings an animated look of surprise to their
innocent faces. Never thought that the sound of Coke could be
more fascinating than the taste of it. The others join them too, to
listen to the music of the Coke…
The whole night while Payal and I lay on our creaking beds in the
Dak Bungalow, talking without any words, hearing without any
sounds, we knew this was not just one of our many adventure
trips. This was the beginning of a journey which would never end.
Thus began our tryst with Baliapal.
It has been eight years since then, and Patra’s organisation
which now boasts of about 270 women, including Muslim
women, backed by their men folk, has successfully sent out
export shipments conforming to all the stringent quality standards of foreign buyers. Every time the truck loaded with cartons
leaves Baliapal, the villagers bid a misty eyed farewell, as if
sending their own child to a world unknown.
And there’s been no looking back. We are now working with
women in Kharagpur district, West Bengal, amidst the threat
of Naxalites. Our organisation Kadam helps the women of
Kharagpur district secure a safe life for their families despite
the dangers and threats to their lives while living in their own
villages.
Contact details:
www.kadamindia.org
Artisans at work: Pooja with the Baliapal weavers.
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