Patiala embroidery units' artisans an exploited lot

Patiala, the princely city of Punjab, has thousands of families who have been engaged in hand embroidery for generations. A business that extends employment to over 2 lakh persons (including traders, artisans, wholesalers and retailers) and registers transactions of over Rs 100 crore per year, has been flourishing on its own, without state government intervention.However, due to the lack of concerted effort from any agency, the business has remained highly unorganised, leading to the exploitation of labour.

There are over 300 wholesale and retail shops selling handicrafts (intricately embroidered dress materials, dupattas and furnishings) at two locations, Adalat Bazar and Tripadi in Patiala. On an average, a shopkeeper does business of about Rs 40 lakh per annum.

The traders make hay in the winter, when non-resident Indian visitors buy in bulk without conducting any price negotiations. This segment of buyers has also brought some professionalism into the business— the quality of fabric, threads and finish has improved due to the quality consciousness of overseas buyers.

Of late, some local non-government organisations (NGOs) have made efforts to organise the artisans to uplift the financial situation of artisans and improve their skill sets.

Rekha Mann, the convener of the Patiala Handicraft Workshop Cooperative Industrial Society, said the society had trained about 6,000 women artisans in phulkari embroidery in and around Patiala since 2001. She added that Patiala was one of the biggest handicraft clusters in India, but the state government has always been lukewarm to various proposals submitted by the society, which was registered in 1995.Traders from across India travel to Patiala to hand-pick colourful geometric embroidery work, for which the artisans are paid a pittance.

Bankers in Patiala said that efforts to organize the artisans into self-help groups (SHGs) has not picked up in the city because of the vested interests of traders.

The credit linkage of some of the SHGs has been achieved by the Bosco Institute of Rural Development at village Kauli in district Patiala. According to the Administrator of the institute, Fr. Johnson Nedumpurath, out of the 250 SHGs monitored by the institute, 220 were credit-linked.

The lack of assertiveness and awareness among women artisans (hand-embroidery is done exclusively by women) is also one of the reasons for the unorganised structure of the business.