Even as India worries about the falling rupee, another wealth is fast disappearing for want of attention - the country's craftsmen and artisans who hold the key to traditional pottery, embroidery, weaving, carpet making, etc.
Dasra, an organisation that helps philanthropists identify worthy causes to fund, has mapped 260 non-profit organisations working exclusively for the promotion of art and crafts. In its report 'Crafting a livelihood', Dasra pointed to organisations that didn't treat craftsmen as mere providers, but as shareholders and owners of the produce. The report says traditional crafts have been marginalised by mass-produced consumer goods that tend to be cheaper due to the scale associated with mechanisation.
The challenges faced by artisans reduce their ability to compete with machine-made products. The report lists low productivity, unorganised production, low education, outdated production methods, poor raw material, lack of funding & design inputs and fragmentation in the value chain as the primary challenges faced by artisans. It also blames middlemen, lack of market linkages and aggregation and neglect by state and central governments for the dismal state of craftsmen.
The report lauds private sector initiatives in the sector, citing famous fashion designers such as Ritu Kumar, Tarun Tahiliani and Manish Malhotra. It also points to Anita Dongre, who has created Grassroots, a distinct crafts-based collection that aims to market clothing that promotes the skills and knowledge of traditional craftsmen.
Among mainstream retail companies, it cites FabIndia, Anokhi and Contemporary Arts and Crafts which, it says, have developed socially conscious models that make artisans stakeholders in the business. It adds stores such as Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle have expanded their selections of hand-made products and ethnic wear.
But the strongest supporters of the crafts industry are non-profit organisations, which either organise producers into groups such as URMUL, Kala Raksha and SEWA, or provide services such as design interventions and market linkages to producer groups such as Dastkar, AIACA, Dastakari Haat Samiti and Sasha.
But much more is needed. This is because most non-profit organisations have focused on the entire value chain due to the lack of specialised players for different areas. This has resulted in limited capacity to scale operations, the Dasra report says. And, the impact of the work of these organisations has been limited because they work in isolation.
Dasra said these organisations were primarily concentrated in the Delhi National Capital Region, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha. While some of these reached out to up to 1,000 artisans, some catered to 3,500 and others up to 45,000. Dasra says the second category is best positioned to scale up and, therefore, the report focuses on these entities as probable beneficiaries of philanthropic efforts.
Kutch-based Kala Raksha, one of the non-profit organisations in the category that reaches out to about 3,500 artisans, has a budget of Rs 1.3 crore. It has a design school for artisans and a production centre where artisans come once a week to gather raw material and deposit products. A committee, comprising graduates, creates new designs. Pricing committees meet regularly and decide on payments for products.
The Dasra report documents many such efforts, a silver lining in an otherwise gloomy environment in the sector.
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