Art and crafts is an unspoken description of a
society. Jammu and Kashmir exported handicraft
items worth more than 500 crores in 2009-10,
worth over 705.50 crores in 2008-09, and worth
1200 crores in 2007-08. The quality of our craft
and its huge market outside makes this business
luctrative. People have earned huge amounts of
money through exports to various states in and
outside India.
But there’s a flipside. On one hand big guns in the
handicrafts business have earned huge money. But
that talented artisan, who actually makes these
master craft pieces, is nowhere in the picture. He
earns Rs 80 a day. He is debt ridden and he can
hardly make his both ends meet. Due to this reason
many such talented artisans have left their jobs
and switched to occupations like driving and
salesmanship. There’s a huge difference between
what the exporters earn and what the artisans
earn.
Sanoor, Kalipora village is situated in the outskirts
of Srinagar near Magam. The art known as Crewel
is produced in this village. Crewel is a kind of
embroidery made with a pointed hook which is used
for drapery and upholstery. Beautiful effects are
made with the hook. Crewel usually carries flowing
floral and creeper designs. The various materials
used includes Hand-woven Cotton Dosooti Fabric,
Cotton Duck, Linen, Jute etc. Crewel embroidery
material is quite popular in export market as it
produces the aesthetic expression that lovers of
beauty all over the world adore.
Most of the people who live in this village are
artisans and produce crewel. “We've been doing this
work since our childhood. My father and all my
uncles still do the same work," says Farooq Ahmad
Mir, a local artisan. This art has witnessed a major
transition over the last couple of decades. Less
earning potential, advent of modern technologies
and high living standards has led to a decline in
this art. Many artisans have left this job and
switched to other jobs. "I used to work hard and
produce excellent crewel pieces but I earned a very
meager amount out of it,” says Rouf Ahmad Mir, a
young local artisan. “I changed my job and now I
work with a Road Construction Contractor,” he
says.
There's a huge difference in the profit that these
local artisans earn and what the exporters and
suppliers-to-exporters earn. The artisan who
actually makes these masterpieces is unaware of
this huge gap. "We are given an amount of Rs
400-600 for the work that takes 7 to 10 days to
complete," says Jehangir Ahmad, a young artisan.
This piece is, in turn, is sold for more than Rs 1500
by the contractor.
"The biggest reason behind this huge gap is that
the local artisan doesn't know his worth; he doesn't
know the value of his art and hence he lags
behind," says Altaf Raja, who heads a local private
school. Raja says the artisans should form a strong
union and stop working until they're given good
wages. Although an Artisans' Union, known as
Anjuman-i-Dastakaar, is in place but it has failed
to protect the interests of local artisans.
"We had gone for a strike last year but that strike
remained only for a day and the next day we saw
our artisans working," says Ishfaaq, a local artisan.
Lack of coordination and resources has resulted in
failure of this union. The poor artisans say they
can't afford to go for long strikes. They don't
have much savings to come to their rescue during
the strike period. They earn and spend. They can't
bear the brunt of not earning for weeks together.
"The day we don't work, we don't earn. If we do
not earn every day, we can't live," says Ali Baba,
another local artisan in the village.
Also, majority of the artisans borrow money from
their first level contractor (wasta) whenever they
face a contingency. For example, they have to
borrow money from wasta needed for a marriage
at home and for the treatment of their family
members. In this painful affair they become
obliged and liable to them. Consequently, they
can't raise their voice against them. "Ours is a
painful story. We're debt-ridden. We borrow money
from wasta whenever we need it,” says Farooq
Ahmad, another local artisan. “Would you expect us
to lock horns with the same person who extended
monetary help to us when we needed it the most?"
he asks.
Various Dastakar Loan schemes launched by the
banks too do not provide these facilities to the
deserving artisans. The cumbersome documentation
and the requirement of heavy collateral is a
problem. The loan goes to the wrong person. "Banks
give loans to the rich people, not us,” quips Ghulam
Hassan Bhat, an experienced local artisan. Many
people who approached the banks to avail of
schemes instead bought vehicles from that money.
The basic objective for which the Priority Sector
Lending was made compulsory for Banks is nowhere
implemented on ground.
The advent of machine-made pieces of crewel has
further worsened the condition of local artisans.
The pieces look like hand-made crewel and are less
expensive. "You need to be an expert to make a
difference between hand-made and machine-made
Crewel. It's just like identifying punctuation errors
in a beautifully written piece that only a qualified
expert can do," says a contractor Ghulam Mohi-ud-
Din Khan. "The government introduced some RFIT
system and employed Emporium personnel to check
machine-made Crewel sale, but corruption has
made them useless", adds Khan.
In a move to take stern measures to stop the sale
of fake Kashmiri shawls, the Jammu and Kashmir
government has decided to use radio Frequency
Identification Tag (RFIT) to protect the state's
handicraft. “World famous Kashmiri shawls will be
tagged through RFIT which will be a great step
forward to protect Kashmiri handicrafts across the
globe. This will stop sale of fake Kashmiri shawls
and other handicraft items,” says a senior official
of Handicrafts Department. Geographical
Indication (GI) status has been given to Kashmiri
Handicrafts and RFIT technology has been
introduced to check the originality of the crafts.
But both of these measures so far have not come
to the rescue of the poor artisans. What is needed
on ground is a strong and hassle-free credit-
system, strict government regulation over the
wages, and a fool-proof checking system to check
counterfeit crewel.
