As PM Modi is interested in making India great & is championing ‘Make in India’ slogan, he should perhaps give more incentives to Indian village industries
Under Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher in the 1970s, there was a great drive to “Buy British”. Billboards exhorted consumers to patronise British products. Mrs. Thatcher had succeeded in breaking the backbone of the trade unions and the result was huge unemployment and recession. Workers needed jobs in factories making products for which there was demand. The Brits have always loved imported stuff just like us Indians! India is facing similar unemployment problem among the youth but thankfully, there is no recession yet. The demand is growing, but often stagnant for many types of products. However, for foreign goods, there is always high demand -- especially among the rich and the famous.
Jobs are a problem -- as everyone knows. In India today, many young people leave their rural homes to earn a living in big cities, but end up becoming daily wage labourers. Many are from very skilled weaver, potter, leather working castes. But the lure of the urban draws them towards towns and cities. Some years ago, I met very skilled Baluchari sari weavers in Vishnupur who had become potato sellers in nearby Singur or Kolkata out of necessity. The demand for Baluchari saris with their intricate woven patterns in silk were expensive to boot – and hence the demand was stagnant. There was little work for half the month for the weavers.
India should be proud of its millions of handicraft workers who are fast disappearing. We could become like the US where handcrafted products are only available in museum like stores costing a fortune. The machine age and now the digital age with its 3D printing (which frankly I do not understand) has eliminated the human touch from products.
In fact, many products are manufactured in India that are ‘untouched by hand’. We with more than a billion pair of hands should avoid making anything that is untouched by human hands. Why should we not advertise instead “Made entirely by human hands” or “Handmade in India”.
With better consciousness about the ecological damage caused by Chinese factories to their own water and soil, China would be more than willing to buy handmade goods from India. True artisanal products have many imperfections but each item is unique according to the skills of the artisans. Our efforts should go towards teaching people to make zero or low defect products.
It will be difficult to direct FDI to handmade product industries because there are no big bucks in them but somehow a few foreign investors are going to such industries. All handicrafts and handloom industries are labour intensive and absorb many people. Some are immensely profitable over time like handmade paper and products industries.
Next would come demand. Most of these handcrafted industries though they have low raw material costs and are mostly nature based are facing a sharp decline in demand. Women’s magazines TV and newspapers are full of ads about machine made mostly imported slick products for home décor and fashion.
You are not with the Jones if in a dinner party you are serving out of handcrafted Jaipur or Khurja pottery bowls! One may be too ‘ethnic’ if you are seen in handlooms only. Some magazines show models sporting handbags whose prices are ‘not listed’ but are available on request. They run into lakhs! And people are buying them!
India has great leather goods and even years ago while researching on India’s leather exports, I found that leather coats made in India were being exported to Scandinavian countries where they changed the label “Made in India’ to “Made in Norway’. We have to make products that will sell abroad because they are ‘made in India’. The Indian brand should become world famous.
As Prime Minister Modi is interested in making India great and is championing ‘Make in India’ slogan, he should perhaps give more incentives to Indian village industries that use natural local products and are mainly handmade. Instead, he is seeking big investors who will require more land, more minerals and more machines. There will be more land acquisition issues, more people displaced from their land and more capital- intensive production, as foreign investors do not want to deal with labour problems. There will be more jobless growth.
Fortunately some women entrepreneurs and creative thinkers started Seva, Dastakar and craft Bazaars including Dilli Haat. They have revived India’s crafts and given opportunities to women especially poor women to earn money by selling their crafts. What remains is that people in public gaze, should be seen patronizing these handcrafted goods-- especially the glitterati and Bollywood.
We should also be careful of abiding by the label often used by IKEA—‘No child labour has been used’. If we do not eliminate child labour then the export potential of handmade carpets and dhurries specially will be lost.
Most importantly, the conditions of work of artisans ought to be greatly improved. India’s famed jewellery and gems exports carry many tales of woe. I have seen the semiprecious stone cutters and polishers work in dismal and dangerous conditions in Gujarat. The stone-cutters’ wages are very low and even though skilled in their art, they live in poverty. We shall lose all these skills if their working conditions and wages do not improve. Once lost, these skills will not be reborn.
Handicrafts and handloom textiles are very important export earners and with a boost from the domestic market, the millions of workers will find it lucrative to practice their crafts again. India exported Rs. 21,457.91 crore of handicrafts in 2015-16 and Rs 151.83 crore of handlooms in 2014-15. The demonetisation has affected the sector adversely as it is cash based.
The government has a role to play by giving information to artisans’ groups where to sell and organise trade fairs abroad and at home. Artisans when interviewed always complain about red tape and bureaucratic corruption. They also need an idea about the demand at home and abroad. Private sector entrepreneurs have pitched in a big way to introduce innovative designs using our own nature based materials. They have found niche markets abroad for products ranging from high fashion items to things more common and have been very successful. Often instead of encouraging them further, the government agencies create obstacles for them to function smoothly. This discouragement/disincentive has to be curbed. Mr. Modi’s ‘Make in India’ drive could cover all exporters as well of handcrafted products. The symbolic lion ought to have handlooms and handcrafting tools inside its body and not just gears and machine parts.
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David Rusnok Researcher Strengthening National Climate Policy Implementation (SNAPFI) project DIW Germany
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