India’s ‘Handmade’ goldmine needs strong bridges across communities, industry & policymakers.
In line with the current government’s vision of ‘Minimum Government and Maximum Governance’, The All India Handloom Board and The All India Handicrafts Board were scrapped on July 27, 2020 just a few days before the National Handloom Day on August 7th when India’s artisan communities had been reeling under the COVID-19 pandemic. While we are in favour of a leaner and more effective government, we also believe in new and improved alternatives.
These Handicraft and Handloom Boards (AIHB) were set up about 70 years back to serve as a bridge between India’s informal economy of artisans and weavers and India’s policymakers — a forum where communities who do not have active representation, find a voice. While there have been concerns that forums such as AIHB have been ineffective for a while, they were set up to offer agency to communities within India’s informal economy and guide policy and sectoral investment decisions. Once again, we all in for weeding out the ineffective. But in 2020, when the global supply chains are turning to India to source the sustainable (which artisanal products tend to be), we are keen to know, what will serve as the new and improved alternatives? The new-age bridges that address the needs of the Generation Next across the handmade and allied industries in India?
Lack of intentional data mapping of this “informal” sector means India’s artisan communities have remained under-counted and therefore under-represented for many years. According to the 2013 Report by Dasra, there are close to 200 million people (according to unofficial sources) who depend on craft for livelihood; this includes ancillary industries. However, official figures are nowhere close to this number; it stands at 7 million artisans. Let’s face it, 7 million people of 1.3 billion Indians hardly matter, or do they? Thus, policy decisions like GST and demonetization did not address the needs of this artisanal economy. Atma Nirbhar Bharat that advocates #VocalForLocal completely sidelined the artisan sector during the COVID-19 crisis. Policy matters. For policy to happen, numbers matter and advocacy matters. Good policy decisions cannot come into being if we as a community cannot make the case for greater investment and support, if we do not document the multitude of successful models that are already working on the ground, if we cannot move beyond our silos and learn from other sectors and disciplines.
Experts have called the artisanal sector “India’s untapped ‘Made in India’ goldmine” one that presents a billion-dollar opportunity. Let’s understand why… The artisanal economy continues to be the second-largest source of jobs in rural India after agriculture. Further, it is estimated that of the total number of people employed in Handlooms, Handicrafts, and Sericulture, about 50% are women. With the world moving towards impact investing, these numbers represent a very serious opportunity for inclusive development. The production of hand-woven fabric from India constitutes 95 per cent of the global production. The export of handloom products from India was valued at US$ 343.69 million in FY19. Handicraft export from India stood at US$ 3.53 billion during 2019–20. All this exists despite the informality, without active policy and investment support. In times when global supply chains are shifting towards the production of sustainable products, India only stands to gain by supporting what is already available, in abundance, in our own backyard. However, the road-map for the future requires vision and intention.
At 200 Million Artisans, we believe, moving forward, India’s strength and strategic potential for inclusive development rests in its creative and cultural capital. In order to tap its potential, we need to move beyond lip-service. We need subsidies for the artisan sector, supportive policies for small to medium enterprises operating in this space, access to inclusive technologies and innovation, and greater incentives for the private sector to play an active role. We also need many more forums, collaborations, and movements that are ground-up, democratic and decentralized. We believe this demands partnerships at every level — between communities, industry and policymakers.
The pandemic has led to many collaborative movements like #CreativeDignity, A Hand For Handmade, 200 Million Artisans, India Handmade Collective that are bringing together artisan-producers, nonprofits, designers, students, educators and others. These communities are now helping each other consolidate resources. Why are we doing this? Because we see the writing on the wall. If we do not build collaborative and supportive ecosystems for the Generation Next in the artisan economy, we stand to lose a wealth of knowledge, indigenous skill-sets and creative potential, a loss that will impact India’s ability to remain competitive in the global creative economy.
By scrapping grassroot bridges to the artisanal sector without proposing effective alternatives, we fear that policy decisions of the future cannot truly represent the needs of India’s young and entrepreneurial Next Billion, most of whom live far away from cushioned comforts of big cities or the hallowed halls of the Parliament.
