{"id":2263,"date":"2020-08-17T19:33:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T19:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/17\/govt-needs-to-replace-handicrafts-board-with-a-smarter-body-say-artisans-and-industry-insiders\/"},"modified":"2020-08-17T19:33:31","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T19:33:31","slug":"govt-needs-to-replace-handicrafts-board-with-a-smarter-body-say-artisans-and-industry-insiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/17\/govt-needs-to-replace-handicrafts-board-with-a-smarter-body-say-artisans-and-industry-insiders\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt needs to replace handicrafts board with a smarter body, say artisans and industry insiders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Govt needs to replace handicrafts board with a smarter body, say artisans and industry insiders<\/a><\/p>\n

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New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) The All India Handicrafts Board, set up in 1952, has been abolished but the need is to quickly replace it with a more dynamic and effective body that represents the artisan community and shows it the way forward, say industry insiders and craftspersons.<\/p>\n

The decision to scrap the handicrafts board, which had its last meeting in 2016, caps the slow decay of the institution set up five years after Independence with a mandate to preserve the country”s rich craft heritage.\n<\/p>\n

The advisory board, instituted by cultural activist Pupul Jayakar, was practically non-functional for most part of the last decade, a major reason why many seem to agree it needed to be disbanded.\n<\/p>\n

It was scrapped on August 3 by the Ministry of Textiles, which stated that the decision was in \u201cconsonance with the government of India vision of \u2018minimum government and maximum governance\u2019, a leaner government machinery and the need for systematic rationalisation of government bodies\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

Hyderabad-based designer Bina K Rao, who was a member of the handicrafts board, expressed the hope that \u201csomething smarter\u201d would come up in its place.\n<\/p>\n

The last meeting, she said, was held in 2016 and the situation wasn\u2019t much better even before that.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the meetings would happen once a year, or once in two years\u2026 The board should have been reconstituted in 2017 after the completion of the two-year term, but we never received any intimation,\u201d Rao told PTI over phone.\n<\/p>\n

With all its flaws, the body provided \u201ca window\u201d for grassroots artisans and that has closed now so something must replace it, he said. The issues discussed when the board met ranged from subsidies on silk yarns to lack of enough marketing of handicrafts products.\n<\/p>\n

Rao was one of the 88 non-official members (small and medium scale artisans as well as handicrafts enterprises) on the board, which also comprised eight institutional members, including the director general of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and chairperson of the Carpet Export Promotion Council.\n<\/p>\n

Chaired by the Textiles minister, it also comprised 16 official members, including the development commissioner (Handicrafts), secretary, Micro Small & Medium Enterprises and senior director of the National Handicrafts & Handlooms Museum.\n<\/p>\n

Srinivas Pitchuka, a second generation manufacturer and exporter of \u2018kalamkari\u2019 and other block printed textiles in Pedana village of Andhra Pradesh, is hoping that any new body will have more representation from his community.\n<\/p>\n

The All India Handicrafts Board was inconsequential, he said.\n<\/p>\n

In the two years that he was a member (2013-15), no meetings were held and the problems of the artisan community in the area remained unaddressed.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI manufacture \u2018kalamkari\u2019 textiles and we use organic colours for dyeing and block printing, but there are people who use artificial colours and sell unauthentic products. This was an issue that I would have wanted to bring to the government\u2019s notice.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBesides my business, our region is also quite well known for making \u2018veenas\u2019 (musical instrument). Sourcing wood for it is very difficult, but there is no one to help us out with these problems,\u201d Pitchuka told PTI.\n<\/p>\n

Pitchuka believes the lack of \u201creal artisans\u201d on the board was the real problem.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHow could these \u2018netas\u2019 understand the true value of art? Such bodies need to have real artisans who will understand the problems of the community in order to make a difference,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

The second largest livelihood sector in India, the textile handicrafts sector alone employs 68 lakh artisans. The handicrafts industry brought in Rs.36,798.20 crore through exports, according to the Ministry of Textiles\u2019 annual report for 2018-19. The revenue also includes sales of carpets.\n<\/p>\n

About 60 per cent of the handicrafts products produced in the country are exported.\n<\/p>\n

Jaya Jaitly, handicrafts curator and founder of the Dastkari Haat Samiti (an NGO working with artisans to uphold craft traditions) said the board had been made gradually useless since the 1990s and is glad it has been abolished.\n<\/p>\n

“No point renovating a dead object. It is best to be rid of it and create something new, effective, dynamic in tune with an \u2018aatmanirbhar\u2019 Bharat on a clean slate, with inputs from truly experienced and knowledgeable persons rather than use it for the patronage of favourites,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

A senior official said an alternative to the board is yet to be announced but the government has taken the first step by strengthening Weaver Service Centres across the country in collaboration with NIFT.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the help of NIFT, these centres will undergo facelifts and redesigning\u2026a design component will be created in these centres. The first phase has already started in eight to nine centres, and eventually all 28 WSCs will be taken up,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Besides the All India Handicrafts Board, the government last month also disbanded the Handloom, Powerloom as well as the Cotton Advisory Board.\n<\/p>\n

The official cited \u201cdecreasing relevance\u201d as the reason behind the move.\n<\/p>\n

The handicrafts board, he added was established a really long time ago and used to meet once a year. \u201cBut because the department anyway has advisory bodies at several levels, the board\u2019s relevance kept decreasing\u2026 The idea is to let professional bodies function professionally so the government has a minimum role.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The handicrafts board was not the only space where artisans could voice their concerns.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have field offices at regional levels. Local artisans keep having interactions at those forums. We have 66 field offices all over India. There are also all the handicrafts corporations which have their own associations. Similarly, handloom corporations have their own associations, which are supported by the government in some way,\u201d the official said. PTI TRS
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\t\tDisclaimer :-<\/b> This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: PTI<\/p>\n

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Published at Mon, 17 Aug 2020 12:00:00 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Govt needs to replace handicrafts board with a smarter body, say artisans and industry insiders…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion-lifestyle-luxury"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/NatFBb.gif?fit=630%2C421&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3orZX-Av","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}