Skip to main content

Govt of India handicrafts policy riddled with neglect, loss, anxiety; sector employs 45% of workforce: Dr Chatterjee

By A Representative
Amidst rising demand from civil society advocates for a zero tax regime for handmade products, placed under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), well-known scholar, Dr Ashoke Chatterjee, has said in a recent paper that the sector, which is the second biggest source of livelihood following agriculture, remains "characterised by a pervasive mood of neglect, loss and anxiety."
The unpublished paper, a copy of which Dr Chatterjee, former director, National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, has forwarded to Counterview, regrets that "artisans have remained invisible in priorities of national planning and investment", despite the wide "acknowledgement" that handcrafts are the nation’s second largest source of livelihood, after agriculture."
Talking about his paper, Dr Chatterjee told me, that indifference towards the sector was visible even during the previous UPA government, "when Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, vice chairman, Planning Commission, addressing an international seminar which I attended, characterized the handicrafts sector as a sunset sector."
Ironically, says Dr Chatterjee in his paper, a UN/World Bank-sponsored gathering in Jodhpur in 2005, identified craft as the largest component of India’s creative and cultural industries -- "an engine of growth and stability, and as perhaps the largest industry in the world, outstripping petroleum, and constituting some 3% of world GDP ($2,250 billion)."
Yet, he regrets, "At home, those who matter appeared not to be listening, even as one official report estimated that these industries were already engaging over 45% of India’s workforce." Even then, he adds, there is "absence of reliable data that could communicate the scale of artisanal contributions to the national economy."
Thus, says Dr Chatterjee, "Official estimates of over 11 million artisans (over 4.3 million weavers/workers in the handloom sector and almost 7 million other craftspersons) have remained largely unchanged since India’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan emerged in 2012. Other estimates have ranged from 73 million to 200 million. In 2015, yet another estimate reckoned that 250 million artisans were organized into some 600,000 cooperatives across the country."
Meanwhile, he adds, in 2012, a Tata Trusts-sponsored Crafts Council of India (CCI) exercise in craft pockets of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat to attempt the design a methodology reflected in the Craft Economics & Impact Study (CEIS), which finally led the Government of India "to include artisans for the first time in the Economic Census 2013". A later deliberation rejected the constraints of the ‘economic establishments’ restricted to a list of handcrafts outside the purview of the Ministry of Textiles.
Suggesting that even today things have not been finalised, Dr Chatterjee says, the NITI Aayog that now replaces the Planning Commission, as a next step, would need to carry out data collection on the basis the CCI's sample-surveys "to investigate issues arising from the new data, helping to unpack issues critical..."
Comments Dr Chatterjee, "Data on the sector’s contributions to employment and national productivity have taken criticality in a current context of building employment opportunities for some 800 million vulnerable Indians. The need for new jobs each year is estimated at between 10 million and 15 million, while a frightening prospect of ‘jobless growth’ grows as new technologies enter the mechanized sector."

Comments

  1. Fully agree. Zero percent GST is only a small step.

    Handicraft exports from India increased by 11.07 per cent year-on-year during April 2016-March 2017 to US$ 3.66 billion. During this period, the exports of various segments registered positive growth like Shawls as Artwares (26.79 per cent), Hand printed Textiles & Scarves (25.96 per cent), Artmetal wares (19.04 per cent), Agarbatis and attars (6.76 per cent) and Embroidered & Crochetted goods (5.85 per cent).

    Modern India has become a parasite living of India's traditional handicraft skills, labour and sweat. Can't we plough back 10% of the export earnings for the development and welbeing of the artisan tradition.

    We need an insitution of artisans, for artisan by artisans. Only the best in the artisan tradition foster and sustain our rich artisan tradition. Lalit Kumar Das

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

NOTE: While there is no bar on viewpoint, comments containing hateful or abusive language will not be published and will be marked spam. -- Editor

TRENDING

Defeat of martial law: Has the decisive moment for change come in South Korea?

By Steven Lee  Late at night on December 3, soldiers stormed into South Korea’s National Assembly in armored vehicles and combat helicopters. Assembly staff desperately blocked their assault with fire extinguishers and barricades. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol had just declared martial law to “ eliminate ‘anti-state’ forces .”

70,000 migrants, sold on Canadian dream, face uncertain future: Canada reinvents the xenophobic wheel

By Saurav Sarkar*  Bikram Singh is running out of time on his post-study work visa in Canada. Singh is one of about 70,000 migrants who were sold on the Canadian dream of eventually making the country their home but now face an uncertain future with their work permits set to expire by December 2024. They came from places like India, China, and the Philippines, and sold their land and belongings in their home countries, took out loans, or made other enormous commitments to get themselves to Canada.

EVMs: Govt must prove beyond reasonable doubt it's upholding mandate for free, fair polls

By Jerald D’souza  With the growth of India’s population, concerns about electoral fraud associated with ballot papers, also began to escalate. In 1989, the People’s Representation Act was amended to enable EVMs to prevent electoral fraud. In 1998, EVMs made their debut during legislative assembly elections and for the first time for general elections in 2004. However, criticisms against the EVMs and questions about their integrity have been raised by political parties, civil society and the general population. On 2 February 2024, there was a noteworthy demonstration of dissent where numerous individuals, including Ambedkarite advocates, legal professionals, and other members of civil society  convened at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar demanding the prohibition of EVMs. In 2024, the Supreme court had slapped down a petition to return to paper ballots on the basis that machines give “absolutely accurate results” unless human bias maligns them. The court stated that it was open to testi...

This Indian British Marxist blamed USSR's collapse in 1991 on Khrushchev's 'revisionism'

By Harsh Thakor*  Harpal Singh Brar, British Indian Marxist scholar and communist leader, has passed away in Chandigarh. He was 85. He was a lifelong supporter of socialism, Marxism, and the working class. He will be remembered among British Communists.

Chalapathi's death in encounter suggests Maoists' inability to establish broader mass support

By Harsh Thakor* The Maoist movement experienced a significant loss during the Ramagudem encounter on January 21, with the death of Chalapathi (Pratap), a Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist). His death, along with 15 others, marks a major setback for the movement. Reports suggest that his location was revealed to security forces through a selfie with his wife.

A groundbreaking non-violent approach: Maharishi’s invincible defense technology

By MajGen (R) Kulwant Singh, Col (R) SP Bakshi, Col (R) Jitendra Jung Karki, LtCol (R) Gunter Chassé & Dr David Leffler*  In today’s turbulent world, achieving lasting peace and ensuring national security are more urgent than ever. Traditional defense methods focus on advanced weapons, military strategies, and tactics, but a groundbreaking approach offers a new non-violent and holistic solution: Maharishi’s Invincible Defense Technology (IDT). 

Operation Kagar represents Indian state's intensified attempt to extinguish Maoism: Resistance continues

By Harsh Thakor Operation Kagar represents the Indian state's intensified attempt to extinguish Maoism, which claims to embody the struggles and aspirations of Adivasis. Criminalized by the state, the Maoists have been portrayed as a threat, with Operation Kagar deploying strategies that jeopardize their activities. This operation weaves together economic, cultural, and political motives, allegedly with drone attacks on Adivasi homes.

Why do we mostly resist and refrain from communicating on sanitation topic?

By Nikhil Kumar, Mansee Bal Bhargava* According to UN SDG Progress report (2022), at the present moment no targets for SDG 6 are expected to be met by 2030. In 2022, 2.2 billion people had no access to safe drinking water and 3.5 million lacked safe sanitation. Approximately 50% of the world’s population was reported to have been under resourced in enough water for part of the year and a quarter of that population was living under “extremely high” water stress. Add to it, droughts have affected over 1.4 billion people between 2002 and 2021.

CCG raises concerns over Indian State of Forest Report 2023 in open letter to environment minister

By A Representative  The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a collective of former civil servants, has expressed serious concerns over the Indian State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 in an open letter to the Union Minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change. The group has criticized the report's delayed release, flawed methodology, and misleading claims regarding the state of India's forests.

अल्पसंख्यक कार्य मंत्रालय का बजट निराशाजनक: 19.3% अल्पसंख्यकों के लिए मात्र 0.0661% ठोस आवंटन

- मुजाहिद नफ़ीस*   1-2-2025 को भारत सरकार द्वारा संसद में वर्ष 2025-26 का बजट वित्त मंत्री निर्मला सीतारमण जी ने पेश किया| इस वर्ष का बजट 5065345 करोड़ है जो कि पिछले साल के संशोधित अनुमान से लगभग 7.39% की बढ़ोतरी हुई है| वहीं अल्पसंख्यक कार्य मंत्रालय का बजट मात्र 3350.00 करोड़ है जो कि कुल बजट का 0.0661% लगभग है|  पिछले साल 2024-25 में 3183.24 करोड़ था|