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Sreelatha Menon: Reviving the swadeshi looms
Jaipur Rugs
Foundation and IRMA launch Artisans Forum for
transforming craftsmen into entrepreneur
Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi September 19, 2010
US President Barack Obama is swearing by ‘swadeshi’. But
India, that once swore by khadi and based its freedom
movement on the power of the loom, has not done much for
its millions of weavers in 60 years. There are small
efforts here and there, but nothing which targets each
and every loom and seeks to empower every artisan.
What inspires hope; however, are two parallel efforts:
One from the government and one from the private sector.
The Ministry of Textile’s Integrated Handloom Cluster
Development Scheme, launched a couple of years ago,
links handloom clusters to banks and markets by forming
them into self-help groups and producer companies. But
its reach is limited to just 20 handloom clusters in 13
states and there are no expansion plans to cover the 6.5
million employed in handloom weaving in the country,
earning between Rs 30 and Rs 100 a day.
These people operate in small units and spend more on
raw materials than they earn from finished products. As
for the latter, reports generated by the ministry point
out how they suffer from want of diversification and
innovation in design.
The other effort is Artisans Forum which is being
created by the Jaipur Rugs Foundation (a top name in the
carpet industry) and the Institute of Rural Management,
Anand (Irma). The purpose is to create an entrepreneur
out of every artisan, giving him the dignity he deserves
and not forcing him to migrate to cities for low-skill
jobs.
The model involves taking weavers from households to a
neighbouring production centre which doubles their
earnings. About 300 production centres are then
aggregated under a common facility centre, located
within 25 km, according to Jaipur Rugs Founder and
Managing Director N K Chaudhury. The common facility
centres, where all the dyeing and other supplementary
work gets done, will be aggregated under Artisans Forum.
The first common facility centre has already come up in
Alwar.
Jaipur Rugs has been following this model among the
40,000 weavers who have been supplying products to it in
the last three decades, and has seen their earnings go
up. Jaipur Rugs Foundation recently signed a memorandum
of understanding with Irma to take this model to carpet
weavers across the country and, gradually, to other
crafts as well.
Still, as Chaudhury says, the fact is weavers are fast
shrinking in numbers and, if the industry is to survive,
their lot has to improve. He cites the example of
carpet-weaving countries like China, Iran, Turkey and
Afghanistan where the industry is dying. For instance,
while Iran does not have new designs, Turkey does not
have labour.
This is where the common facility centres come in. In
fact, the first one under Artisans Forum on three bighas
of land in Alwar’s Narayangadh is owned by artisans who
hold 80 per cent equity. Production centres in about 60
villages located around it supply to the centre, says
Jaipur Rugs Foundation CEO Vinod Kaushik.
Now the forum plans 10 common facility centres and 1,000
production centres in the next decade, starting with
Gujarat and Maharashtra. The cost of setting up a
facility centre is Rs 9 crore, while that of setting up
a production centre is about Rs 7 lakh.
That does not worry the foundation. Donations are making
its work easier with the entire Alwar effort being
funded by two donors. And carpet making countries are
keen to learn this model. Chaudhury is willing to share
it all, so long as it keeps the looms alive — both
‘swadeshi’ and ‘videshi’.
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