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Sreelatha Menon: Reviving the swadeshi looms
Jaipur Rugs Foundation and IRMA launch Artisans Forum for
transforming craftsmen into entrepreneurs
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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