Antaran, a craft-based livelihood programme under Tata Trusts, will celebrate its All India Handicrafts Week from December 8-14. The purpose is to recognise artists creating unique pieces of art and crafts. Sharda Gautam, Head, Crafts at Tata Trusts, spoke to The Morning Standard about the ongoing programme.
Tell us about Antaran.
Weaving is the most visible representative of handicrafts in India. According to the Handloom Census 2009, more than four million families depend on the handloom for livelihood. Considering this, Tata Trusts has initiated intervention in the handloom sector through its craft development initiative called Antaran, as a part of its Craft Based Livelihoods Programme. While some handloom clusters in India have been commercially developed, a lot have not grown or largely unknown beyond their regions. The Antaran intervention has been thoughtfully worked out as a long term programme to look at holistic development of each weave cluster and not limited to design and marketing activities.
What led you to create this program?
In the backdrop of slow fashion gaining momentum, India stands a chance to be a leader. With more than 90 per cent of world’s handloom textiles coming from India, we have a large untapped potential to lead in creative and cultural economy space. Unfortunately, common knowledge and dialogue about handlooms gets restricted to famous clusters like Varanasi, Maheshwari, Pochampalli, Kanjeevaram, etc. But 100’s of clusters silently die out every day. These clusters need immediate end to end intervention.
Major highlights of the initiative?
Incubation and Design Centres (IDCs) are being opened in the six clusters of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Odisha and Nagaland which will serve as a one-stop destination for buyers, designers, researchers and lovers of traditional crafts. Antaran will directly benefit 3,000 people in pre-loom, on-loom and post-loom processes, while also impacting the livelihood of thousands of weavers in these regions. This unique initiative also presents designers an opportunity for creative collaboration with some of the country’s most talented weavers.
Major challenges faced by the craftspeople, particularly in India?
At the surface level, it appears that lack of market and in turn remunerative livelihood are key challenges for the artisans. However, this is just a symptom. It’s like when you have fever, you get high temperature. High temperature is just a symptom that something is not right with the body. Let’s look little deeper. Ways of doing business have changed considerably in last two decades. In general, markets have become distant unlike earlier times when it was predominantly local.
For artisans and their businesses to remain relevant it is important that:
■ Hands on education on business, design and use of IT tools for business is provided in vernacular language to the artisans.
■ Exposure and connect with urban consumers is provided to artisans.
What kind of work communities and individuals do for their growth?
As customers, we assume that buying craft products can truly support craftspeople. That is only partly true as one can do more e.g. (a) Avoid sympathetic buying as it may bring solace but is not a solution (b) Don’t just buy, but promote: Buying is transactional. Take your kids and family members to villages, spend time with artisans and their families, learn from them and give them feedback as a buyer. On social media, you could promote artisans (c) Don’t just buy but co-design: artisans are not mere producers, they are extremely creative human beings.