Rural Track

Rural Track has travelled places and here we have brought the craft from Channapatna, a town from Karnataka.

In the video you can view the artisan working on a rattle used for children which will be exported.

“Real India lives in the villages”, this was quoted by the first Indian Prime Minister Mr.Jawaharlal Nehru. This statement is true even today. 

  The United Nations has stated in 2008, that most countries in the world would see  urbanization    but, for India it would not be before 2050. The people, age-old culture, tourist  wonders, the money making business opportunities all exist in the rural. The focus is slowly shifting from the urban to the rural; the government as well as private concerns are looking at the rural areas for growth and sustenance.  

Rural India has been a great cushion during the days of financial downturn, which affected the entire world. We are still able to manage a positive GDP growth rate because of the promising opportunities and untapped avenues in the rural.

Though there seems to be a smooth road ahead, those convincing factors discussed in the high-end conferences do not seem to help the rural population. A revolution needs to be triggered; a new battle needs to be fought for the financial independence and freedom from bureaucracy.

There are two major occupations which provide livelihood to the rural people. One is agriculture which occupies the labour in the farm and the rich farmers who own farm land. To deal with the employment problems in this field the government has introduced NREGA (which is the focus in the upcoming article). The other major occupation is art and craft, which brings the involvement of small scale industry. Art and craft is diverse all through India and is dependent on the cultural aspects of the region. Hence, this area of work faces the problem of no sustainable employment, not even seasonal employment.

Rural Development organizations and especially Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has brought out the need for more and more employment opportunities to be created for the rural folks. There is a need for entrepreneurial initiatives for in rural India, where the artisans can create employment for themselves and also employ other artisans involved in the craft.

The skills and abilities to enable self-employment are provided in abundance to the urban youth. Rural India is looking for help from urban folks to create better employment opportunities and revolutionize the economic and recruitment system prevailing in the rural areas. To add to this, the United Nations report also stated that “the focus for increasing employment opportunities should be in the non-farm sector”

Let us start the revolution.

An artist making wooden bangles at the factory

This is neither a village nor a city; it is a town in the Bangalore Rural District. The town is also known as the “City of Wooden toys”, it is Channapatna which is 60kms away from Bangalore. This town nurtures an art form belonging to the age of Tipu Sultan. During the reign of Tipu Sultan artisans from Persia were invited to train the local artists in the making of wooden toys.

The exploration started with my visit to a factory at Tattekere. The artists described the process of manufacturing the toys.

1. Wood is bought from the forest department based on the weight.
2. The types of wood used to make these articles are cedar, rubber wood, ivory wood, sycamore, pine, teak, red wood and so on.
3. Then the wood is seasoned. (Dried and treated in a natural way)
4. The wood is churned to arrive at the desired shape.
5. Further design enhancements are made.
6. Colour is added to it by using lacquer. The widely used colours are green, red, black, brown, orange, yellow, violet and cream.

The government has provided a factory space and some machinery to the artists involved in this craft. The craftsmen pay a meager amount Rs.90 per month.

Following that I met the artisans at their homes. It was a sad scene to see the gutter passing by few houses. At the same it was shocking to meet a few rich artisans who were able market their goods confidently and create presence even in the export markets. Every artisan family gave me a warm welcome and was curious to show their creations. Each artist had his own domain expertise in manufacturing the wooden articles. Few made toys which were specific for the children to develop their neuron abilities, few had interesting accessories for young people, few catered for the home care segment and so on.

On the whole  it was a wonderful experience!!!