500 papier-mâché artisans go jobless: No export order since March 2007
Kashmir and Meltdown
Rashid Paul (Rising Kashmir)
Srinagar: The global economic meltdown has rendered around 500 papier-mâché artisans in Kashmir jobless as the Rs 30 crore industry has failed to procure any major export order during the past year.
As a result of this the craftsmen who were wedded to the art and contributed to the economic growth of the State for years have ended up as rickshaw drivers and vegetable vendors.
An artist considered a master of papier-mâché in the city had ended up surviving on charity. “I would honorably earn Rs 4000-6000 a month. However during the past year, I could not fetch any work. During this period I exhausted all my savings hoping the situation will improve. However no trader or exporter came forward for any consignment. I now live on the charity of relatives and neighbors,” he said.
Iftikhar Hussain Mir, a prominent artisan from old city – the hub of traditional Kashmir art – is cursing the day he chose papier-mâché as his profession. “My father in 1980s cautioned me against choosing papier-mâché as a profession but I insisted and learnt it at a family workshop.”
Iftikhar’s father, Ghulam Hussain was a national award winner in Kashmir handcrafts.
Today Iftikhar is reluctant to pass on the traditional family craft to his children. “I would prefer my children to be government employees and lead a comfortable life.”
Ghulam Safdar, a papier-mâché exporter informed that exports had dipped by 95 percent. “Since there is no demand we do not ask artisans to produce any,” he said. Safdar said Kashmir papier-mâché products used to be exported to England, France, and the US, the countries which are now struggling to come out of economic crisis. Safdar flayed the government for neglecting traders, especially the artisans, who are severely hit in the unorganized papier-mâché sector.
Hassan Ali, a member of Indian Export Promotion Council suggested the government to arrange exhibitions and launch an aggressive marketing campaign to revive the trade.
President of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Mubeen Shah asked the government to come up with inventory financing.
“The artisans and members dealing in the trade should be financed generously so that the production continues and artisans are reemployed. The government should rescue artisans and traders and pay for their bank interest rate till the recession ends.”