The Ahmedabad-based Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh government have undertaken a major project to marry the traditional skills of the State’s famed lace workers and handloom weavers with new marketing tools to combat the negative effects of globalisation.

This effort is not to create jobs but to ensure livelihood security of millions of traditional craftspeople and protect them from the adverse impact of globalization.

SEWA, which has organised thousands of skilled craftswomen and helped them market their products without middlemen, is being provided Rs.50 million by the Commerce Ministry to create marketing infrastructure to help thousands of lace workers at Narsapuram in West Godavari district, Ikat handloom weavers at Koelguddam and silk weavers at Pochampalli in Andhra Pradesh. This would help the workers market their produce without being cheated by middlemen and exporters.

The government is also keen to work with social organisations like SEWA which has created modern marketing infrastructure. Today, through the SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre (STFC), it exports 40 percent of its products mainly to global retail chains while 60 percent is sold within the country.

Set up in 2000, the Ahmedabad-based STFC currently has orders worth Rs.50 million. STFC’s success is sought to be recreated through several trade facilitation centres within the country.

The government also reiterated that their objective is to ensure that benefits of exports and domestic marketing flow back to the artisans. The key is to ensure this by getting the social organisations to give bulk of the sale proceeds to the primary producers, unlike the process now where workers get barely Rs.40 for a lace cushion while exporters rake in dollar profits for products supplied to major chains like IKEA.

To ensure that the age-old crafts survive and get due recognition, the commerce ministry is encouraging branding of products as national heritage on the lines of Belgium and Ireland laces. In addition to exports, more trade facilitation centres are to be set up, starting possibly with New Delhi and Hyderabad. As an initial exercise in branding, SEWA has launched the Alankriti brand for lace products. The Ikat and Pochampalli fabrics are to be used for designing better products, including garments with the help of STFC’s own design cells in keeping with global trends and demands.

Now the biggest challenge will be to have mass production of traditional crafts and handlooms. This, however is expected to be addressed through the new model that will focus on capacity building, better finished products, marketing infrastructure, and branding.

A similar effort worth Rs.150 million has also been launched to promote handicraft, cane and bamboo products of North-eastern states in tie-ups with several organisations like the North East Development Financial Institution and the Export Promotion Council of India.

Under this consortium effort, Guwahati is being developed as the main hub for marketing together with the main design facility. Already 100 entrepreneurs have been trained under this effort and Rs.500 million worth of products exported.