Comprehensive Policy Needed for Handmade Textiles in India: Says UNESCO Report

The report has recommended 10 policy interventions to "ensure the continuance of these living traditions, so that the hand skills sector remains relevant, buoyant and an integral part of India’s rich cultural heritage for generations to come."

1. Formulate a comprehensive policy for handmade textiles: A comprehensive policy for handmade textiles could make this industry viable, competitive and equitably structured by recognising that the needs of the practitioners of textile crafts are quite different from those of the powerloom industry, screen and digital printing, machine embroidery, and large textile mills. Such a policy should also keep in mind the sector’s direct contribution to 7 of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the role that these traditions play as critical elements of India’s cultural and creative industries.
2. Create systematic and scientific databases on handmade textile crafts and their practitioners: Although the textiles sector is regarded as the second-largest area of employment and livelihood after agriculture, there has been no comprehensive enumeration of the numbers working across handlooms, khadi and similar textile crafts and in ancillary professions. Data on these crafts’ contribution to India’s gross domestic product (GDP) should also be calculated. Setting up a satellite accounting system would be a step in this direction. Documenting textile crafts and weaving skills, as well as their techniques and technologies, traditions and motifs, in a systematic and scientific manner would create a record of what is, what has been, and what can be innovated for further developments, while also maintaining a record for times to come.
3. Facilitate convergence within the hand skills sector: An integrated, holistic approach with a dedicated, unified administrative setup that recognises the cross-connected dimensions of the hand skill sector, including handlooms, khadi, village industries and textile handicrafts, and converges them to address their potential will allow for inclusive mainstream growth. That is, it will enable this sector to achieve its full potential and drawn it into the mainstream of economic development.
4. Protect practitioners’ intellectual property rights and raise consumer awareness about authentic versus copied products: Copies and fakes are rife in the textiles industry and practitioners of handmade textiles have limited legal recourse in such cases. To help distinguish and protect traditional knowledge-based goods, the Government of India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Textile crafts should continue to get Geographical Indication tags to protect them. In addition, the government should enact sui generis laws specifically designed to protect products of traditional knowledge. A branding exercise in each cluster, combined with promoting the effective use of tags like Craftmark, Handmade Mark and Geographical Indication, would help consumers differentiate between authentic handmade textiles and powerloom, mechanised, printed products—all of which are available at far lower prices and cut into the market share of handmade textiles. There is also an urgent need to create simple, easily applicable tests that differentiate genuine handmade craft products from fakes.
5. Support ancillary artisans and professions: The skills of ancillary artisans involved in the production of handmade textiles need to be sustained and supported. Ancillary artisans who perform pre- and post-production processes should be included as beneficiaries in development programmes and schemes in their own right, with training and skill upgradation modules designed exclusively for them, issued artisan cards and assisted by other measures, in order to ensure the continuity of the entire textile ecosystem.
6. Recognise women artisans and give them equal opportunities: As men move away from textile craft-centric activities in search of other income opportunities, women are increasingly taking over their roles. There is a greater need to recognise female artisans and enumerate them in mapping and diagnostic exercises in their own capacities, whether as primary or ancillary workers. Key intervention areas include focused professional education and targeted training and skill upgradation. Existing programmes and schemes should be made more inclusive of women, ensuring fair wages and equal opportunities for training and infrastructure loans, access to artisan cards and other benefits.
7. Provide appropriate infrastructure and technology: Appropriate infrastructure and technology, customised to the cultural context and practice of producers of handmade textiles, should be provided.  Government schemes could also focus on financial and technical assistance for new looms and the repair and upgradation of existing looms, and prioritise research and development on loom improvement for better productivity and quality based on regional variants and production processes. Weavers must be consulted through such processes. Yarn banks or depots for different varieties of silk, cotton, wool, etc, could be set up in all weaving clusters to serve both small-scale and largescale weavers. Good quality dyes could be made available in small, affordable quantities to enable smaller producers to fix the issues of poor dyeing quality that often result in rejections by customers.
8. Focus on educating, training and up-skilling practitioners: Education tailored to professional needs should be a core thrust area so as to enable continuous knowledge enhancement. In addition, training programmes should be customised to cater to the differing skills of professionals and artisans with varied capabilities.
9. Encourage innovation in design and product development: Designers identified from among traditional practitioners should be equipped to sustain the generation of creative innovations from within the artisan community. Design development should be a continuous process, allowing textile artisans to stay abreast of new market developments and cater to changing consumer demands with new and diversified products. Design interactions must be sensitive to the unique features of each textile craft tradition so that each community retains its distinctive identity.
10. Enable access to credit: Access to credit at zero or low interest rates with easy repayment terms would help textile-makers access raw materials and cover their working capital needs. Loans for housing-cum-work sheds are also needed.