The artisan’s space

“Only a craftsman can produce the goods. However, he is an absolute novice at marketing and fetching a good price for his work. Often he does not even realise that he is being taken for a ride by the agents who introduce him to buyers. Or that he is being paid peanuts for something which will can fetch quite a tidy sum,” explains Sapan Giri, secretary, DHS.

Out of this need to get the artisans a better deal, was born the idea of forming a society of the craftsmen that would work exclusively for them. With Jaya Jaitley, general secretary, Samata Party, at the helm, and co-operative in its nature, the DHS started off with about 40 members. Today, it has about 700 members from all over the country.

Primarily functioning through exhibitions and bazaars in different cities like Mumbai, Calcutta, Indore, Goa, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Tirupati, the DHS is also responsible for the Dilli Haat – a permanent crafts market in the capital. “Space is provided for a limited number of artisans to set up shop for a period of 15 days, where they get to meet buyers and wholesalers, display and sell their art to people,” adds Giri.

The Pune exhibition is yet another attempt to open up a new market for its members. “Had it not been for Dastkari, how could I have come from my village in the interiors of West Bengal to Pune?” Bhabatosh Shee poses a rhetorical question as he dusts his pots and statues. “Our main problem is to get out of the cubby hole of our villages, and this is one path,” he continues. An opinion echoed by M. Venkatesh, a wood engraver and carver from Andhra Pradesh, “I have a unit back home, and after two years with Dastkari, I intend to continue.”

While all came to Pune with great expectations of big sales (especially since many saw boom time in Mumbai last year), they are packing up with a heavy heart. “I am given to understand that many are unfamiliar with this venue, and the Tilak Smarak Mandir would have been a better bet, but we could not get dates there,” rues Bijoy Menon, office secretary. “Yes,” agrees Basappa, who has been to Pune before with his terracotta vases and animal statues. “While we are not ensured of a large profit margin, the fact is that we have more places to display our work,” he adds from his decade-long experience with DHS.

And along with his horses and elephants, the khadi silk cloth, the exquisite Madhubani wall hangings and cards, the Kantha kurtas, the chik purdahs… all remain in their dust jackets as few Puneites care to drop by.

“Our efforts seem to have been washed away,” says Thakur Madan Singh with a shrug. Custodian of the fading craft of chik weaving, he continues to work in the hope that sales will pick up, although he has only managed to sell two since the first day. “We have only six stores all over the country, one at our colony at Motiakhan in Delhi. And exports? None.”

In fact, `export’ is a foreign word for those like Raj Kumar Paswan, a Madhubani artist from Bihar. “All our sales are through the government fairs like Expo or Surajkund, or through the DHS. Once in a while some foreigners do troop down to our Madhuban district, but there is little scope otherwise to increase sales. No wonder then, that ours is a diminishing clan.”