FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
In a world where we will finally learn to be guests and not masters, there will be a tectonic shift in the way we place ourselves, our families and our lives.
The shift is visible. We are cleaning up, ticking off and deleting a lot of clutter accumulating around our lives. Those who have money saved up, have incomes which more or less will be steady will carry on chastened by the belief that nature will ask its questions, and a pandemic can bring a world to its knees quicker than a world war could. The theatre of war has shifted to hospitals, to quarantine centres and the tools of ear are vaccines and ventilators. There will be a time when this will be overcome, but there can be no time when we can be sure that an encore isn’t round the corner. We hope that by the time second and third waves arrive our bodies will be prepared. But will our minds be?
The devastation though is much greater. In the debris of the aftermath of COVID-19, will be non-cultivated farms, no food grains and no jobs.
Last week, in this column, one had laid the foundation of going back to community living. But for lives to sustain and livelihoods to remain, we cannot only just live off the land though we must, but look at rural entrepreneurship as a social movement to maximise inherent skills of artisans and craftsmen. Unless our village economies are self-sustaining, with agriculturists and non-agriculturists living off the land and through their skills, Goa will be perennially in a situation where every profession will be begging for government support when their livelihoods are affected.
Government support is desirable. Developed economies do it. The grim reality of India lies in the fact that the government struggles to waive off loans of farmers hit by drought and unable to contain the spectre of suicides. Here the expectation of taxi owners, seafarers, restaurant owners, for a government bailout cannot be judged in terms of fairness, but clear practicality.
The need to, therefore, revisit traditional occupations, go back to the farms and even relook at the DNA of tourism is imperative. Amitava Bhattacharya, one of India’s leading social entrepreneurs and CO-Founder of Banglanatak.com a rural enterprise working mainly in Bengal, says “Unknown isolated destinations may be the opportunity rather than usual ones. Also as Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi and Jaipur got hit badly upmarket Indian tourists may opt for MP, West Bengal, Western Rajasthan, Northern Bihar, Himalayas, etc. Thus it may be an opportunity for West Bengal; Goa may retain its tourists also.”
But this retention cannot be in the same manner, form and even location. The beaches are truly bust. We need to think small, we need to plan hyper-locally and open up the hinterland both for its beauty and for an economic connect between rural folk who will produce or showcase skills, and the government or social organisations have to act as a bridge inkling them to tourists.
West Bengal again is an excellent template. Let not party politics come in the way of a good system. Culture runs at the very core and at every pore of rural Bengal. The explosion of creativity is in the hands of every rural artisan, craftsman, singer, artist or weaver. Their skills were never not known, and even the great poet, writer philosopher and craft lover Rabindranath Tagore passionately encouraged and supported traditional crafts of Bengal.
Medinipur is home to the vibrant, colourful and musical tradition of Patachitra. Sitalpati or cool mats of Cooch Behar make their way to so many homes. Beautifully embroidered Kanthas (quilts) and bamboo works of Birbhum is an epitome of intricate talent, terracotta crafts of Bankura and wooden masks of Dakshin Dinajpur are an embodiment of skill and creativity. The list is long with each district specialising in some art form or the other.
The Department of MSME&T (Government of West Bengal) and UNESCO, New Delhi had collaborated to develop 10 rural craft hubs in the State. The duration of the pilot initiative was 30 months.
The Contact Base (banglanatak dot com) implemented the project with a vision to develop the villages, by working with hundreds of families traditionally skilled in craft traditions like sitalpati, madurkathi, terracotta, patachitra, dokra, as well as making wooden masks and clay dolls, as vibrant craft hubs connected to national and international markets.
The change is evident. The villages are now better known for their art and skills and the crafts persons enjoy greater respect for their artistry. Village festivals have witnessed huge audiences and sales and have received a lot of appreciation from the artisans. The festivals have attracted a lot of visitors from surrounding villages and towns. They are not only bringing recognition to the hubs but also providing a new marketing platform, especially for artisans who may not be able to visit fairs elsewhere
This is entrepreneurship as a social movement and it has a simple philosophy. Give power and opportunity to the people and link them directly to markets.
Entrepreneurship makes those who are marginalised and on the brink of poverty and even those who have slipped into poverty reclaim their confidence, their identity, and their skill-sets and use them for economic benefits.
UNESCO incidentally was prepared to work with the Goa Government and even fund an exercise of this nature, with Banglanatak.com, when Parrikar was the Chief Minister. Goa’s excruciatingly slow response in getting the file ready for final approval saw such an important project slip through the cracks. This, after the CM and senior ministers and the UNESCO representative, posed for a picture announcing the project, in the Goa secretariat.
In Goa, there are lavo (mat makers) languishing, it took a Wendell Rodricks and his team to revive the Kunbi sarees worn by rural women in parts of Maharashtra and Goa and our ghumot makers get very little sustained support from the government.
Victor Hugo Gomes of the Goa Chitra museum’s initiative to collect and showcase ancient tools for people to know and understand does have its place. But these skills unless preserved and practised as a sustained economic exercise, will not bring food to the table in rural Goa. There will be money in the hands of people only if traditional livelihoods and skills carry on giving economic benefits to generations of families which specialise in those skills.
The direction we must take is inwards and make that journey back to the villages. Our revival will not happen through cash bailouts and Central assistance but to make rural economies self sufficient.
