Handicraft artisans feel pinch of machine-made embroidery

Handicraft artisans feel pinch of machine-made embroidery

GreaterKashmir.com (press release), India

RABIA NOOR

Srinagar, Jan 21: With machine-made embroidery replacing the handmade skill, Kashmiri handicraft artisans are witnessing decline of their trade. Where customers would once swarm, the Kashmiri embroidery shops are nowadays rarely being visited by them.

“We are in a slump. No doubt we make our too ends meet by our work, yet there are a lot of requirements that go unfulfilled because of the depression in our trade,” Malik Mushtaq, proprietor Malik Embroiders at Aabi Guzzar Bund here said, adding that the huge readymade materials that are funneling into the markets have gobbled down the market of Kashmiri handicraft.

As compare to the machine, it takes more time to prepare an item with hands. “In fast age we are living people don’t have enough time. If a customer brings a cloth in the morning for embroidery, he or she wants it back in the evening on the same day,” he said, adding that the handmade embroidery which takes some time is not preferred by most of the people. “Even foreigners don’t visit us now,” Mushtaq remarked.

Ghulam Muhammad Parray, proprietor, Golden Chinar Embroidery Works at the Bund here, said, “The handicraft labour has become costly and the customers don’t afford it, hence they give preference to the readymade suits, which are inexpensive and made faster. Therefore, the Kashmiri Art is declining day by day.”

The sozni, chainstitch, embroidery and tila on the Pashmina shawls that were once done by hand only, are now also being done with the machines.

There is one more reason for decline of Kashmir art. “What should be the actual wages of a handicraft labour, he doesn’t get them,” he said adding that the government did not make efforts to preserve and promote the Kashmiri Art.

“It takes a couple of weeks to an artisan to complete embroidery on a shawl, but then he earns just a couple of hundred rupees. So it is very hard for a worker to survive on such low wages. With the result, many artisans have been switching over to the machines to make their two ends meet,” Ghulam Hassan, managing partner, M Muhammad Joo and Sons said.

Many Kashmiri Art dealers said the government has not paid attention towards paper machie, woodcarving and carpet making in the Valley. “Prior to 1998, I was doing the paper machie work, but I left it for not being profitable,” said Mushtaq.

According to the Kashmiri Art dealers, the readymade garment dealers make ten times more business than theirs.

Many dealers said they would make good business earlier when the Bund was famous market for the Kashmir handicrafts. “Our shop is running for the past eighty years here. Earlier our business would run very nicely and the customers too would be very responsive. They would value the Kashmiri Art. But now the customers don’t see much difference between the handmade and machine-made items,” said Ghulam Muhammad a shopkeeper at the Bund said.

“This business has slumped a lot. We make only 25 per cent of the business as compared to that of the past. Earlier the customer rush on occasions like Eid would be so high that we got no time to relax and would work even during night. But on this Eid, hardly anyone visited us,” he said.