Role of Women Artisans in Crochet Lace Industry

Role of  Women Artisans in Crochet Lace Industry

          ‘To empower’ means to enable or to allow women empowerment means that they can take decisions about their life, their children and family and can also contribute to the community decisions, where women’s right to ‘personhood’, ‘bodily integrity’ is respected where their  reproductive rights, social, economic and political rights are respected, their work contribution to the family, society is recognized, where there is no fear of sexual and social violence, where women feel a sense of acceptance and belongingness, where their right to their home and to their children as guardians is recognized.  

          According to Second National Commission on Labour (2002), empowerment is the process by which powerless people  can change their circumstances and begin to exercise control over their lives. Empowerment  results in a change in the balance of power, in living conditions, and in relationships. The human species is capable of modifying its behaviour as well as its organizations and social systems whenever survival demands it.

          The future development of society lies in the status of women. One reality is that women not only form a major  section of the society but also hold greater responsibilities than men. Hence it is women who matter because, if one women is empowered through education, health and information then the whole family is benefited and these benefits are spread-over the whole society. Thus the empowerment of women is a part of human resource development and cannot be treated independently.

          Empowerment is the activity of passing authority and responsibility to individuals at lower levels in the organization hierarchy. As already stated the usually strategy adopted to empower women could be broadly classified into the following categories:

·        Empowerment Through Education 

·        Empowerment and Economic Status

·        Empowerment Through Political Awareness

·        Empowerment Through Law

·        Empowerment Through Gender Equality and Human Rights.

·        Women Empowerment  and Unions

   

Role of Alankriti Lace Park in Women Empowerment:

                   Lace entered into the lives of the local poor women as a means of livelihood and to mitigate their financial problems to some extent and to keep them away from the daily grind of the bondages of life. Lace making came  as a hobby but later on become a craft grind of the bondages of life. Almost every household in the rural areas at least one pair of hands are always busy knitting and knotting simple cotton thread into beautiful designs. Lace making became a part and parcel of the cultural life of the rural women folk. For rich and middle class it may be hobby but to the poor it is the chief means of livelihood. The craft spread to the neighouring villages with a radius  of 50 kilometers around Narsapur.

          The State Government  with an objective of overall development of Andhra Pradesh economy is focusing on the development of labour-intensive and export oriented industry for generating both sustainable employment and valuable foreign exchange. Creating a brand name ‘Alankriti’  and establishment of Lace Park in a cooperative setup with a corporate framework and outlook at Narsapur to give a strong image to lace business. Establishment   of Alankriti Lace Park at Narsapur is the first step in this direction in the year 2004.

This Lace Park has been conducting training  programmes for women and given the encouragement for women workers. West Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh is the centre place for the handicraft crochet lace and especially Narsapur  is the heart of this lace craft. Narsapur is  a remote place in West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. It is famous for the crochet lace product. The lace industry at Narsapur is a stable business which produces lace-goods for the global market. Crochet lace industry is one of the important handicrafts with a highly artistic appeal. For many women at Narsapur  area of West Godavari District, crochet lace is the chief livelihood and has become the main craft in terms of employment generation. It is estimated that around two lakh women are involved in this craft which is a major foreign exchange earner for the country.

The Lace Park is acting as a liaison in between the local women and the middlemen. The Lace Park provides training to the local women after which they return to their own home and continue knitting. The trained women now are extremely quality conscious and so produce high quality articles. The Lace Park provides the raw material of cotton yarn. The finished product is bought by Lace Park and is in turn sold to the middlemen for a better price.

          This organization brings the desperate, scattered women groups into self-help groups under one umbrella, brings in experts from outside for educating and training these groups, allows experiments in improving the designs and skills and makes the groups self-sufficient to market their own produce and decide their own future. The Lace Park vision is to have uncompromising attitude on quality, professionalism that sparks discipline, hard work and adherence to schedule, something that was not known earlier in this sector.    

             Hence, it is observe that through this mode of vocational training Lace Park has touched the lives of innumerable local women and given them a better chance to eking out a living through their craft. Lace Park is proud to share the fact that it has provided training directly to 8,500 local women and 16,230 artisans were trained at primary society level since its inception. Training programmes were conducted for lace artisans in batches in the art and technique of quality lace product making.               

Conclusion:

         

It is well known fact that women workers play a major role in making of lace items. The natives of Narsapur town and nearby villages, majority of women workers depend upon lace industry. There by women are economically empowered by earning on their own. In these days all intellectuals are speaking about empowerment of women and concrete works and training has been done in the lace making industry.

The women in their part time are pursuing this work and producing laces in different design according to the orders of exporters and it is not a direct profession to earn their livelihood, they are not aware of the actual cost of the raw material used for the lace making and the value added after the lace is prepared and the rates at which the finished lace is sold in the market. In other words, their work is totally restricted to their labour only. Therefore, artisans are earn very less amount as a remuneration in this lace making process.

   Lace industry currently behind the iron curtains of a few private exporters  and most of the lace women workers are un-organised and desperate. The crochet lace industry has potential for women employment and foreign exchange earning.

There is still male dominance persist in the society and most of the women earnings are spent on the family and they are treated like machines with out giving due weightage for their empowerment. The government is to bring out the women at their invisible marginalized and dependent position to an independent confident member of the society, playing a conscious role in the development of the community and their by the State and the country as a whole.      

The Government is giving best packages for the benefit and development of women and making them to play a pivotal role in the countries economic development. In the lace industry the workers are women, they are economically poor. It is the Government through the Lace Park the economic status of women has been raised considerably and some  of them started their own lace workers. The Lace Park is acting as a trainer and mediator for empowerment of lace workers.     

Reference:   

1)     Argyris, Chris (1998), “Empowerment :  The Emperors New Clothes”, Harvard Business Review, May-June, PP. 98-105.

2)     Conger, J.A and R.N.Kanungo (1988), The Empowerment Process: Integrating Theory and Practice, Academy of Management Journal. P.13.  

3)     Dr.Gandham Sri Rama Krishna, Dr. N.G.S.Prasad(2010), Role of Women Artisans in Crochet Lace Industry, Indian Economic Panorama Journal, New Delhi. July, Vol.20 No.2. PP40-43.

4)     Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, Indian Handicrafts, New Delhi, 1995.

5)     Government of India(1976) – All India Handicrafts Board Marketing Clinic on Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts, February.

6)     Government of Andhra Pradesh(1992),, Andhra Pradesh District Gazetteers, West Godavari District, Hyderabad. 

7)     Government of India(1974), Towards Equally- Report of the Committee on the States of Women in India, Department of Social Welfare, New Delhi.

8)     Government of India (2002), Report of the National Commission on Labour, New Delhi : Ministry of Labour.

9)     G.S.Rama Krishna, K.Ramesh, K.SivaRama Krishna(2005), Marginalized Women and Economic Development, Dominant Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi. 

10)ILO(1984), The Promotion of E          quality of Opportunity and treatment for Women. ILO  Manual for Asia and Pacific.    

11)Miens, Maria(1982), The Lace Makers of Narsapur, Indian Housewives Produce for the World Market, Zed Press, London.

12)The Hindu Daily on Dt. 24-07-2009 Page. 4.