Hindrances and Challenges Faced by Women Artisans in Panchla Zari Cluster

 

Dibyendu Bikash Datta^1*, Sinjini Mukherjee², Trisha Banerjee², Pameli Das², Neha Mundhra², Aditya Narayan Divya²

¹Associate Professor, Department of Fashion Management Studies, National Institute of Fashion Technology (Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India), Kolkata, India

²Post Graduate Scholar, Department of Fashion Management Studies, National Institute of Fashion Technology (Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India), Kolkata, India

 

ABSTRACT:

In India from the very beginning women have solely dominated the area of household activities. Women of the zari cluster of Panchla town at Howrah District, West Bengal have responded to economic crisis with survival strategies and have obtained a certain level of empowerment. This article examines the potential of the women artisans and analyzes the obstacles they face. Nowadays medium enterprises are easily managed by women entrepreneurs and are done so excellently with them as the decision makers. In this content a research study was formulated to identify the hindrances faced by women artisans in the zari cluster. The study was undertaken with 60 women artisans and a simple percentage and ranking method had been adopted for analysis of data. The major challenges like inadequate training and access to information, lack of awareness about Governmental programs and work-family interface are ranked by the women artisans.

 

 

 INTRODUCTION:

“Empowering women is a prerequisite for creating a good nation, when women are empowered, society with stability is assured. Empowerment of women is essential as their thoughts and their value systems lead to development of good family, good society and ultimately good nation”..... APJ Abdul Kalam.

 

Employment opportunities in Howrah district have been shrinking substantially following frequent closure of textile mills and lack of new industries. This has led to find out other secondary sources of maintaining livelihood and women get additionally involved with work in the informal sector like zari handicraft which is now an essential part of the growth paradigm.

 

Artisanal trade is the second largest employer among the developing countries behind agriculture, articulating unique expressions of arts, culture and heritage (Adler and Breivik, 1999). The artisanal sector generating jobs and income protects traditional techniques, fostering and developing a strong sense of fraternity. The sector has the potential for reducing poverty, but still not considered as a powerful developing sector and is a decentralized and largely unsupported field suffering from perennial problems of weak infrastructure.

 

The sector provide enormous economic stability, better market access, self-organisation and capacity building skills and plays an important role in strengthening women’s financial status for peace and security. By enhancing the economic opportunity and livelihood of women, the stability of a country increases. Women’s economic empowerment strengthens women’s rights and grants them increased control over their lives, their families and their societies. Further, women’s increased participation in the economy brings universal benefits, and research shows that the money women earn is invested back into their families. Without it, women's unemployment will rise and forcing them to live under worse economic conditions.

 

Besides being an income source for women, the artisanal sector provides affordable, flexible, sustainable and supportive environments to work from their own dwelling along with other indigenous women. Thus implying less risk associated with solo travel and can get involved in the care of their children while they work. Still, they faced severe obstacles to the development and success of their initiatives.

 

Since various handicraft products bring small returns, product demands must be steady for these small businesses to survive. Quality control is a critical factor and it is required to make at a faster rate maintaining same level of quality at all time.

 

The sustainability approaches for the artisanal segment should follow a community-based approach to provide sustainable economic opportunity for both men and women artisans. However, for the purpose of this study we prefer to focus on economic empowerment of women artisans and illustrate the hindrances and challenges of the zari sector within the women’s economic empowerment movement.

 

PRESENT STATUS OF THE WOMEN ARTISANS:

Handicrafts have their importance not only as a source of employment to craftsman but perhaps much more due to their capacity to reflect the culture of a civilization, hopes and fear of a generation through artistic expressions. The nimble fingers of the craftsman turn every article they touched in to a thing of joy. In the field of handicraft the Indian women artisans had advanced and reached the peak of quality and beauty in producing articles of utility and of decorative values and has claimed International fame. There are certain crafts which are generally practiced by women like embroidery, beadwork, appliqué craft, cane and bamboo, shawls, durries making, artistic textile, weaving mat etc. In India, large numbers of women are maintaining their family by accepting handicraft as a source of income and occupation.

 

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Handicrafts and women both the terms are having their individual identity and if the handicrafts are being produced by women then their identity becomes more meaningful. In ancient era of civilization, women were involved in specific works out of which handicrafts making is one among them. That time it was not being considered as an occupation of the women. Indian women were doing handicrafts only to fulfill their personal needs. And some are continuing this handicrafts making as they love to do stitching and embroidery. But gradually it becomes a very eye catching work for women. When they see if they can sell their products in market they will get some money in return. That moment was a turning point to their life. On another side the government was focused to raise the status of women in rural areas. And many fields were introduced by the government to improve the standard of women. Such fields raise the educational level among rural women, provide them with minimum health care facilities, make them self-reliant, and increase their participation in nation building.

 

Women empowerment has become a burning issue for national development. The contribution of women for national economic development is very necessary and has a great impact on women’s development. So the government has to give special attention for the women development and for their economic establishment in the society. To achieve the above goal the minimum facilities has to be provided to the women in mass. Empowerment means the all round development of the women including education, health, occupation, income, decision making power and participation in all works of family. Although the present study reflected the status of women in handicrafts sector but it also assessed their position in family, community and at societal level. Women need courage, confidence, support and assistance from their family members to come out from the four wall of the house to prove her identity and capability. In the modern era women have provided lots of amenities to prove their capability in various fields. Despite of all developmental rights, laws and facilities still women are suffering from various problems, and atrocities in the present situation. (Malhotra, 2004)

 

Bhattacharji (2007), has found that the word handicraft is more precisely expressed as handmade craft. Apparently, it creates confusion among the policy-makers and economists as it is difficult to recognize handicraft as an autonomous, economic sector in its own right. This resulted handicraft sector being labeled diversely as small scale industries or household trade and at times, even as women-focused activity offering incentives to rural women to turn into economically independent by capitalizing on their craft skills.

 

Dasgupta (2003) states that globalization has thrown many challenges to the women. To succeed, the women had to develop their commercial and technical knowledge and information. Formation of small group will help women to discuss their problems, share information and to promote entrepreneurial culture in their society.

 

Anitha and Laxmisa (1999) in their study have discussed the need for women entrepreneurship and their functions, the factors influencing them and the problems faced by them. They argued for the establishment of separate industrial estates, an industrial development bank exclusively for women entrepreneurs and for imparting management training to them.

 

Raveendran (2010) in a study brings to light some important aspects of women's location in the labour market and their contribution to the national economy. It also illustrates, through data, that the majority of women are concentrated in sectors with low productivity.

 

Women empowerment will make them more strong and prepared for taking up new challenges in the making of an ideal family, society and the nation. A woman is an architect of society and women empowerment itself is human empowerment. As stated by Sahay (1998) Women empowerment is a development process helping women to change consciousness of others through creating awareness.

 

Revathi and Krishnan (2012) in their study explains about the emergence of woman in small business and the significant contribution to the Indian economy.

 

Jamali (2009) discussed about the constraints and opportunities that affects the women entrepreneurial activities in the developing nations. The research consolidates significant micro and macro level approaches and identifies opportunities and constraints as part of a comprehensive mutually dependent system.

 

Increased awareness and spread of education are helping women of spread their wings into areas which are hither to the monopoly of men. The majority of the educated woman artisans are having qualities of accepting the challenges, very ambitious, enthusiastic, hard-working and skillful.

 

 

Ghouse (2012) in her article brought to light certain problems faced by the women artisans like marketing problems, financial problems, raw material problem, labour problems and power supply. The researcher also provides helpful suggestions to overcome such difficulties.

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The study presents an overview of the socio-economic profile of trained artisans engaged in zari embroidery. The paper also attempts to look into the hindrances and challenges faced by these women artisans of the zari cluster.

 

METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLING:

For this study purposive sampling was used for selection of cluster and blocks. A sample of 60 women respondents involved in zari crafts were selected for the study based on their cooperation and willingness to respond. All the participants had undergone skill development training on zari embroidery. The interview schedule was formulated on the basis of the pre-existing conceptual literature relating to the subject of craft entrepreneurship. The questionnaire dealt with general background, socio-economic status, hindrances and challenge faced by the female artisans of the zari cluster

 

STUDY AREA:

The study is confined to different blocks of Panchla town at Howrah District, West Bengal located at 22.54°N 88.14°E. It is located 18 Km towards west from District head quarters Howrah and 24 Km from State capital Kolkata towards East.

 

DATA COLLECTION METHOD:

To examine the objectives of this study, relevant data were collected from both primary and secondary data. Observations, structured questionnaire and interview schedule are used as primary sources of data. The secondary data consists of information collected from articles, journals, books and reports from Government records.

 

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

Table 1: Socio economic profile of women artisans

Source: Primary data

 

 

In this study, age has been categorized into five groups. Majority of the respondents consisting of 48% women belonged to the age group of 31-40 years, 25 % of the women were of 21-30 years, 15 % were found to be in the 41-50 years, 5% in the category of 51 years and above and 7 % belongs in 18-21 years section.

 

No women were found illiterate. 55% of the women had studied less than class 10th standard. 30% women had studied upto Class 10th and 12% women had passed Class 12th. 3% women were found to be graduated. Out of total respondents 80% are married, 20% were single.

 

In the selected area, 55 % of the respondents were having 1-3 family members, 38 %were 4-6 members, and 7 % were having 6 members and above. 40 % of women artisans were getting their monthly family income within Rs. 5,000 - 10,000. Another 40% were getting above Rs. 10,000 and the rest were earning between Rs. 2000 to 5000 per month.

 

Table 2: Hindrances faced by women artisans

Hindrances	Number of respondents	Percentage
Dual role of women	26	43%
Insufficient own capital	32	53%
Competition	27	45%
Lack of self confidence	18	30%
Lack of family encouragement	39	65%

Source: Primary data

It is clear from Table 2 that, chief hindrances faced by women artisans was lack of family encouragement (65 %), insufficient own capital (53 %), competition (45 %), dual role of women (43 %), lack of self confidence (30 %).

Table No 3: Challenges faced by women artisans

Source: Primary data

 

Women artisans work hard to keep their families afloat. They face different practical challenges while keeping balance between their business as well as home-centered responsibilities. Usually women balance both business as well as family also.

 

It is clear from the Table 3 shows that the various challenges faced by women entrepreneurs among that inadequate training and access to information is ranked first (203) followed by need of awareness about governmental programs (199), work-family interface (190), legal barriers and procedures (174) and women’s safety and gender based violence (167). It is depicted that proper training and special awareness about government programs are necessary for women artisans.

 

SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION:

The study sought to assess the hindrances faced by women artisans practicing zari craft in Panchla Town. The intent was to find ways to enhance their income and develop a sustainable livelihood. Various types of assistance are offered like information and financial assistance but better solution will be in terms of offering more pertinent financial assistance to artisans based on their business size and revenue earning capacity. Financial assistance to the women artisans should be liberalized and increased so as to develop the society.

 

The sustained and coordinated effort from all dimensions would help the women to move into entrepreneurial activities thus providing social and economic development of the family members and subsequently achieving equality and equal importance for themselves.

 

LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY:

The major limitation is the small sample size used for the data analysis. As it is a preliminary investigation; it provides a roadmap for further investigation in this area. Respondents were not highly enthusiastic and instead were pessimistic about any outcome, much less any help coming to them from our government agencies. It was somewhat difficult to convince the Muslim respondents of the study’s purpose and efficacy.

 

REFERENCES:

1.        Adler, R. P., and Breivik, P. S. (1999). Information literacy: advancing opportunities for learning in the digital age. A report of the Aspen Institute Forum on communications and society. Aspen Institute, Queenstown.

2.        Anitha, H.S., and Lakmisha A.S. (1999).Women entrepreneurship in India. Southern Economist.38(4),11-13.

3.        Dasgupta, M. K. (2003). Globalisation and Indian women: problems, possibilities and information needs: an overview, World Library and Information Congress: 69th IFLA General Conference and Council, 1-9.

4.        Ghouse, S. M. (2012). Indian handicraft industry: problems and strategies. International Journal of Management Research and Reviews, 2(7), 1183.

5.        Jamali, D. (2009). Constraints and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs in developing countries: A relational perspective. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 24(4), 232-251.

6.        Liebl, M., and Roy, T. (2004). Handmade in India: traditional craft skills in a changing world. Poor people’s knowledge: Promoting intellectual property in developing countries, 53-74.

7.        Malhotra, M. (2004). Empowerment of women: women in rural development (3). Gyan Publishing House.

8.        Raveendran, G. (2010). Contribution of women to the national economy, ILO Asia Pacific Working paper. Subregional Office for South Asia, New Delhi.

9.        Revathi, D.S. and Jayasree K. (2012).Problems and opportunities of women entrepreneurs faced in the globalized economy. International Journal of Management, 3(1) 77-81.

10.     Sahay, S. (2009). Women and empowerment - approach and strategies. Discovery Publishing House, Delhi, 56-57.

 

 

 

 

Accepted on 21.02.2017          © A&V Publications all right reserved