Many Crafts Face Extinction: Artisans crestfallen, next gen not keen

Hyderabad: Though normalcy has almost returned in every sector, drastic fall in sales of handicrafts has resulted in shutting down of many handicraft showrooms and affected the livelihoods of artisans. This has led many artisans to switch over to other professions.

"Over the past several decades, artisans have battled numerous challenges, from unscrupulous middlemen and predatory retailers to migration of the youth to urban centres away from their family for survival. But the pandemic has hit their life such a way that they find no way to make money with shortage of demand. Moreover, as the artisans are switching their profession gradually due to the pandemic, the imports of handicrafts from different states are also badly hit," say the store managers of handicrafts exhibits.

On the handicrafts sales in the Telangana State Cooperative, manager Nadeem says, "Though the handicrafts are a niche market, a handful of families depend on its sales. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated their woes as the stores across the Hyderabad were shut for several months. The dip in customer demand and fall in the economic activity has made it difficult for artisans to stay afloat. It's already January, so-called a new year, still, we don't see any growth in revenue and sales."

"As the artisans are switching to other professions it has badly hit handicraft imports. We used to receive handicrafts from Karnataka and Kerala on a large-scale but for the last few months we hardly received imports from any state," he added.

Craftsman Somanath from Kerala who has established his business in Hyderabad for the last 12 years explains that as they could not see revenue in their traditional work, they have been encouraging their children to take other professions and employment.

"We see a drastic fall in sales of articles, handlooms, handicrafts and the financial burdens is heavy on us. We are also witnessing reduced local demand and cheaper foreign articles are the main reasons for artisans switching professions. We are no longer allowing our next generation to follow our traditional handicraft businesses," said Rameshwari, an artisan from Kondapalli.

Officials looking after handicraft exports and imports say that development of modern industries, low income, less market demand are other major factors apart from pandemic which hit the handicraft trade.