opportunities and challenges before indian handicrafts suppliers
TRANSCRIPT
Opportunities and Challenges before Indian HandicraftsSuppliers
With the rapid advancements in the field of mobile telephony, today Indiatops the list of mobile internet users. The maximum impact of this change hascome on the Indian handicrafts suppliers. Gone are the days when the artisansand craftsmen had no buyers for their artifacts. Nowadays, there is a hugedemand for the Indian handicrafts in the West. There was a time whentourists used to visit this country of snakes and charmers with big expectationsand return empty handed, as there were no means to reach the tribal art inremote areas. Now, things are different, with the formation of selfhelp groupsand microsocieties, artisans have become self reliant and new businessopportunities have come up for them. Though the role of the middlemen isstill persisting due to the language and cultural barrier, it is likely to change inthe coming years.
Some researchers and social scientists view this change as a positivedevelopment whereas others call it westernization and a step towardscommercialization. If we look from the business point of view, Indian artisanswere never in limelight before the introduction of online sellers. They wereforced to live their lives in remote areas. Today they are shifting to towns andcities where they get good price for their work. The logic is simple, as the
demand will increase, the supply would also go up. What was earlier seen asthe job for nongovernment organizations, has taken the shape of a smallscaleindustry today.
As the production increases, the quality issues come up. Until now all most allthe major Indian handicrafts suppliers were not using any brand name forselling their products but with the coming up of online sellers, branded itemswill also started showing in the handicrafts. This is again seen with narroweyes by some as creating a brand for the handicrafts is just like starting a toyfactory. The spirit of art is its uniqueness and once it is lost, the beauty of theartwork vanishes. On the other hand, branding improves quality and createscompetition amongst the sellers to lower down their prices. Although everypiece of artwork is priceless as none can judge its value in terms of money,still a balance between the buyer and seller can be established only when bothare happy.
Till date, there is no agency to categorize handicraft items on the basis of theamount of hard work needed in making them and their value is decidedarbitrarily between the sellers and the buyers. At some places, Indianhandicrafts suppliers are offering to auction the costly items through theiragents. However, such events are very few in number.