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Govt apathy uproots Orissa artisans from homeland

Debi Pattnaik in Bhubaneswar

The inability of Orissa government undertakings to clear dues, combined with lack of government patronage, is forcing the state's famed artisans and craftsmen to migrate to other states in search of a living.

The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that about 1,000 applique artisans from Orissa have migrated to Delhi alone, while those carrying out stone carving and bell metal works have migrated to Rajasthan and Muradabad, respectively, said Kalinga Silpi Mahasangha, or KSM, president Sishir Kumar Sahoo.

Artisans have formed the Mahasangha and craftsmen to raise the issue of the government's alleged apathy and the raw deal they have received from Utkalika, a government storehouse of all handicraft and handloom products.

He said over 3,000 artisan families engaged in silver filigree, applique, stone carving, brass and bell metal, terracotta and patta painting works have already migrated in search of jobs in the ''absence of any government patronage'' in their hour of crisis.

Hundreds of handicraft and handloom co-operative societies have become defunct due to Utkalika's 'failure' to clear dues to the tune of Rs 25 million to them after purchasing various products.

Also, Utkalika is yet to pay for the products of 135-odd such societies, which have in the process gone sick and stopped production in the absence of government help.

Holding of payments due to them for years together has forced some to look for other ways to eke out a living, while others have opted to work even as daily wagers, be it in a temple or a stone carving centre.

The glorious artistic excellence, recognised as a store-house of rich heritage and described as 'poetry in stone', is no solace to these artisans who are running from pillar to post for years to get back the money they invested in their art and craft.

"We invested all our money and deposited crafts to Utkalika two years ago. But we are yet to get back the return and are now virtually sitting idle with no money in our hand to continue the art," lamented Purna Chandra Maharana, a wood carving artisan.

All the 17 Utkalikas in the state, running in losses, are not in a position yet to release Rs 25.4 million due to thousands of artisans for their products, says Sahoo.

To gauge where the government priorities lie, one has just to look at statistics related to handicraft export. Orissa's handicraft export during 1998-99 was less than Rs 10 million, when the country recorded handicraft exports were worth Rs 60 billion, almost a fifteen per cent rise over the previous year.

Interestingly, about 103,000 artisan families in Orissa were producing various items worth over Rs 720 million and the per capita turnover of a artisan worked out to be a meagre Rs 7,075, lowest in the country next to Bihar, said Sahoo.

Frustrated over the failure of the authorities to come to the rescue of the artisans and craftsmen, the Mahasangh has asked the government to release the pending amount and warned that they would be forced to take to the streets to force closure of Utkalikas.

It is not that the government has not done anything at all on the issue. It chalked out a novel idea of having a Kalinga heritage centre for artisans' welfare and spent Rs 3 million on its planning and designing. However the centre never materialised.

Lack of political will reduced the handicraft complex at Gandamuda, on Bhubaneswar's outskirts, to a sorry state of affairs. It had been proposed to bring the centre to international standards. But nothing of the sort happened.

Stating that the government was now contemplating setting up two craft villages, one near Khandagiri to be developed by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority, or BDA, and other on the Puri-Konark marine complex by Industrial Development Corporation Limited, or IDCO, Sahoo said the artisans were dismayed over their non-involvement in both the projects.

The KSM has threatened that it would not allow setting up of any craft village in the state if they were not associated with the projects.

Raj Kishore Maharana, a stone carving artisan, lamented that the Orissa government spent over Rs 4 million, out of the Rs 100 million it received from the 10th Finance Commission for the conservation of monuments and temples in the state. However, no state artisan was involved in the project.

The damaged parts of these monuments and temples are being replaced by cement structures instead of stone pieces, as a result these masterpieces of Orissa's art have lost originality.

A glaring example of the slipshod manners of the state government was the cancellation of an export order of substantial quantity because of substandard work, as the order was placed with inexperienced persons, alleged Maharana.

UNI

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