Other States - Rajasthan   

Rajasthan handloom products to be registered

JAIPUR: After the famous Kota Doria saris, two more area-specific handloom products named after the townships of Sanganer and Bagru in Rajasthan are on the way to obtaining registration under the Geographical Indication Act (GIA).

Rajasthan’s Rural Non-Farm Development Agency (RUDA), Indian Merchants’ Chamber and UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) have agreed to help “bunkers” (weavers) and “cheepas” (block printers) making this exclusive handloom variety to get the registration which would not only protect their products from fakes and power-loom clothing but also help give an exclusive identity.

“We are planning to pursue the case of Sanganer and Bagru prints in partnership with RUDA and IMC,” reveals Abhijit Das, Deputy Project Coordinator, UNCTAD. “For this we have to establish how these products are characteristic to a particular geographical area and tradition and that they have been there for at least 100 years,” he notes. Mr. Das, along with IMA chairman Suresh Kotak, was here to address artisans at a workshop on handloom and hand block printing organised by RUDA this past weekend.

Kota Doria, produced in and around Kota town in south Rajasthan and brought under GIA a few years ago, has since seen a revival. “The sector has picked up considerably during the past five years. The traditional weavers, who were abandoning the profession, have come back to the trade,” notes Nasruddin Ansari, chairman of the Kota Doria Development Hadauti Foundation.

Though the products are in demand, the lot of those involved in traditional handloom and block printing in Sanganer and Bagru -- two small towns in the neighbourhood of Jaipur -- is not so inspiring due to fakes and mushrooming of screen-printing units. “We have kept the tradition and skill intact but there is a looming threat from the power-loom sector,” laments Brij Ballabh Udaiwal, secretary of the Kalico Printers’ Cooperative Society in Sanganer. Sanganer’s 150 units are outnumbered by 500 factories engaged in screen printing. Bagru’s cheepas complain of lack of recognition to the “real” quality.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Rajasthan handloom products to be registered
Recreating the atmosphere of a bygone era

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu