Future of Handicraft: Doubling income for the family!
Endless debates on how to double farmer income, have yielded little over the years. According to experts, there are only two ways to increase income. Reduce the input cost or increase the selling price of products sold by farmers. Efforts have shown that both strategies are unviable or work only at limited levels.
What if we were to examine at the problem through a different lens? If we stopped looking at the farm income issue from the linear perspective of cost price vs selling price, we could explore alternative means to enhance income. Could we look at farmer family income as an aggregate instead?
Farmer family incomes, give the flexibility of adding other family members and their skills into the discussion. To do this, we have to agree that women are equally capable of contributing to the family income. So doubling of income has to be a joint effort and reward for the family and not the sole responsibility of the farmer husband/father/brother.
We have the traditional knowledge with the women in the villages on making sustainable handmade products from local sources. The products have all been localized in shape and form and focused on agrarian or rural usage requirements.
With the right level of design interventions, contemporary products can be made. With a little investment, production capacity can be built. Additional market linkages can ensure the products can reach a wider consumer base.
Today technology allows all women artisans to work from home and create these products as per specifications shared with them. Most of them can work 3-4 hrs a day, outside of their daily chores. This effort can be monetised to add to the family income.
Doubling farmer family incomes is about equal opportunity, skill enhancement and using woman power to create a better future!