Mayank Mansingh Kaul
Textile Designer, The Asian Heritage Foundation
March 20^th, 2006

It was deeply moving for us to attend the meeting on the Varanasi weavers' crisis on the 14th March at IIC. We have all heard of the crisis being faced by the Varanasi weavers, never quite understood its full impact, and it is wonderful that this movement is underway. It is important that a critical mass of people come together on this, and we would like to extend the support of the Asian Heritage Foundation, chaired by Mr Rajeev Sethi in whatever way we can, to this cause and to your efforts.

Further, the question of the survival and flourishing of Indian crafts in contemporary times is integral to the efforts of the Taskforce on Cultural and Creative Industries, at the Planning Commission, and dialoguing on this particular crisis would help us position the cause of these industries further.

A few thoughts-

• We are happy to know that there is a movement now, in Varanasi, towards creating a trust to address this issue. In the likelihood that they do not have adequate funding yet, the primary task must be to get together a consolidated fund. This will give teeth to the efforts of concerned individuals and organizations. A fund-raising campaign (events/print and electronic media), or involving a funding agency for this could be a first step.

• The idea of doing an immediate fact-finding exercise by Adarsh Kumar and the AIACA will be great in showing us the lay-of-the-land and identifying specific issues involved.

• This document could become the base for a movement- defined and identified by a logo and name. These could then appear on every project/ communication exercise that this movement undertakes.

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  Such information from the field may also then, as a next step, be directed at a massive communication programme- educating the larger public, markets, designers, entrepreneurs, those in policy, consumers, individuals and organizations working in related fields- to generate wider public opinion. This could involve:

1. A well-orchestrated series of articles/essays and write-ups in magazines and newspapers; perhaps a weekly space/column in a newspaper for this issue?

2. Running a series of stories on the Varanasi crisis on news channels positioned in specific programmes like say ' India Matters' on NDTV, or the Big Fight; or even a daily news bit on prime-time news

3. Campaigns in the print media- short films, advertisements on national television

4. Presentations in schools, colleges and appropriate platforms for volunteers who could go and work in Varanasi, and the projects that the trust undertakes in various capacities

• This movement could then partner with NGOs through specific projects addressing different aspects of the issue- for the communication campaign, commissioning of films and graphic design for posters, documentation and promotion through class room projects in NID and other institutions is a possibility. Further, for meaningful design efforts and product development similar projects could be sponsored for textile/fashion students from NID/NIFT/Craft Institutes

• Exhibitions targeted at specific markets as the next step is another idea. These could be through prominent stores in metro cities like Ogaan, Dastkar in Delhi, Weavers Studio in Kolkata, Melange in Mumbai and so on. As you are aware, Benaras brocades have begun to lose their markets rapidly due to zardosi embroidery being made so fashionable by designers- targeting awareness of these issues to specific markets for Benaras weaves is essential.

• At a later date, a more public meeting, involving a greater number of people, to further coordinate and brainstorm in this direction, could be organised.

• In a larger perspective, we must provide for a documentation of this whole exercise, to be shared with larger audiences- this is a first major crisis in what could be a series of crises faced by our crafts sector, and we must strategise to prevent these in the future.

• We have a DVD of a story by Shikha Trivedi of NDTV on the plight of the Benaras weavers. It shows them selling their blood to make ends meet. In case you don't have that film already, we will be happy to send you a copy.

You asked for volunteers- we will be happy to coordinate in any way we can. As an immediate exercise, at our end, we could help help in strategising and writing out a larger roadmap for this movement.